It’s not about using the same set of data from the previous shot, it’s about making it look like the previous shot. Coloring, by contrast, is all about the image. While you’re editing, you’re kind of watching the preview and then digging in but not working as you watch simultaneously and honestly you’re more often listening while you manipulate the GUI, so that works out just fine. The preview window doesn’t need to be that big, it’s there for a quick check before going back to timelines and layers and waveforms and keyframes. When I’m doing traditional editing I’m glued to the GUI.
You see, Coloring is kind of an outlier when it comes to computer-based… stuff. In any case, by coloring my own stuff I’ve gotten more gigs coloring other people’s projects, and that lead to me needing to work faster. This comparison of shots from the “original” Justice League and Zack Synder’s version is a great example of how your vision can be adjusted after the fact even in the big leagues (poor Fabian Wagner). If you’re not working with your colorist on a project closely there’s no longer a guarantee that it’ll look the way you intended, so at least knowing the tools is crucial.
The look of your work is heavily defined by what happens in the grade. Modern Cinematography is an art with one foot in Production and the other in Post. Curves are powerful, but with great power comes an impulse to over-work the hell out of your footage early on. The main issue that I’ve since realized is that this style of working had me constantly looking at the GUI instead of my image, and a secondary issue was that I was allowing myself to get too granular with my adjustments, potentially leading to unnatural looking results.
COLOR GRADING IN DAVINCI RESOLVE 17 WINDOWS
Honestly what got me into Resolve initially was just wanting Power Windows to help me “relight” footage when necessary, which even now I believe are easier to place and manipulate with the mouse, and for grading I was largely using curves which can be relatively mouse-centric anyway. I knew “real” colorists used panels, but since I wasn’t a real colorist I was content doing the work with clicks and keystrokes. I started educating myself on color grading maybe 5 years ago, so obviously I’m not an expert, but I’ve gotten better over that length of time and each project was a learning experience.
You also don’t get a “feel” for what you’re doing, which I’ll get to in a minute. I didn’t realize how slow until I got hands-on with these grading panels, and speed is crucial. However, I have found that KB/M coloring takes considerably longer and is less intuitive. What’s more important is a properly calibrated, accurate monitor and color pipeline.
Nothing is wrong with that and you’re not losing out on any functionality, really, by doing it. You can absolutely color in Resolve with a mouse and a keyboard. A keyboard and mouse is horrible in comparison. To get to the meat of the matter, after a few days using both panels I immediately bought the Mini Panel and I never want to grade without one again. They’re all labeled, so just have a look at the photo and you’ll see what they do. There are three wheels/balls (traditionally representing Lift/Gamma/Gain with the balls handling the hue/sat of each and the wheels manipulating luminance), a handful of knobs and twice as many buttons. It’s been a great side-skill to have over the past year and honestly if you’re a DP, understanding these tools is crucial as your image is now decided in post and you want to make sure your name is attached to the images you intended to make, right? For those of you who don’t know, these panels are relatively simple interfaces that allow you to manipulate the color tools within DaVinci Resolve more easily, and faster than using your keyboard and mouse. I’m primarily a freelance Cinematographer and I color my own work most of the time out of necessity, but also because I enjoy it.
0 kommentar(er)
