Correct / recommended workflow required

Correct / recommended workflow required

by Mark Jackson

on Jan 21, 2015 at 3:06:56 pm

Hi everybody,

I have a question regarding workflow, i have both Adobe Premiere & After Effects CS6 and in my personal experience experimenting with encoding sample files AE appears to be quicker so i decided to work primarily in it with my video footage for grading. I have done lots of reading on colour grading and tips and tweaks on fixing video files with regard to exposure, colour etc. What i would like to know is whether using Premiere or AE which is the correct way to go about working on original footage from a workflow point of view.

In which order do you apply the following

Brightness / Contrast
Exposure
Colour / Saturation
Special filters (such as soft skin etc)

Obviously i intend to edit the footage in Premiere, but it is just a bit confusing when you watch tutorials where people use different methods by some applying filters first then woking on the footage exposure etc...

What would be the best / recommended logical approach to work with your footage after importing from camera?

Kind Regards,

Re: Correct / recommended workflow required

by Derek Boettcher

on Jan 21, 2015 at 3:28:48 pm

Instead of using the brightness/contrast, I instead like to use RGB Curves.

This allows you to make a custom contrast setting but also to take away or add more RGB to your footage per color channel. I would order my effects the following:
Exposure (if needed)
Sharpen (not a lot just like 15 points or less)
RGB Curves
Color/Saturation (or tint depending on if you want a nice desaturation)

If you want deep shadows but not to affect the color channels, I also use this method I came up with:

Duplicate the footage, on top layer, add tint then curves. Leave the tint B&W, crush the blacks a bit, then set blending mode to darken or multiply and change opacity to your liking. You can then add the previous mentioned workflow to your original footage for stronger colors etc.

Just my 2 cents.

Best,
Derek Boettcher
Creative Management
BTH Media Group
http://bthmedia.com

Re: Correct / recommended workflow required

by Dave LaRonde

on Jan 21, 2015 at 4:45:19 pm

... and for color correction/grading, many people use Color Finesse, built right into AE. That's what it's for.

There are a lot of ways to get the job done. It depends on your software. For example, if you rent your Adobe software, you can use Speedgrade.

Dave LaRonde
Promotion Producer
KGAN (CBS) & KFXA (Fox) Cedar Rapids, IA

Re: Correct / recommended workflow required

by Mark Jackson

on Jan 26, 2015 at 5:19:02 pm

@ Dave, I have the full CS6 Master Suite and have AE + Color Finesse as you pointed out and have Premiere + Speedgrade as well. I think i just wanted to mainly clarify "even in a plugin like Colour Finesse" which aspects of a video file do you correct first (as step one)

1) Exposure
2) Brightness / Contrast
3) Colour (RGB)
4) Sharpening
5) Skin softening (filters etc.)

Would you say the at the above order of correcting my footage is a "logical" approach or should some of the steps be performed in a different order ?

Kind Regards,

Re: Correct / recommended workflow required

by Dave LaRonde

on Jan 26, 2015 at 7:52:26 pm
Last Edited By Dave LaRonde on Jan 26, 2015 at 11:27:39 pm

A lot of people first color correct, then color grade. Color correction would be your first three:
1) Exposure
2) Brightness / Contrast
3) Color (RGB)
The aim is to get all the shots in a scene to look right together, which makes it far easier to do the color grading, aka the color look for the scene.

Anything else should be considered effects work, like fixing skin blemishes or sharpening out-of-focus shots, the latter being a TOTAL crap shoot. If it's a big, complex project, I'd do that stuff just after color correction on a shot-by-shot basis.

It goes without saying that NONE of this should be done before edit lock. That's just asking for trouble. In addition, color GRADING -- not correction -- should be the last thing you do to the video. Again, you're asking for trouble if you don't save it for last.

Dave LaRonde
Promotion Producer
KGAN (CBS) & KFXA (Fox) Cedar Rapids, IA

Re: Correct / recommended workflow required

by Mark Jackson

on Jan 26, 2015 at 5:08:24 pm
Last Edited By Mark Jackson on Jan 26, 2015 at 5:10:32 pm

@ Derek, Thanks for your reply i am using all the advice i get to try to put together a logical way to address working with my footage and will definitely take note of your advice.