little help please

[southernsoul]

I'm shooting a fairly naturalistic short and i'm trying to get the right colouration that dulls the image, ie greys light slightly(whites, blacks and mids). I don't have the option of filters and have tried whitebalancing with different shades but haven't found anything that works. I realise my description is pretty poor but knowing how many technical masters there are on this board I thought there might be some readily available advice.

I'm willing to sort it out in post by colour correcting (i'm working with final cut), but that could take up lots of time, something I don't have alot of, plus it would be nice to see the effect whilst shooting!

Any help would be brilliant
Cheers,
Elliot

[RydCook]

Hmm... i've no idea how to do that sort of thing on the camera. Shouldn't take too long in post? I did it the otherday for a film.. took me a couple of hours. Depends how long it takes for you to get the right colour though. And how long the film is of course... If your happy with a filter, you can copy it to another clip, d'you know how to do that? Saves a bit of time.

Sorry, i wasn't too much help was I!?

[southernsoul]

Thanks Ryd, any help is good! Think Iwill just have to do it in post, just thought I'd see if anyone had any useful nuggets. Tis only a short (11-12 mins) so wouldn't be too much of a problem. Still, if anyone else has any info it'd be great ;D

[wiggy]

you would definetly be better doing it in post, if say for example you don't have your camera plugged into a monitor on location then any filter you used may not look how you wanted it to when you start to edit, so at least if you film it without a filter you can then experiment in post. if your using final cut does it not come with the program colour? thats only with final cut studio 2 though, a good program is effects lab dv, it has loads of ready made filters to apply to footage!

[Gareth]

southernsoul said:

I'm shooting a fairly naturalistic short and i'm trying to get the right colouration that dulls the image, ie greys light slightly(whites, blacks and mids).

just crush the blacks and lower the saturation in post, it shouldnt take too long at all

[dangibling]

I would definatly do it in post, as wiggy said you have the freedom to mess around this way and not be stuck with an effect you do not like. Even without 'colour' you can very affectively color grade with the colour correction filter in final cut....you need to pull the saturation levels down for the kind of look ure after, de-saturating the image. It really shouldnt take long....you can experiment on one clip in ure timeline then copy and paste the effect to all clips. grading can be fun but the endless possibilities can have you going round in circles sometimes...find a look, leave it a few days, if it still looks cool when u return to it then keep it!
And if you really want to see the effect whilst shooting you could take the colour levels down on the monitor. good luck,
Dan

[Gareth]

dangibling how do you copy and paste a grade onto different shots? I usually just mark my monitor with bluetak to mark off the levels

[southernsoul]

thanks for the advice guys, the consensus certainly seems to be doing it in the edit. we started shooting on saturday and unfortunately it was really sunny, not exactly the saturated, dull image i was after...but hopefully it won't be too hard to sort. edit should be done by end of march so i'll try and get it online for a sneak preview for all the shaneites before its 'official' screening, then off to a few festivals, good times!
ta

[RydCook]

garethbowler said:

dangibling how do you copy and paste a grade onto different shots? I usually just mark my monitor with bluetak to mark off the levels

Good thinking! But there's a better way! and its not bloody Natwest. If you're using final cut, right click, or control click if you only have a one button mouse on the clip who's filters you would like to copy. Then select "Copy" (alternatively apple+C while clip is selected) then find the clip you want to paste the filter to, right click it and click "Paste attributes..." a dialogue box will pop up with all the attribute you can copy from the clip you copied. Tick filters, then click okay, and then your done! You may need to change the sliders a little bit to suit the exposure of the shot, cos it may be a bit different. Also try not to copy two filters on top of another. If you paste attributes twice onto a clip, they'll both be there, working against each other. So delete any filters your not happy with before pasting another one.

If your not using final cut, i'm sure you can do it, just in a different way. Hope i've helped ;D