All language subtitles for Procolor_C02_L1a_What_Is_Color

In this chapter, we're going to take
a look at the concept of color in general.

What is color correction weighting?

This, I think, is going to give us
a really good foundation for understanding

basically everything else
we cover in the class.

So let's first talk about this term
color grading.

A lot of people will use color correction
and color grading interchangeably.

And really,
if you ask ten different colorists

what their definition of each one is,
you'll probably get ten different answers.

Generally, the way that I think of it
is there's color correction,

which is kind of making the image
look normal, right?

It is.

If there is a problem with the camera,
if the image was underexposed

or if the white balance wasn't set right
and there's some kind of color cast,

it is fixing that
so that it looks technically right.

And then I think of color
grading in itself

as more of creating emotional tones
that enhance a story.

So if you want something to feel cold,
you make it blue.

If you want it to feel warm.

You make it more kind of yellow tone.

And that's kind of
how I've thought about it for a long time.

But in a broader sense,
when you talk about color grading,

color grading is kind of the whole process
of all of this.

It is anything from fixing technical
problems, making things look normal

to enhancing the story with the colors,
as well as even doing more detailed things

like leading the viewer's eye
when they're looking at an image,

helping shape and kind of relight things,
as well as just getting more detailed.

I'm kind of massaging how a shot feels.

Like I said, all of these kind of go
together in kind of the bigger term

color grading.

So let's dive
into kind of what we mean by these things.

First of all, we have corrections.

So this is really all about
making an image look normal.

In this example, we have this really blue
tone across the whole image.

Now, this, I would probably argue, is done
on purpose for stylistic reasons,

but it's very similar
to how something might look

if you didn't shoot it with the right
white balance.

A white balance is basically
what color the camera thinks is white.

So if we have something like a white ball
and we take a picture of it

and our white balance is correct, it's
going to look white.

If we don't have our white
balance correct, this ball that's actually

white in the real world
might look more kind of orangish yellow.

It could also be tinted green
or really any other color,

depending on the type of light
that's actually hitting the ball

and the type of light
that the camera is expecting.

The good news is this is a
relatively easy thing to fix in color.

We can take this image of a green ball

and make some adjustments
so that it looks white on our monitor.

And without these kind of tools,

if we were to shoot something
without the correct white balance,

we would be stuck with whatever tone
the camera kind of picked up.

The next aspect of color
grading is feeling.

This kind of goes beyond
what is technically accurate, right?

And it kind of throws
that reality out the window a little bit

for the sake of emotions and story.

So this shot right here, you might argue,
is not balanced correctly.

Her skin kind of looks greenish.

This back wall is really green,
which you don't know in real life

if it's green or not.

But we kind of have these
kind of all of tones over everything,

which is pretty likely
not how it actually was in the real world.

This is some adjustment that
the photographer has put on this image

to give it a certain feeling.

And depending on the colors
and especially the context in the story,

you can make the viewer
feel certain emotions.

So this one kind of feels a little bit

more uncomfortable,
a little bit more dramatic,

Whereas if her skin tone
was totally normal

and there wasn't kind of this green
tinge to everything,

we might not feel
that kind of dramatic importance,

that kind of uneasiness
that that kind of green tone gives us.

So this is a stylistic choice

that we can push into our images
when we're doing color grading.

The next aspect of color grading
I like to call shaping

this is all about taking specific parts
of the image

and enhancing them,
making them more or less

noticeable, kind of changing
the more detailed parts of the image.

And the point of this is just
to make everything overall a little better

and really to get the viewer
to look at what you want them to look at.

For instance, you might take a photo
like this and select

just this doorway and kind of keep
the brightness there and darken

everything else or kind of darken
or maybe blur this foreground

by kind of selecting it with a shape
and adjusting just this part of the image.

And there are a ton of tools
that we're going to dive into

when it comes to doing this.

And this is where things really get fun
and you can get really creative

if you know what you're doing
and you kind of know the foundational

concepts of what we're really trying
to accomplish with color grading.

So that's really the overview of color
grading as a whole.

Next, we'll dive into kind of an overview
of the workflow of how color is done.