Thank you Grazie!

I've been using Vegas since 2009, first Movie Studio then Pro 10. So 2003 is before my time but I did learn two things:

Forum history goes back farther than just two years.
BillyBoy's tutorials are yet another possible resource (haven't looked at them yet).

Two more reasons I love this Forum. Wait, make that three counting the +1 for the book.

Ah, and BillyBoy. That was a time ago.

"The worst of times (the best of times,") to mangle Dickens, Serena. Who could forget. However, his tutorial on color correction is still pretty good for a beginning look at the subject. Douglas Spotted Eagle has some good tutorials as well, I recall.

Kimberley, I've used the book by Steve Hullfish for some time and found it to be quite instructive.

You might also take a look at Joe Tawil's work on color theory . Joe is the founder of GAMProducts in L.A. and is considered one of the film and television industry's leader's in color work.

Jack

Steve Hullfish's book "The Art and Technique of Digital Colour Correction" (Focal Press) is regarded by many as the "bible2 on the subject. I can thoroughly recommend it.

Richard

Thanks everyone for all the excellent input!

If I can only get one Hullfish book for now, which should be first:

The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction
or
Color Correction for Video: Using Desktop Tools to Perfect Your Image

Note that I am starting from the bottom of the learning curve on the subejct of color correction. My objective is to better understand color and color correction as it relates to my scuba videos and to a smaller extent, topside videos.

Ehhhh ? ? . . I can't make me mind up. I will say that as I've progressed in learning more and more from these forums and read and re-read the same book/s and threads here it starts to stick to my brain cells. I like to dip in and out on these forums and elsewhere and as i pick up moire and more knowledge and invest in DVDs and Boks on the subject AND have work that needs to do repair work, I believe I've become more and more competent.

GET BOTH!! - There, I've said it.

OK, here's an offer. You send me some Stills or Vids you WANT to be corrected and I'll give it a go AND I'll send back the VEG so you can see. I'll attempt to add some v/o to assist you on your way.

I've done some post, underwater CC correction and was thanked by the chap.

Grazie

If you really want to get into color science, then any book by RWG Hunt would be good but warning, this is the real science part of it. When I was in inkjet printing we had him teach classes to new color science engineers.

http://www.amazon.com/R.-W.-G.-Hunt/e/B001IXQ9D0/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

rocky

@Grazie:

Wow thanks for your kind offer. Here are a couple of sample clips:

This Kent, a Chuukese crewmember, blowing bubbles. The rim on Kent's mask is red.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41612696/Kent%20Bubble%20Rings%20on%20Sub.m2t

This is moi doing a littler underwater housekeeping. My mouthpiece is blue, not purple, and I normally don't look so jaundiced.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41612696/Kim%20Clean%20Letters%20on%20Rio.m2t

It's tricky getting people to turn out the right color. You can cheat with the surroundings and even marine life. Not so much with skin tone.

On the "case".

BRB . . .

G

Before:



After:



These are my first attempts at it using Frederic Bauman's "White Balance". I use this for a Quick 'n Dirty reference to see if I need any more. I feel I've got back the skin tones, the scuba gear and he face mask colours.

I like it.

Grazie

Is that only with the FB white balance? Nice!

Kent has dark skin, which shows well with the correction. The stitching on his wetsuit is white. This looks a little pinkish aftert the correction. The light part on his fins is silver. This looks true. Maybe just a tiny bit less red to see if the white stitching will show up white without losing the rest of the color?

I was impressed with the FB white balance when it came out but never trialed it because I assumed it wouldn't help much for underwater footage. So now I must have a second look at the plug-in : )

Yes, just Fred's. Yes, there's still too much Pink/Red/Magenta present. I'll have another go.

Cheers

Grazie

Many thanks Grazie for posting this, and for the nice comments :-)
Frederic

My first attempt, basic cookbook

@LoTN:

Kent thanks you! He looks great. Did you use the Sony 3-way, FB, or ???

Hello,

The result is not so bad but it raises the amount of noise and chromatic aberrations that are present in the footage.

The FX chain is invert -> levels (red) -> levels (blue) -> invert -> 3-way

Frederic's plugin is really nice and during my assessment I went to the conclusion it is a great filter that is worth having it in your tool box. It is affordable and gives very good results. Although, it can't do miracles and for some footage you may have to go into the tricky side of things.

You can also replace the whole chain with curves + levels .

You may want to have a try with 3-way replaced with FBmn WB plugin. I didn't test it because, here, for some obscure reason VP10 won't start anymore ...

Lotn, really like your treatment. Where did you get the Invert procedure from?

Great work!

Grazie

As far as I know, the invert trick was first described by Malowz.


Here

Hah! I was impressed then too!

Thanks

Grazie

Hah! I was impressed then too!

:)

As far as I know, the invert trick was first described by Malowz.

I remember the Malowz trick for rescuing over-exposed footage, but I totally forgot about the Malowz white balance trick! Thanks for the reminder.

There is a strong tendency to overcorrect underwater footage for color balance.
Remember, the natural light underwater is green/blue. The closer the subject is to your artificial lighting (or the surface), the more "normal" the color balance, assuming it is WB correctly. The farther way, the red/magenta -to- red/yellow axis disappears almost completely, and is for most practical purposes unrecoverable.



In the eighties, I processed and printed hundreds of thousands of underwater stills for commercial stock clients, and I too started out thinking I had to hand correct each one as if the filtered color of the water didn't exist. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The rule of thumb is to meet the color of the ocean halfway. Undercorrect always, Overcorrect never. Set your balance in post once, then forget it, is my best take on this.
I like the LOTN treatment a lot!