Simple Color Correction in After Effects….

[composite1]

Between Apple Color and Magic Bullet Looks, lot’s of editors are confusing Color Grading with Color Correction. The difference is; CG is a visual enhancement and CC is an adjustment for accuracy. So the ‘Neo Green’ from the “Matrix” and the ‘Sepia Wash’ prevalent in “Saving Private Ryan” are color grading choices for artistic enhancement of those films.

When doing color correction the editor adjusts highlights, midtones and shadow areas thus recreating the scene as the eye saw it. Here’s a vid by Michael DeVowe using a simpler method for color correcting your video in AFX CS using Photoshop.

Color Correction Tutorial After Effects [The Right Way!] from ? Michael DeVowe on Vimeo.

[Luis Maymi Lopez]

Thanks for sharing such a great tutorial Wolfgang. That method of importing a frame to Photoshop is brilliant, I didn’t knew that. One question I have, do I need to separately CC each different scene or will one pre-made CC preset will work on any scene no matter how it change? For example, in scene 1 I have an exterior then I cut to scene 2 which is an interior, will the CC preset I made, using the exterior footage as a reference, will also CC accurately the interior scene?

[composite1]

Luis,

Yeah, you’d have to color correct for each scene as there are always subtle changes in lighting even if for some reason all your camera settings are the same. However, with so simple a method it wouldn’t be that much extra work. Besides, once you’ve color corrected your shots prior to dropping them into the timeline in Premiere or whatever, that part is done until you get a final cut and then start in with color grading if required. Just do all the shots for your scenes in batches. Since with the frame reference from each scene the thing that would take the longest would be making your adjustments in Phoshop.

[Author]

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