Vegas for color grading

[Geoffrey Chandler]

I've used Vegas for a number of years and routinely use it's color correcting tools to make minor adjustments to my footage. However, I'm going to be trying to edit footage from a new camera (actually ProRes444 2K scan of film) and the footage will be "flat" and will need color grading. I don't have the footage yet (will get it tomorrow) so I don't know how flat to expect but I'm wondering do I really need to learn to use DiVinci Lite or can I get nice footage using Vegas? Thank you for any input.

Geoff

[Seth Bloombaum]

I deal with fairly flat footage on a regular basis, the Sony Color Curves filter native in Vegas Pro is a fine first step for getting full gamut out. Start with an S curve affecting all channels.

Having said that I've not done more than try Resolve Lite, nor do I often deal with 4:2:2.

If you do find that Vegas doesn't do all you want, NewBlueFX's Colorfast is very worth looking into. It's very capable for grading. DaVinci is its own thing with a totally unique workflow. Colorfast is much more conventional in its interface.

[Geoffrey Chandler]

Thank you for the information. I will definitely check it out if I struggle with Vegas.

[Robin Davies-Rollinson]

Colorfast is a very good tool. It should do all that you want.

[Richard Jones]

The Vegas web page which includes various forums will lead you to a couple of excellent tutorials they have made about Colour Correction.

Richard

[Geoffrey Chandler]

I know it gets asked a lot and I've gone back and searched older posts only to find recommended monitors are not available anymore. My two ViewSonic monitors don't even match each other, let alone do they serve me well for even beginning color grading. So, to understand the minimum requirements for beginning color grading for an amateur, part-timer... I need a decent "computer monitor" and a decent consumer TV monitor... is this correct? Most of my work would be viewed on computers (both online and onboard), iPads, and occasionally TV's.

Would this be a good choice for a budget computer monitor in the $500-600 range? http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/880645-REG/NEC_p232w_bk_23_Widescreen_Professional_Graphics.html
Then get a similar-sized Samsung TV and hook it up via HDMI?

[Dale Guthormsen]

Good Evening,

While this post is a little old i thought I might add a little bit to the information already presented.
I have after effects and edius to color correct with and I prefer Vegas. All video requires some color grading to make it the best it can be.
My standard group of tools are the color corrector, color Curves, HSL adjust. With these three tools you can do almost anything you truly need.

Generally I use hsl and adjust saturation to black and white, adjust exposure. the I set saturation to 1.25
\ Next I go to the Color corrector to adjust the gamma level and the adjust the highs lows and middle tones depending on the hues I need.

If I can't get it quite right then I go to color curves and adjust the red blue and green each independantly.

The aforementioned wil almost always suffice.

Once you get used to this work flow it goes very quickly. However render times are more time consuming.

So, I recommend doing all you cutting and editing first.

If you use two different cameras set the footage on seperate timelines so you can do the color grading to all clips simultaniously which avoids copying and pasting event attributes to every clip.

Lastly, a production monitor is great but if you use your scopes and stay within bounds you will be quite good just editing to a quality monitor. You could also set up a TV to show what things look like in a real television and avoid spending hundreds of dollars on a broadcast monitor. If you have the cash go for it!!