The Industry: Color Grading vs Color Correction

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(Color Correction vs Color Grading, by Justin Troyer)

3DTeacher-Icon2_thumb_thumbI have worked in industry for a number of years, but I have spent most of my time teaching and experimenting with my own work.    I love playing and am always experimenting with new techniques.  Sometimes I used the wrong terminology, but is it terminology that important?  Well, it will not make you a better artist, but it is always good to know.   In the past, I haven’t always used the terms Color Correction & Color Grading correctly.   Here are a few examples and explanations.  ~Cornell

 

Color correction vs. grading | 30 Second Film School

 

Color Correction vs Color Grading

August 12, 2014 at 12:35pm by Justin Troyer

Working with color is an important aspect of video production that many people grow into, at least cursorily. As part of being a novice in post-production terminology frequently gets misused or interchanged. While color correction and color grading use some of the same tools and processes they serve different purposes and are done in different parts of the workflow.

Color correction is used to alter footage across a project so that its appearance is consistent, creating an accurate portrayal as it would be viewed by the human eye, making sure whites look white and blacks look black. Typically this is compensating for inaccurate camera settings, leveling color temperature, or adjusting contrast, brightness, and saturation. The human eye will view white under varying lighting as white. However, with cameras you have to tell the sensor what white is. If done improperly your image will have a red, blue, or yellow cast. In addition, if you are shooting outside over the course of an entire day the color of the light will change as we move from sunrise to mid-day to dusk. Even passing clouds will change the color.

Color grading (color timing in reference to film) is altering the image for aesthetic or communicative purposes to enhance the story, create a visual tone, convey a mood, express emotion, or carry a theme. Typically the alterations in color grading are more extreme than with color correction. Rarely color grading can even be used to salvage problematic footage that color correction is incapable of fixing. Usually at the end of editing the editor will begin color grading, give the project to a dedicated colorist, or when quicker turnaround is required the footage will be sent off to be graded while editing is being done.  (Color Correction vs Color Grading, by Justin Troyer)

 

The House on Pine Street Color Correction Reel Graded and Edited by Taylre Jones

Check out the dramatic work done on this film, the changes are completely amazing. The color work was done on DaVinci Resolve.

 

Also Check out this ‘tutorial’ . . .

Color Correction/Grading Tutorial

By Swageberg Productions