Color Correction Tutorial [The RIGHT way!] - After Effects Tutorial

http://devowe.com/blog/2011/how-to-color-correct-in-after-effects-the-right-way/ - An in-depth tutorial on color correction using Curves inside of After Effects and Photoshop.

This method explains how to color correct most any footage "by the numbers". It's a bit of a science that requires only a minimum amount of understanding of RGB values.

Please bestow a ♥ like or leave a ✉ comment if you have questions!

You can skip the introduction if you so choose:
0:45 - Before and After
1:09 - Tutorial Start
12:37 - Edit your color corrected footage in Premiere! (Dynamically Link the CC'ed Footage)

Using Photoshop for color correction is really a lot easier than you may think. In this tutorial, the method is very simple and fast - NO rendering multiple frames, NO importing video files into Photoshop, and easy access to making color changes.

This tutorial is a tad long at 15 minutes - please bear with me as I fully explain the techniques here! :) Hopefully you will find the techniques helpful.

☞ TIPS:

✏ Choose areas that are large enough to sample and don't contain color casts or Chromatic Aberration
✏ Remember to use common sense. If the colors are just not looking right, either sample a different area or adjust to your liking.
✏ Your footage may have different areas of brightness or color shifts throughout the video. Animate your Levels for differing brightness, and animate your Curves for differing color where needed.
✏ Sometimes having crushed blacks or blown highlights are okay - especially in video. Keep this in mind when working with the Levels effect and don't worry if you have either of those in your final result.
✏ If you have the opportunity, use a gray card somewhere in the image - so that later in post, you can reference that neutral gray midtone for color correction.
✏ IMPORTANT: If you are using CS5, make sure you are using the Eyedropper Tool, NOT the Color Sampler Tool. Thanks to Ryan Yakich for the heads up.

RGB Color Correction Values Reference (also at 9:54):
Highlights ✏ 245
Midtones ✏ 135
Shadows ✏ no less than 12

http://devowe.com

Audio: Zoom H4n and Redhead Windscreen

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Color Correction After Effects
• Color Correction
• Color Correction Tutorial
• Color Grading
• CC
• RGB Color Correction
• Premiere
• After Effects
• 7D
• Widescreen Tutorial
• h4n
• Redhead Windscreen
• Premiere CS3
• After Effects CS3
• AE tutorial

[dZ1999]

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

[michaeldevowe]

@dZ1999 YES!!!!

[alantonello]

Dude, MANY thanks for this tutorial!!

[michaeldevowe]

@alantonello You're welcome!

[picturefish40]

finally I got an answer to my question. after 6 years with CS3 I finally got the right answer. THANKS A BUNCH.

[michaeldevowe]

@picturefish40 Great! I'm glad you found this helpful. Thanks for watching!

[michaeldevowe]

@jbooba Glad to hear it!

[jbooba]

@michaeldevowe hey, yep thats what i ment - Color Correction is to bring your flat footage look like real, Color Grading is to mess up your Colors to look like Transformers :D. awesome tutorial, since im color correcting all my dslr footage in Photoshop, helped me alot!

[michaeldevowe]

@jbooba Thanks. I was pointing out the difference between Color Correction and Color Grading by using different words since Color Correction and Color Grading are all too often used interchangeably. Too many people think Color Grading is Color Correction. It isn't.

-Michael

[jbooba]

cool, tho the correct phrase is Color Correction and Color Grading :)