Yellow and Blue color treatment... curves alone?

[semicolon]

Hi there,

I am somewhat proficient at creating reasonably nice color treatments using Curves and saturation, but there are often times that I have an idea for a treatment that I simply cannot figure out how to create with curves.

For example- I've been interested in creating a look with warm yellow golden mids and highlights and very clear saturated punchy blue low mids and shadows.

A good example of this treatment can be found throughout some of the film Paris Je T'aime:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSZOGywlhzE

I am hugely envious of some of the treatments in that film, and can't figure out how to do certain things in Curves alone.

Is it just that- Curves cannot be used to do things like this? Having control over only Red, Green, or Blue hasn't helped me figure out how to tint things yellow or just desaturate the reds without making the whole thing look green.

If looking to do more precise color treatments, should I invest in something like Colorista?


Let's talk about it!!

[lordtangent]

Having a better color corrector certainly helps. Curves are not the most intuitive interface.

[semicolon]

I've gone back and experimented with the Rebel CC color correction tool, made by one of the lead developers of Colorista.

http://prolost.blogspot.com/2006/10/rebel-cc.html

They work in similar ways- set your white balance for shadows, highlights, and mids, and then tint them independently.

I've struggled with it before, likely because the footage I was using wasn't properly exposed, balanced, etc.

Using the Rebel CC, some desaturation, and an instance of Curves working on RGB for a bit of contrast, I took some of my best cleanest footage and tried to go for that yellow / blue look I've been jonesing for, and ended up with these:

http://www.thehappyplanets.com/bucket/blueyellowcc01.jpg

http://thehappyplanets.com/bucket/blueyellowcc02.jpg

I'm pretty happy with it...
Overall, too much of it is golden yellow, but I think the main thing that would make it look less heavy handed would if the scene were lit differently. By having more areas that were in shadow this treatment would appear way less extreme.

The second one has the CC adjustment layer's opacity brought down to 77% and the Curves for overall contrast put on a a new separate adjustment layer. This just helped retain some of the original color value and make the look a bit less extreme.

Still... I don't think this comes anywhere CLOSE to the treatments in the youtube clip I posted. There may be some better ways to go about this. Let's see!

[Ian-T]

I think the trick is to film that way. I have been experimenting with light blue colors "while" filming. I found when I do this it adds a nice warm yellowish tone to the footage. Try it. Don't go too blue...or the footage can turn to a nasty yellow.. But seriously....find that light blue tone that works for your footage and you'll be golden (no pun intended).

[lordtangent]

I'm definitely a proponent of getting as much as possible "in camera" also. Especially with video, since you have a limited amount of band width to start with. You really want to pack as much in there as possible.

semicolon, you observe that your walls are too bright to get the effect you want. So the next experiment should be to try and keep the light off the walls. I would add that the lighting in these stills is too high-key over all. Basically the lighting is entirely flat. You need to work to get the ratios up a little to give the talent some shape if you want it to really be punchy.

Looking at the clip you sent in your first post, 90% of what I was seeing is lighting, not color grading. The grading is just adding a tint. The subtly and beauty is actually coming from the lighting. (Though I have to say the "look" of your CC is getting pretty close. Now you just need to make the lighting nice!)

[mattias]

colorista is great but the specific look you mention can be easily achieved with curves. just remove red and green from the shadows and remove blue and some of the green from the high mids and highlights. just remember to remove the complimentary colors rather than adding the primary ones and it will be much easier. as for desaturating the reds without affecting color balance, that requires secondary color correction and while powerful is also a pain. better to use art direction and lighting to avoid red it you don't want it.

/matt