Color correction using Vegas and or HDLink

[Jeff Harper]

Here are the disgraceful samples. I won't bother trying to explain how and why my white balance was so off, I still am not sure what the hell I was doing, but be that as it may, the images below show the horrid yellowish cast on the "bad" camera. How do I fix this without turning it blue?

I have tried NewBlue Color corrector pro to no avail. I have very limited CC skills, I traditionally use Vegas' secondary color correction to bring things closer, but that's as complicated as I've ever gotten.

I do have HDLink which has First Light, but have never even opened the program, so I'm not sure where to begin with that program, nor do I know if it will help.

Any thoughts?

Second image is how the first one should look. The pillar on the right of the bad image shows just how far off it is when viewed against the pillars in the second image.

[Nicholas de Kock]

Have you tried AAV ColorLab? It's a free plug-in.

[Mike Kujbida]

Originally Posted by Jeff Harper

Here are the disgraceful samples.

Samples? What samples?
Someone's been spending way too much time in the edit suite :)

[Jeff Harper]

Right you are, about 18 hours a day for the last few days. Took on too many jobs. Sleep has been elusive, too much stress. Anyway, they are there now.

[Jeff Harper]

No Nicholas, I haven't, thanks for the recommendation. I should probably play with First Light but I'm so freaking overwhelmed right now my brain is about to explode. This project is not going to be edited for weeks, but I thought I'd explore options.

I hate to double post but maybe I should also post in Cineform Showcase, since the First Light users can tell me how it might help or not help. Ideally it would be nice to color correct the raw footage and then render it out using Cineform, I'm thinking, but I don't know.

I might download your tool Nicholas later, thank you.

[Gerald Webb]

This looks alright to me, done in Vegas with 3 way CC.
You could do the same with First Light, its white balance is pretty good.

[Jeff Harper]

Gerald, thanks, but you are aware on the extreme right of the bad frame is a pillar that is supposed to be grey with black spots, right? It is blurred, but that is how far off the original image is. The camera WB was so far off. I'm still kicking myself.

I have to go but will check back in.

[Gerald Webb]

Didn't notice the pole Jeff, sorry.
I just look at faces, with yellow footage, maybe a natural looking face is the best you can hope for, rather than everything in the scene being brought back to perfect.
Good luck
:)

[Chris Barcellos]

When First Light came out, it was emphasized that it really wasn't designed to be your final color treatment. Rather it seemed to intended for initial treatment to get you footage to the point you would with in camera setting if you had a great cinema camera. Thus all of the different film types and processing techniques in the .lut descriptions. The great thing about First Light is the capability of instantaneously applying the fix to every clip out of the shoot if you wanted. Then you can go back on the individual clips and add additional color balance cleanups, etc, before you get into the editing.

Also great about using First Light is the fact that the image in the preview is exactly what it will look like rendered out. This is a saving grace because in my editor (Vegas Pro) Cineform files preview a bit light and under contrast. (In Vegas, in order to preview close to what you are going to see in a render, you have to add color correction to the Preview Window setting to the color corrector preset for RGB to Computer while previewing. And then at render to a Cineform file, you have to remember to disable it.)

As for using First Light as a final color treatment. I think it works well in certain circumstances. For a finished film with different scene, you will want to break down the rendered film into like scenes to treat.

The second issue with First Light is something I have found a bit frustrating. First Light will actually change the look of not only the original clip, but of any clip, or portion of it in a Vegas rendered file. This will occur if you have not added any more filters or ediiting to the portion of the clip. What happens is that if you take the new render into First Light again to try to give it a final color treatment, the new file will refuse to be altered at the points where the previously treated clip is found. This results in some crazy happenings, if you are not aware of it.

So what I will do with a film that I have applied First Light to for the intial footage is render out the final. Then apply a slight filter to that whole film- something that is just not noticeable, then render again to a whole new file. At that point, taking the final file back in to First Light should not create the problem I spoke of.

[Nicholas de Kock]

Corrected with AAV ColorLab, I corrected your color accurate one as-well by De-Saturating the Yellows.

[Jeff Harper]

Nicholas, showoff!

That to me is nothing short of miraculous. I absolutely cannot believe what you've done. I really do have to go but when I come back the first thing I'm doing will be to find that darned program, must have.

Does it work within Vegas? I'll find out soon enough!

[Nicholas de Kock]

I use AAV ColorLab for most of my color correcting, a brilliant little free plug-in that runs in Vegas. I set WB by using the white cloth that's laying on the floor, it becomes difficult to correct bad WB when you don't have a white source as reference.

[Seth Bloombaum]

I remembered a previous discussion of ColorLab on this forum. Find it here:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/what-hap...0084-reds.html

Most importantly, I learned from Grazie that one asks for a "carry-out" in the U.K., not a "six-pack".

[Jeff Harper]

Seth, thanks for the link, I am now using scopes because of Perrone's mention of them on that thread. Very helpful.