how to achieve this Color correcting / color grading

[Sean Rowe]

Hey Guys,

im new to color correcting / color grading. How would get your footage to look like after shooting flat?

Stacey & Frank 9.7.13 on Vimeo

[Matthias Claflin]

Looks to me like added contrast, and saturation. Beyond that, some shots appear to be "warmer" than others, probably added some red/green and took away a bit of blue to those shots. It also appears that some shots have a bit of a vignette, even if it is just slight. This may just be the lens, but it could be something post processed. It is impossible to know what their "flat" image looked like, but this is my best guess as to what they used to achieve the color/grade they have there.

[David Barnett]

I agree with what Matthias said. Myb enhance contrast, could be plug ins like Magic Bullet Looks, but I think they shot pretty close to this out of the camera. Probably used a pretty nice DSLR for it. If you use Premiere &/or After Effects you can try creating a duplicate layer and change the blending mode to Overlay, Color Dodge or Multiply or whatever works best, then bring the opacity of the duplicate layer down until it looks a bit more natural. Play with the Color Levels or Curves effect too. If you get it right for one clip you can copy & paste it onto the others, then tweak it appropriately. Of course, rendering this will take a while so it may be good for some clips but myb not the entire video, esp a longform DVD.

[Matthias Claflin]

I agree. When trying to recreate something like this (whenever editing video from multiple locations/light situations) make sure to check every shot to make sure whatever settings you decide on are giving you the desired effect. Just copying/pasting the different color changes will not always work.