bummer. called me out. :) I don't really have anything at the moment, just thinking of the future messing about. Let me dig here a minute and see if I have any old footage that would make a good POP coloring test.....

k this is about the ONLY thing I have with colors that are interesting. shot on a Canon T3i in Prolost Neutral settings (why it is flatter than normal), followed by a still pic shot in generic auto mode for reference





My idea of poppy colors is not make it look "real" or "normal" or match the still shot at all, but go above that, like some current trends do. But staying below cartoonish or "Speed Racer" ... although I have to admit, Speed Racer achieved it without looking all blown out.

Saturation is the absense of white.
Your first "neutral" image looks a tad over exposed to me for what you are trying to do. Unfortunately though a scene in full sun with deep shadow may force you into that.

My best efforts at getting magic colours come from having flat lighting and slightly underexposing then using curves to put a bit of a bump in the bottom 60%. My efforts are no doubt helped by working with dark skinned talent who also favour wearing deep colours. The females can be a challenge with their disposition towards silk with pure gold thread trimmings however making certain nothing clips leaves me room to adjust in post if needed. The use of "cine" gamma curves in my camera also helps.

Bob.

Use a properly axised polarizing filter when you shoot. Gives you so much more to work with in post.

Several things about making poppy color video.
Shoot with a graduated ND filter to keep your sky/highlights darkened and shoot consistenly 1/2 f stop down from auto exposure.

If you want a 'look" the cinema presets by Vasst as well some by NewBlue FX can give your entire video- a poppy look. Best though to carefully grade and contrast with NewBlue ColorFast plugin first. It will be capable of best overall control and slight pop.

but what can be done inside Vegas alone? no one does it inside vegas without extra plugs, camera filters etc>

I use CINESTYLE (but not on that top pic, that was Prolost in camera settings alone)
Understand the first pic is the real video, and the second pic is a full still shot.

I tired COLOR MATCH in V12 and it pumped it up to the still and beyond. When I tried to equal it in Color Corrector, I had to push SATURATION to like 2.8 or so. I'm ok with that as long as it does go all Clown Faced on me.
Just wondering what others do to pop colors with just Vegas - or if that is even possible.

Another plug is Film Looks for SVP

any way to really push just blue, just green, just red? I mean INSIDE Vegas. How far can it go?

Here's my attempt, using JUST SONY Fx-ing and VP Tools

Before:


After:


Cheers

Grazie

And now using ADDITIONAL 3rd Party

Sapphire Edge 3 Strip Technicolour:



And now using Sapphire Edge 3 Strip Technicolour: PLUS an upper Track set to BURN for Compo:



So you have from me: Using JUST Sony Tools and then A mix of SONY tools and a 3rd party.

Grazie

Here's a scene with similar lighting as yours, without and with a circular polarizer. I'll tell 'ya again, it's what you start with that determines how much you can do in post.

I tell 'ya, it's what you start with that determines what you can do in post.

Couldn't agree more. But our chum is starting/coming from a different point.

When I started with this "craft", some 12 years back, I was so peed-off with NOT getting those blue skies that I thought - huh . . why bother.

I then discovered Polas . . . the use of NDs for assisting with Shallow DoF and then the importance of lighting. Not necessarily in that order, but you get the picture.

Here I was hoping to make the point about "post" is, well, er . . "post"

Grazie

I'm shooting with a cap gun, here. Working in Vegas 9.0e, I was willing to give up a little detail in the shadows to get slightly more green in the grass and blue in the sky.

I started with the Canon T3i Neutral settings still.
Before:


After:

For example, put some Red footage next to DSLR footage and the Red colors appear to pop, the DSLR just looks murky. There have been some good suggestions and attempts above, but unless you capture uncompressed I don't think you'll ever really get what wwjd may be after. I do think you get more "pop" by initially shooting standard rather than neutral/flat.

I have been able to get mine to "pop" using Glenn Chan + Douglas Spotted Eagle's DVD Vasst Absolute Training for Sony Vegas Volume 4: Color Correction, Enhancement and Image Restoration which is now discontinued.

There is a chain of effects in there that works really well, but adds a lot of processing time (worth it).

Not sure why it was discontinued. I use it for both HD and SD.

John

The NEUTRAL settings one is the "VIDEO frame" to mess with. The other is a still that looks okay already. I do like what that Sapphire Edge 3 Strip Technicolour thing did - except it was already on the good looking still photo instead of the Neutral.

I feel popped up colors look better everywhere that people see them: TV, tiny iPod screens, Youtube etc.
and I know many in this business are more worried about accuracy, I feel serving the public exactly what they like - fake, overblown colors - could be more profitable. :)

After futzing a bit, it seems I CAN get popped colors from Vegas. I assumed there was more to it than that. Happy to be wrong.

1. Sharpen, with setting of 0.00. Part of "pop" is defined edges.
2. Color correct shadows and highlights, using Color Corrector, using BillyBoy's old tutorial.
3. Use Color Curves to adjust gamma. A little goes a long way. Don't lose detail!! This provides an increase in saturation, but without using the saturation controls.
4. Select "key" colors and use multiple Secondary Color Corrector fX to enhance and adjust these. I chose the stop sign and the sky. I adjusted the settings to make sure not to affect other areas, and then adjusted the color wheel to get colors that I wanted, and then slightly increased the saturation.

Results:

Before:


After:


P.S. These looked great on my calibrated monitor, within Vegas, but the colors don't look the same at all in the forum on my browser. You can download and see if they look better when viewed on your own calibrated monitor.

Much wisdom in 1)
I find the reverse works as well, increasing contrast carefully makes an image look sharper. The flat images from my EX1 with taken with Cinegamma look soft until graded.
Example flat images from the F3 shot in S-Log look really soft until graded correctly.

Perhaps we should stop talking about "sharp" and talk about MTF.

Bob.

This kind of sounds and REMINDS me of the day we were shooting 16mm Kodachrome filmstock instead OF what we were really taught to do in filmschool - shoot Ecktachrome higher speed stock - and then correct in film-light timing on the printer.. to a good film stock...ahhh!

Perhaps we should stop talking about "sharp" and talk about MTF.

What's MTF? I thought I knew what "sharp" meant . . . .

Grazie

@johnmeyer

"P.S. These looked great on my calibrated monitor, within Vegas, but the colors don't look the same at all in the forum on my browser. You can download and see if they look better when viewed on your own calibrated monitor."

I downloaded your picture, ColorCorrected_zps0c1ff19f.jpg and opened it in PhotoShop along with the reference, video frame.jpg and my puny effort, JAD Correction 1.jpg. Your photo appears to have a white/light haze on the tree branches that doesn't appear on the others. Perhaps, your pixel dimension, 1024x576 causes this compared to the 1920x1080 of the other photos. When I zoom in to the trees, the detail pixelates.

This thread is fascinating to me, though I will admit to being on the conservative end of the color pop continuum. I won't hazard a guess as to what "MTF" stands for in this context.

Grazie, MTF = modulation transfer function

Mike

I'm glad everyone is enjoying this lil exercise. :)

Looks like a lot of great effort was tossed in here. But, only Grazie's Sapphire Edge 3 Strip Technicolour post reaches the POP-ness I'm talking about. The flags and stop sign are bright red but not GLOWingly bright, the bus is live yellow, the grass is "movie magic green". Although pushed, it looks closer to a real live place than less colored ones would in dslr Video. Heck, it looks better than some commercials I've seen.

Now, can that be done on the flat looking video frame in Vegas with just built in plugs?
Let's find out! ima bout to try in vegas and will post my results.

ONLY USE THE FLAT VIDEO FRAME pic, not the reference still shot.
Again, the reference is NOT what we are after, we are after popping over the top, but not blown out muddy over saturated mess.

Have you considered that the stop sign is actually backlit by a bazillion lumen spotlight off to the left at ~45 degrees above the horizon?