Skin
by Rafael Metz
on
Aug 16, 2009 at 10:14:19 pm
Hello,
I think skin is one of the key issues in color grading. Having seen loads of great graded commercials I´d like to know if some of you guys want share your knowledge in grading skins.
One thing e.g. is softening skin within color. I guess the Color FX room is key. Being not very experienced I´d like to know how to soften skin.
I just grabbed a nice picture (courtesy of ???) where I like the grading and the skin very much. Any ideas, comments, suggestions?
Re: Skin by Nate Weaver on Aug 17, 2009 at 1:44:14 am
There's is some "retouching" style beauty work done in that shot, but there's also another thing going on there that bears discussion.
Notice how there is no variance in the chroma for the skin...i.e., it is all one vector for the most part. No ruddy undertones, no rosy cheeks...it's a big part of the fashion/beauty look.
Anyway, the way I achieve this is I get a secondary going for all skin tones in the shot. Everything vaguely flesh colored is used as a qualifier. I then bend those midtones towards orange/yellow (some color wheels have a marker for skintones). At this point you probably have some nuclear looking skin in your frame.
I then back off the saturation for the secondary until it looks normal. What you're left with is skintones with a much more uniform color range that can be more pleasing to the eye. It can also look like a fake tan if you over do it, so take care with how far you go with the amplitude of the midtone wheel vs. the saturation control that you should have backed off to something like .7
Nate Weaver
Director/D.P., Los Angeles
http://www.nateweaver.net
Re: Skin by Rafael Metz on Aug 17, 2009 at 7:27:52 am
Nate, thank you for sharing!
Is there a possibility to soften the picture without losing detail in Color? When sitting in telecine or tape2tape I saw often the colorist using a denoiser in the da Vinci system or on the optical way putting some SoftFX or Blackpromist in the optical line of the film scanner. Is there something similar to be done in Color?
Can you describe more the process of bringing the flesh tones to this even look without any varieties in tones?
[Rafael Metz]" When sitting in telecine or tape2tape I saw often the colorist using a denoiser in the da Vinci system or on the optical way putting some SoftFX or Blackpromist in the optical line of the film scanner"
You can download the Nattress set of plug-ins for Color which includes noise reduction and a host of other FX filters.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Owner, Biscardi Creative Media featuring HD Post Biscardi Creative Media
Creative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital.
Re: Skin by Bob Sliga on Aug 17, 2009 at 1:45:09 pm
HI Rafael,
The type of looks you are describing in the daVinci sessions are done using the defocus board and HSL selections.
In Color this can be accomplished in the Color FX Room using the HSl and the Blur nodes.
If you haven't already download the New Color Looks I suggest you download them. I created 80 new CFX looks and there are 2 Skin softening looks included.
The 2 separate looks are called Skin soften. Each look is based off the HSL node selection. The looks are also duplicated with a vignette used as a mask for the HSL.
These looks are designed as starting points for the effect. You will need to adjust the HSL to get the most out of the effect for you clip.
Double click Skin soften_1 CFX look to load the effect.
Select the HSL node, the node turns cyan, followed by the parameter tab.
Adjust the HSL sliders so the skin tone you wish to soften is visible.
Select the output node to see the completed effect.
Adjust the amount of blur to soften more or less of the amount of skin blur needed.
Use the effect as a learning tool to create and save your own effects.
Hope this helps.
Bob Sliga
Freelance Colorist & Apple Color Trainer
FC Studio 3 Color Expert
Re: Skin by Rafael Metz on Aug 17, 2009 at 8:43:21 pm
Hi Bob,
thank you a lot for your suggestions. I´ll download your presets and have a look at them - I haven´t done much in the Color FX Room yet, so there is a lot to learn (ok, there is a lot to learn every day :-)).
