Tips for catchy color grading

dubdave

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Hey you guys,
I am new to Youtube and yttalk and would like to get some tips how you colorgrade your Videos to get the best Results (Appeals and Likes) on Youtube. I tried som grading in Davinci Resolve, but doesnt look like Videos from the big Youtuber.
Would be nice if someone could explain how to do it or knows a good Tutorial on Youtube for this Topic.
Thanks.=)
 
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To make things easy, you can use LUTS, I have an orange and teal LUT that I made that is free. Orange and teal are two of the most popular colors used in film.
 

The NotARubicon!

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I correct/grade everything in Final Cut which is fairly simple.. I’ve tried applying LUTS but always had better luck manually correcting.

To start I always crank up the contrast - usually this is easily done by dropping the shadows and bringing up the highlights..

From there I correct any color issues. We film most of our stuff in the desert or mountains and sometimes all the reflected light off of colored rocks/mountains really throws off the color.. this can be a pain sometimes, especially when trying to match the color from several different cameras.

After the color looks normal, i will usually crank up the saturation..

Finally, i spot-adjust contrast or saturation using masks. For example, if the sky is blown out, i will adjust it differently than the rest of the scene using.

You can see the results in the channel trailer in my signature.
 

videoeditgr

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Before color correnting there is some basic info on color and light itself.
Blender Guru have a nice color theory tutorial
Kriscoart have a nice example how color infect one's mood
finally B&H have a nice tutorial on scopes and how to read color and luminocity.
After that you can use masks as mentioned before and advances techniques.
There is also a program called 3D LUT creator to create your self prefered LUTs
instead of trying LUTs made for other films or just generic...
And finally but most important, maybe you want to shoot flat profile.
Guess you got enough keywords to make your search now.
Good luck!
:)
 

JoeCo17

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There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of grading tutorials on YT, some of them basic, some them very in-depth and scientific.

Don't obsess over techniques, though. Definitely get the basics down, but it's really about trial and error - that was the best way to learn for me anyway.

A good little exercise to do is grab a screenshot of a scene you like from a video/youtuber you wish to emulate. Load this into your editor alongside your video, and try to match it. You'll learn a lot all by yourself! Do remember to pick a scene similar to the scene you are trying to grade, or you just won't be able to match it.

Also, something to keep in mind is recording process of the video itself. The camera, scenery, lighting, subject - all these things contribute to a video clip's characteristics. This means 2 things really... 1) trying to emulate a youtuber you admire may be very difficult if they have a different (or better) camera, lighting, etc etc... and 2) using a LUT could very well make your particular shot look absolutely terrible. Alternatively, it could make it look amazing, but the chances of that are slim.

Once you get a good handle on grading for yourself, manually, and you are able to produce consistency in your raw video content, that would definitely be a good time to start developing your own LUTS to speed up your own workflow. Grading is a very personal thing, and everyone has differing tastes on what looks good.

Have fun! :)
 

Jim Baugh

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We color grade with a two step process. Basic color correction and color grading to match cameras is all done in Premier Pro Once edited we export to Resolve, and use final grade with a couple of luts and do final tweaks. The opacity on the final luts is very low. The Miami Boat Show feature we recently finished is a good example of our grading, it is easily found on our channel under recent.