The 3 Biggest Color Grading Mistakes!
The 3 Biggest Color Grading Mistakes!
1. Relying on my eyes:
You cannot trust your eyes because your eyes will deceive you. What you think is correct, might be totally off. I would often think that my colors look really good and then I come back the next day and I look at my color grade and everything looks off. Either my skin tones would be really warm or too saturated. Whatever the reason, my own understanding of what a good color grade was supposed to look like was off. Especially, if you are just getting into color grading, you can’t trust your eyes. That is why you want to learn how to read a histogram and a vector scope. All these things are tools which can help you get accurate colors and skin tones.
I have a video here all about that if you want to learn more: • How to get better skin tones for video \\ ...
2. Not knowing what I want my color grade to look like:
If you don’t have an idea of a color grade style you want to go for, then your grading might not be that appealing because there’s nothing special about it. But, if you have a style that you want to replicate, you can reference that look that way you can work towards getting those same colors.
So, what I do is I take screenshots of color grades that I absolutely love. Now, this can be from movies, documentaries, commercials, or from other YouTubers you’ve seen. I have a bunch of screen shots and newspaper cutouts of color grading I like.
What I’ve done is I’ve narrowed it down to just a handful of color grades that I think is what represents my personality. Before I finish a color grade, I always reference these images to make sure my color grading is nearly the same.
3. Using multiple monitors:
Here’s the thing, every monitor is calibrated differently. Some monitors are brighter or more contrasty than others. Some have a blue tint while others might be warmer. For months, I was editing on my laptop and when I went to my studio I would hook up my laptop to an external monitor. Sometimes, I would actually take my laptop with me to work and I would hook it up to the external monitor there. Also, the ambient light can affect the way you perceive colors. So, it is not just about the monitor itself but the color of the light that is around you.
That is why you want to calibrate your monitors, but if you don’t want to invest in Spyder monitor calibrator, you can try sticking to doing your color grades on just one screen. Recently, I bought the iMac pro and since the colors are pretty accurate right off the bat, I only do my color grading on that one monitor. I don’t trust any other monitor.
Datacolor Spyder Monitor Calibrator: https://amzn.to/2o1eFxq
This is probably my best advice to you, have a reference so you can double check your work.
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