4, because he gets the spirit of the scene, not just grading this like any other scene. He’s done his homework before diving in and that’s what efficiency and accuracy is about.
color graders are like the audio mixers of video production, wildly underrated/underrepresented, and most consumers don't even know they exist, but the incredible and specialized work they do is what gives the final thing the professional touch that we all see and go "that's some good shit right there" It's incredible to see masters of their craft at work, I'll never get tired of humans
#1 looks super professional super well balanced! He brought the sealing down and has the smoothest highlight rolloff which I like. But the others are awesome too. Great video!
#1 had the best color saturation to me, fits the tone of the footage #2 looked so natural and got the balance right when it came to whites and black #3 had a very easy workflow and also lots of good color pop #4 focused more on getting the lighting and skin tones right, which made it look more balanced Overall I think I like 2 the best, for being natural looking yet having a distinct look
Not a fan of how many color grades lean toward green in the highlights. Obviously this is tricky footage, but its such a common look all over the place and I just don't see the appeal.
Denver killed it! In a good way. #2 - The fact that he went ahead and did every single shot, with minimal nodes and ultra clean keys was the difference maker.
When I heard his voice, I was like, hey, this is the color grading centre guy, I learn how to color grade from him! Recommend everyone who’s into color grading to check out his course. I tried other color grading course as well but his course is the easiest one to understand and learn from.
It would have been really helpful to compare the final results side by side. This format made it very difficult to choose. That said, although I liked the contrast of on the denim shots of #2, I would definitely lean more towards #4 for the overall look and super clean/sharp skin tones.
@X D From these comments, yours is actually on point. To add to this and I think you would agree; need log-like footage or raw footage. Need to get the specs from DP from what camera it was shot for proper color management pipeline with gamma and gamut transform to working color space. I tried this and made it corrected with 3 parallel nodes with custom curves. Not a hard task if you just try to counter what camera did. Curves curves.
@X D Also, they are youtubers in the end. They need to make them selves "a spectalcle" for ppl to be amazed at. Adding extra to a correction will make them stand out more. But it was not the assingment, just like you pointed out. :)
I tried my hand at this. As someone fairly new to the color correction side of editing, I think this was a great exercise and lesson, Thanks for making the test available to the public, and thanks for this amazing video!
And most importantly, he didn't ball out on qualifiers and windows - that are prone to easily break an image and cost time to ripple across shots - like the others did.
I noticed that he clipped the specular highlights quite a bit. The luminance on the white jacket is much higher than anything else in the scene, almost matching the actual light source. Maybe if he graded the whole scene, I would be able to see and appreciate how the look ties it all together.
4 did an incredible job correcting the initial flaws in the footage. And to me, that made a bigger difference in the final image than the more minute things the other artists were able to accomplish.
Dang those are all really good! I liked the one by Hopkins best because it looks neutral (to me). Everyone else made it look "cinematic" shifting into blue-yellow contrasts. If Hopkins wanted to he could easily set up a filter on top of his footage that achieves the same look as the other guys, but it wouldn't work the other way around for them. He really cleaned up the footage and made it ready for styling it. And as I understood it the challenge was to "save the footage"
Agreed - I felt Hopkins' grade had the most "natural"/neutral look, and could easily then have been tuned further into the "Dark Knight"-style or any other desired look. I'm sure the other guys could do the same, but I felt like he nailed the spirit of the challenge. Also, beyond the main challenge, I really appreciated how understandable and accessible his breakdown felt.
#3. Really liked Denvers contrasty approach, but Hopkins made the colorgrade that works on every smartphone well and that‘s key for an advertisement many people on different devices should enjoy.
#2 -- for a couple of reasons. First, the final tone matches the mood of the shoot location's attributes: dramatic, dark, a little "secretive." Secondly, he actually graded the other clips accordingly. The other contestants also did a bang on job, too, but the standout is #2.
4 for me. I love how details feel soft and balanced. Others were too punchy for me. I also like 3rd artists aproach to color. I just prefer cyan over blue.
An opinion from someone who knows nothing about coloring, I prefered #2's more detailed version that the softer version because it represents the texture of the denim jacket as it is
#1 for sure. Focused on not only balancing the shot, but giving it character as well. He was also able to keep things much more simple than the other colorists, which shows he is a true professional.
Denver's version is the best as for me. I would like to watch more colorists battles! Thank you PS: #4 Node structure is absolute mess. It's good for stills, but if you'll try grade feature film with such a node structure ... you'll die after it:)
I think #4. Don't think I can do a better job yet, but these kind of videos really help with understanding that most things can be done in so many different ways when it comes to color grading. It gave me a feeling of freedom. One of my favourite videos from you Josh!
The cleanliness and textures from Hopkins (#3) give a nice edge/bite without going overboard on the contrast. He's my pick! They're all amazing though, and the approaches being so different is encouraging for beginners who may have different approaches to the same subject.
#2 Denver Riddle is my choice. #1 is the runner up. What I would do is dial back the contrast a bit on Denver's look, just a smidge. And here's an idea. Do part 2 and invite: Waqas Qazi / Dado Valentic (colour training) / Cullen Kelly / Darren Mostyn. That would be amazing. 💯
I totally agree...Invite Qaz...just to see what he can do for fun, as his take is not only HDR-ready and nondestructive, but it can be adjusted to any style later, etc.
1 and 3 end up looking the best, but #2 went the extra mile and did every scene. 2 and 4 are too heavy on the contrast IMO. Still, I think its a toss up between the final product actually looking the best and making the jacket look good while also staying realistic. So #1 gets my vote, with #3 close behind.
# 2 - Even though I consider Denver a friend of mine. I thought that he pulled it together the best. Although the others were pretty good. The amount of nodes shouldn't be a good thing or bad, the finished grade is the most important. I am surprised that none of them talked about viewer eye trace and how they were guiding the viewer's eyes. I think on the wide shots I would have pumped some parallel nodes with some directional light. Especially in a batcave, the light needs to come from somewhere. Obviously you can't just draw lighting in, but done just right, you wouldn't notice, but it would look more natural.
I feel kinda bad for them, their work was beeing rated by at least 50% of people watching this on their smartphone in probably not good lighting conditions 😅
Yo, seriously give these guys some love! And if you want to follow along you can download the assets here, and give it a shot! Don't forget to comment who you like the best! makeartnow.sellfy.store/p/save-the-skin-tones-challenge/ Colorist #1 instagram.com/amartincolor/ Colorist #2 instagram.com/colorgrading/ Colorist #3 instagram.com/jadonfilms.color/ Colorist #4 instagram.com/willmannering/ One last thing, I really have been using Canva for designing advertisements stuff for Orbit, its extremely helpful, been blown away at how fast and easy it is making products stuff---- Canva wants me to tell you about the video editing portion of the site, but honestly building well designed poster boards and advertisments squares is where its at, 100% Here's the MAKE ART NOW 45 a day free trial -- Worth checking out Canva.Me/makeartnow
Should have linked to their You Tubes so anyone could follow. I know Denver has a great channel as I've been a subscriber for years but would be good to see if the others have. Great stuff by all of them!
Like, what color grade tutorial can be more helpful than this: show how 4 talented colorists attack a crazy problem in their own way. THANK YOU for this!!
Really cool and informative to give a look into different workflows like this. I do have one remark concerning Denver's advice on desaturating the high's and low's using the luma vs saturation curve. As the head of colors cience at Arri in germany once told me: A high dynamic range image always has some color in both the high and low ranges. It's bad practise in many cases to desaturate these completely as it creates unrealistic looking images (unless this is what you want). You are more likely to get more pleasing results if you balance your high and low ranges using primary or log wheels while looking at your scopes. This is however a more tedious job. Kind regards from a pro colorist in the Netherlands.
#2. I love his procedure. He seems to be very focused on the core issues, and attacks them straight on. He also finds those core issues not from what he sees, but what data shows him. Which may give him a more precise solution, over if he had looked at the color in the clip with his own eyes
Exactly like a real pro colorist would do. In just two nodes corrected the color shift properly without making two dozen secondary corrections with hue curves and qualifiers.
this stuff is crazy, i edit in Davinci Resolve and the only reason i go into the color tab is to bump up the highlights when it's too dark. it hurts my brain watching this tuff, good stuff, I vote 1234
#4 was my favorite. Love the final look. But you can tell some of the other colorists kept their node trees a bit cleaner haha. #2 had a bit too much contrast for my personal taste.
Maaan it's a hard decision between 2 & 4 for me, but I think Will's final grade in that scene is my favorite. Huge kudos to Denver for editing all the shots, though!
Maaaan, this is a masterclass in one video! I haven't really looked, but without research, I can already imagine this as someone's niche on RUclips: taking bad footage and fixing it. We learn a lot from bad situations than anything, so this is the most ideal type of tutorial. My philosophy is, if you can make shitty footage/images look good (or when it comes to music, if you can make a song sound good on crappy earphones), then when you have higher quality options, you're UNSTOPPABLE! It's like training with weights!
Wow, they are all so good but yet so different! I didn't expect that. I flipped between them and it ended up between Denver and Will, with my final tip to Will, #4, came down to the depth, consistency and clarity of the ceiling across the scenes. All were great in their own way! Nice, guys!
I vote #3, Hopkins. As somebody who knows nothing about color, Hopkins' work was the only one that didn't give me, and I hope I don't sound dumb/ignorant for saying this, "horror hospital" vibes. The teal and the dark walls lowkey make me scared because they remind me again of dark hospitals in horror films; Hopkins was the only one that made it blue-ish instead of teal, and it looked the most natural.
My vote is for #1 because I just liked the workflow and the end result, but I’ve got the deuteron color blindness so I’m not seeing everything ya’ll are seeing. It’s as fascinating as it is frustrating. Thanks for the great content!
#3 Hopkins got most realistic results imo. Skin tones are healthy looking, Blue shirts are the right blue, and most importantly, nothing's blown out! All the other artist had this issue with white and skin tone.
OMG 😱😱😱 I hope no real colorist will see that horrible work from these guys. I had some hopes with the #2 guy, and then he started using the Lum vs Sat to clean the highlights and shadows...
@@troywhite8980 To be clear, I like the content of these guys and I never said I was "superior". (Superiority is such a shitty concept to be honest, especially in art) And I'm pretty sure these guys got way more work than me in color grading. Sorry if my comment sounds bad. To be more precise, I think their workflows are pretty bad and not professional. I think the #2 guy is the more professional of all, except the part when he uses the Lum vs Sat to clean the shadows and highlights. It's an "easy trick" known by beginner colorists, but doing that you lose all the color data in these area. A LOG adjustement (with custom High Range and Low range) would have been a better way to do it as it keep way more information.
I would vote #4. If I had done this, I don't even know too much about power windows and stuff so the corrected shot would probably be a yellow mess! XD
#1 gets my vote. #1’s process and workflow was the best IMO with #3’s being a close second, and #2’s workflow drove me crazy for some reason. #2 and #4 were a bit too heavy on the contrast.
This is crazy to me. The only thing I have ever been able to learn so far is basic color correction in Premiere. I would love to get into more intense stuff like this!
#4 by far what the hell. No power windows, super clean look and he can apply it over the whole length of the clips. Skin tones on that grade look way healthier than the others.
I vote for #2 - The systematic approach to fixing the footage by using the least amount of nodes. Node organization is top-notch. Color grading is also expression - the others did great but #2 added a look that works for the shot. Denim is woven and so the textures needed to pop out. The grungy look made for a great contrast to the "clinical" studio setting. It made the most statement out of the rest IMO. As someone studying color grading this video is great!
Mane I thought I was the only one thinking this!! I would have loved to see him take this on - I don't have his course but I will be buying Denver's if he wins!!
#2. Made those shirts pop the way I want them to look on me. Best product colour imo. They all absolutely nailed fixing it though. I wouldn’t complain one way or another
My vote is for Hopkins, yes it was a cooler tone but it just have the best sharpness and contrast level. Wish he had gone a tab bit yellower as the shirts are reflecting yellow hues
watching this makes me realize how similar color grading is to my job as an audio mixing engineer. From the terminology used, to the techniques used, even to the interface design and the way the info is displayed. loved the vid very eye opening.
It's interesting how the color adjustment curves remind me of an EQ interface. There are so many parallels between visual art, music and even flavor balance/contrast in cooking, etc.
I do both and yeah it was incredibly easy to start with photoshop doing photo manips, move to a DAW and do mixing etc, and now to video editing doing transitions and color correction, it all flows together! Happy mixing my engineer brutha!
I liked Number 2, Denver. Seen his work before but aside of that he did color grade all the clips and I think they look clean. I like it more then the other contenders. Vote for #2
I think #1 was the nicest to look at. All the other color grades felt fatiguing in a way with too much contrast, but #1’s color grade just felt so much more pleasing to look at.
This video is very helpful to get into the various approaches one can use as a colorist. It was really hard to choose from all of the grades, because each one of them have their pros and cons. I'll vote for #1 as it looks the cleanest in the light rolloffs.
I took a shot at the footage and honestly, the global offset wheel in the HDR panel and a minor hue rotation was enough to get to 90% of the balance for every shot. All of the skintone hue variance was retained and I barely had to touch secondaries for the whole set of clips. Five nodes max. As long as you respect the color space you're in, the global balancing tools can do a vast amount of your balancing work with little effort.
#4 - Will Mannering!! Everyone did such a great job but Will was my favourite. He gave a quick run through on what he did but that finish in my opinion is so sick!
I gotta throw my vote in with #4. Dude nailed the look of the scene from the film in addition to fixing something that I would have wagered was beyond salvageable.
I’ve watched the final clip of all their finished products 12x now. Three is the one more me. Thank you for the crash course. Learned so much so quickly.
#4 is easiest on the eyes to me and gives the sense to the viewer of not immediately thinking, "how was this graded?" while also making sure to stylize the footage. Good stuff!
4, because he gets the spirit of the scene, not just grading this like any other scene. He’s done his homework before diving in and that’s what efficiency and accuracy is about.
Both #2 & #4 used the Kodak 2383 lut as the grade look. #2 may have done the same research but just didn't draw emphasis on to it.
color graders are like the audio mixers of video production, wildly underrated/underrepresented, and most consumers don't even know they exist, but the incredible and specialized work they do is what gives the final thing the professional touch that we all see and go "that's some good shit right there"
It's incredible to see masters of their craft at work, I'll never get tired of humans
Are you an alien? 😳
AI will definitely replace them in a short time. #TechShit
#1 looks super professional super well balanced! He brought the sealing down and has the smoothest highlight rolloff which I like. But the others are awesome too. Great video!
#1 had the best color saturation to me, fits the tone of the footage
#2 looked so natural and got the balance right when it came to whites and black
#3 had a very easy workflow and also lots of good color pop
#4 focused more on getting the lighting and skin tones right, which made it look more balanced
Overall I think I like 2 the best, for being natural looking yet having a distinct look
all four was amazing but doing grading for all the clips... really cool display of his own perspective.#2
all of these were good, but #2 was truly great.
dude, #4 was insane, man!
RGB guy: that looks great though.
all is good , everybody have their own style and taste . my choice is either 1 or 4 .
Not a fan of how many color grades lean toward green in the highlights. Obviously this is tricky footage, but its such a common look all over the place and I just don't see the appeal.
Colorist #2. It just works
My vote goes for Will!
#2 or #4 - are the best!
Denver killed it! In a good way. #2 - The fact that he went ahead and did every single shot, with minimal nodes and ultra clean keys was the difference maker.
When I heard his voice, I was like, hey, this is the color grading centre guy, I learn how to color grade from him! Recommend everyone who’s into color grading to check out his course. I tried other color grading course as well but his course is the easiest one to understand and learn from.
Denver’s work was concise and clean. Such a pro.
@N W calm down
I bought Denver's course about 3 years ago. Well worth the price of entry.
-Jason
@N W Shutup u r a nobody
It would have been really helpful to compare the final results side by side. This format made it very difficult to choose. That said, although I liked the contrast of on the denim shots of #2, I would definitely lean more towards #4 for the overall look and super clean/sharp skin tones.
all of those guys are incredibly skilled 💪 my pers fav was #2
@N W calm down lol
@X D From these comments, yours is actually on point. To add to this and I think you would agree; need log-like footage or raw footage. Need to get the specs from DP from what camera it was shot for proper color management pipeline with gamma and gamut transform to working color space.
I tried this and made it corrected with 3 parallel nodes with custom curves. Not a hard task if you just try to counter what camera did. Curves curves.
@X D Also, they are youtubers in the end. They need to make them selves "a spectalcle" for ppl to be amazed at. Adding extra to a correction will make them stand out more. But it was not the assingment, just like you pointed out. :)
I tried my hand at this. As someone fairly new to the color correction side of editing, I think this was a great exercise and lesson, Thanks for making the test available to the public, and thanks for this amazing video!
I also tried your hand at this. Now I'm thinking you could try easing off on the caffeine a little!
Dang, #4 looks so good. He's got a great eye.
And most importantly, he didn't ball out on qualifiers and windows - that are prone to easily break an image and cost time to ripple across shots - like the others did.
Well, the skin tone looked very orange though, and lots of unnatural oversaturated blues on the floor and in the ceiling.
I noticed that he clipped the specular highlights quite a bit. The luminance on the white jacket is much higher than anything else in the scene, almost matching the actual light source. Maybe if he graded the whole scene, I would be able to see and appreciate how the look ties it all together.
4 did an incredible job correcting the initial flaws in the footage. And to me, that made a bigger difference in the final image than the more minute things the other artists were able to accomplish.
Dang those are all really good! I liked the one by Hopkins best because it looks neutral (to me). Everyone else made it look "cinematic" shifting into blue-yellow contrasts. If Hopkins wanted to he could easily set up a filter on top of his footage that achieves the same look as the other guys, but it wouldn't work the other way around for them. He really cleaned up the footage and made it ready for styling it. And as I understood it the challenge was to "save the footage"
Agreed - I felt Hopkins' grade had the most "natural"/neutral look, and could easily then have been tuned further into the "Dark Knight"-style or any other desired look. I'm sure the other guys could do the same, but I felt like he nailed the spirit of the challenge. Also, beyond the main challenge, I really appreciated how understandable and accessible his breakdown felt.
Will aced it 🎯 I have to give it to #4
You're too humble. It's okay you can bite for yourself buddy. Bahahah. You both smashed it.
this guy is awesome, whatched loads of his videos - useful and recommended"
Color Grading Central- that seems to ring a few bells.
You did a great job Denver, but I agree #4 had a smidge more character.
In terms of technical accuracy, and not over complicating it, you take the cake brother.
#3. Really liked Denvers contrasty approach, but Hopkins made the colorgrade that works on every smartphone well and that‘s key for an advertisement many people on different devices should enjoy.
For me also the best one, although it is leaning a little on the blue side. Still the overall look very nice!
Got to give it to #2, the fact he treated individually both color profiles and the overall cleanness of his final image... he's got my vote
#2 -- for a couple of reasons. First, the final tone matches the mood of the shoot location's attributes: dramatic, dark, a little "secretive." Secondly, he actually graded the other clips accordingly. The other contestants also did a bang on job, too, but the standout is #2.
4 for me. I love how details feel soft and balanced. Others were too punchy for me. I also like 3rd artists aproach to color. I just prefer cyan over blue.
An opinion from someone who knows nothing about coloring, I prefered #2's more detailed version that the softer version because it represents the texture of the denim jacket as it is
#3 gets my vote. Love the final look as well as how organized his workflow is.
Colorist #2, Denver was the best. It shows that he's one of those people who can handle anything. Also, his style of explaining is very watchable.
#2. He graded in broad strokes and set himself up to make the job more efficient when grading the other clips in the scene.
#1 for sure. Focused on not only balancing the shot, but giving it character as well. He was also able to keep things much more simple than the other colorists, which shows he is a true professional.
Exactly. It's not about a million nodes
I liked his approach. It was a bit less technical and more intuitive.
I actually disagree because he used for the most part masks which are not the best for color grading especially when you have to edit multiple clips
Denver's version is the best as for me. I would like to watch more colorists battles! Thank you PS: #4 Node structure is absolute mess. It's good for stills, but if you'll try grade feature film with such a node structure ... you'll die after it:)
I think #4. Don't think I can do a better job yet, but these kind of videos really help with understanding that most things can be done in so many different ways when it comes to color grading. It gave me a feeling of freedom. One of my favourite videos from you Josh!
Honestly was pretty surprised you didn’t know about Denver prior!
But i know about rekoill
Honestly was pretty surprised to even see you here.
The cleanliness and textures from Hopkins (#3) give a nice edge/bite without going overboard on the contrast. He's my pick!
They're all amazing though, and the approaches being so different is encouraging for beginners who may have different approaches to the same subject.
Split the drone to 4. They all are great and each has his uniqueness. All of 4 are major pros!
#2 Denver Riddle is my choice. #1 is the runner up. What I would do is dial back the contrast a bit on Denver's look, just a smidge. And here's an idea. Do part 2 and invite: Waqas Qazi / Dado Valentic (colour training) / Cullen Kelly / Darren Mostyn. That would be amazing. 💯
I totally agree...Invite Qaz...just to see what he can do for fun, as his take is not only HDR-ready and nondestructive, but it can be adjusted to any style later, etc.
1 and 3 end up looking the best, but #2 went the extra mile and did every scene. 2 and 4 are too heavy on the contrast IMO. Still, I think its a toss up between the final product actually looking the best and making the jacket look good while also staying realistic. So #1 gets my vote, with #3 close behind.
Completely agree 👍 #1’s process and workflow was the best IMO, and #2’s workflow drove me crazy for some reason but still have a decent result.
# 2 - Even though I consider Denver a friend of mine. I thought that he pulled it together the best. Although the others were pretty good.
The amount of nodes shouldn't be a good thing or bad, the finished grade is the most important. I am surprised that none of them talked about viewer eye trace and how they were guiding the viewer's eyes. I think on the wide shots I would have pumped some parallel nodes with some directional light. Especially in a batcave, the light needs to come from somewhere. Obviously you can't just draw lighting in, but done just right, you wouldn't notice, but it would look more natural.
I feel kinda bad for them, their work was beeing rated by at least 50% of people watching this on their smartphone in probably not good lighting conditions 😅
Yo, seriously give these guys some love! And if you want to follow along you can download the assets here, and give it a shot! Don't forget to comment who you like the best!
makeartnow.sellfy.store/p/save-the-skin-tones-challenge/
Colorist #1 instagram.com/amartincolor/
Colorist #2 instagram.com/colorgrading/
Colorist #3 instagram.com/jadonfilms.color/
Colorist #4 instagram.com/willmannering/
One last thing, I really have been using Canva for designing advertisements stuff for Orbit, its extremely helpful, been blown away at how fast and easy it is making products stuff---- Canva wants me to tell you about the video editing portion of the site, but honestly building well designed poster boards and advertisments squares is where its at, 100% Here's the MAKE ART NOW 45 a day free trial -- Worth checking out Canva.Me/makeartnow
Please make a poll, like straw poll or something? My pick is #2. He's a pro and it shows. Also does it as he explains it and it's very watchable.
I'm literally going to count comments. ;)
Should have linked to their You Tubes so anyone could follow. I know Denver has a great channel as I've been a subscriber for years but would be good to see if the others have. Great stuff by all of them!
@@AllTorque ruclips.net/user/colorgradingcentral
I think the right tool for the job is the new Color Wraper. Using the Color Wraper it takes about 5 minutes to fix these. One node per shot.
Dude!!! Such a fun and insightful vid. Nice Josh
Like, what color grade tutorial can be more helpful than this: show how 4 talented colorists attack a crazy problem in their own way. THANK YOU for this!!
All four are undeniably masters at coloring. My vote is for 1, 2, 3, and 4 because if I had to choose one I'd be scrubbing back and forth for a while
Really cool and informative to give a look into different workflows like this.
I do have one remark concerning Denver's advice on desaturating the high's and low's using the luma vs saturation curve.
As the head of colors cience at Arri in germany once told me: A high dynamic range image always has some color in both the high and low ranges.
It's bad practise in many cases to desaturate these completely as it creates unrealistic looking images (unless this is what you want).
You are more likely to get more pleasing results if you balance your high and low ranges using primary or log wheels while looking at your scopes.
This is however a more tedious job.
Kind regards from a pro colorist in the Netherlands.
Guy #2 smashed it! I like that one the most.
#2 is the winner to me.
Yo, I would give a propeller to each!😂😂 They all did a great job. But. In the end, I would go with #2. Denver rocks!!
Accidentally got here, And even tho i only use Premiere this still was interesting to watch, Also im going for #2
#2. I love his procedure. He seems to be very focused on the core issues, and attacks them straight on. He also finds those core issues not from what he sees, but what data shows him. Which may give him a more precise solution, over if he had looked at the color in the clip with his own eyes
Exactly like a real pro colorist would do. In just two nodes corrected the color shift properly without making two dozen secondary corrections with hue curves and qualifiers.
#2 for sure. I still still feel that purple on the darker skin on #4. I gotta give it to #2
this stuff is crazy, i edit in Davinci Resolve and the only reason i go into the color tab is to bump up the highlights when it's too dark. it hurts my brain watching this tuff, good stuff, I vote 1234
Either 3 or 4 for me. The 4 just edge it out as he goes for the Batman look
Why did I missed that competion :D I vote for #2
#4 was my favorite. Love the final look. But you can tell some of the other colorists kept their node trees a bit cleaner haha. #2 had a bit too much contrast for my personal taste.
agree
I've seen a lot of #2's videos online and he is a great color grader, but #4 takes the cake for me.
Maaan it's a hard decision between 2 & 4 for me, but I think Will's final grade in that scene is my favorite. Huge kudos to Denver for editing all the shots, though!
Don’t do it
Maaaan, this is a masterclass in one video!
I haven't really looked, but without research, I can already imagine this as someone's niche on RUclips: taking bad footage and fixing it. We learn a lot from bad situations than anything, so this is the most ideal type of tutorial.
My philosophy is, if you can make shitty footage/images look good (or when it comes to music, if you can make a song sound good on crappy earphones), then when you have higher quality options, you're UNSTOPPABLE! It's like training with weights!
Well said!👏
I love #2 Denver's process, very clean and clearly explained step by step process, He is simply the master in colorgrading
This is voodoo. SHEEESH
For real, simply magic to me 😂
Wow, they are all so good but yet so different! I didn't expect that. I flipped between them and it ended up between Denver and Will, with my final tip to Will, #4, came down to the depth, consistency and clarity of the ceiling across the scenes. All were great in their own way! Nice, guys!
I vote #3, Hopkins. As somebody who knows nothing about color, Hopkins' work was the only one that didn't give me, and I hope I don't sound dumb/ignorant for saying this, "horror hospital" vibes. The teal and the dark walls lowkey make me scared because they remind me again of dark hospitals in horror films; Hopkins was the only one that made it blue-ish instead of teal, and it looked the most natural.
My vote is for #1 because I just liked the workflow and the end result, but I’ve got the deuteron color blindness so I’m not seeing everything ya’ll are seeing. It’s as fascinating as it is frustrating. Thanks for the great content!
You just have to get into audio engineering and everyone will be like "How are you hearing that?" haha
@@RhodokTribesman I just received some glasses to help with the color blindness and it’s a game changer.
#3 Hopkins got most realistic results imo. Skin tones are healthy looking, Blue shirts are the right blue, and most importantly, nothing's blown out! All the other artist had this issue with white and skin tone.
OMG 😱😱😱 I hope no real colorist will see that horrible work from these guys.
I had some hopes with the #2 guy, and then he started using the Lum vs Sat to clean the highlights and shadows...
Put your work on the line and let us all judge you if you think you're so superior! What an absolute asshole thing to say!
Second.
Ahah pretty intense comment but I understand what you mean. These guys should watch Juan Melara and Avery Peck tutorials
@@troywhite8980 To be clear, I like the content of these guys and I never said I was "superior". (Superiority is such a shitty concept to be honest, especially in art) And I'm pretty sure these guys got way more work than me in color grading.
Sorry if my comment sounds bad. To be more precise, I think their workflows are pretty bad and not professional.
I think the #2 guy is the more professional of all, except the part when he uses the Lum vs Sat to clean the shadows and highlights. It's an "easy trick" known by beginner colorists, but doing that you lose all the color data in these area. A LOG adjustement (with custom High Range and Low range) would have been a better way to do it as it keep way more information.
@@truecooper7970 My comment sounds like shit, I'm sorry for that guys. And Yes, thank you ! Too many few people know these guys.
To compare precisely:
#1 : 5:20
#2 : 11:03
#3 : 14:34
#4 : 17:43
Gotta give it to #4!
All these colorists came out with some solid grading processes but I think Will really nailed it the most.
I would vote #4. If I had done this, I don't even know too much about power windows and stuff so the corrected shot would probably be a yellow mess! XD
#1 gets my vote.
#1’s process and workflow was the best IMO with #3’s being a close second, and #2’s workflow drove me crazy for some reason. #2 and #4 were a bit too heavy on the contrast.
I totally agree, that contrast was nuts! I thought the assignment was to white balance, not apply a theme.
#2 was definitely going for that Dark Knight, super deep, contrasty look
Number 2 and 3, 4th guy was great but i think that the colors on the shirt should be more representative of the ACTUAL product. Great work everybody^^
This is crazy to me. The only thing I have ever been able to learn so far is basic color correction in Premiere. I would love to get into more intense stuff like this!
Hands down #2, he killed it!! 💪🙌🤙
#2 was the cleanest
At least 2 or 3 of them are Qazi viewers for sure.
the original red hue clip actually gives me anxiety
Really great to see this challenge and get more insight how guys are doing it, my vote goes to #2 Denver although #4 is also great work for my taste.
#4 by far what the hell. No power windows, super clean look and he can apply it over the whole length of the clips. Skin tones on that grade look way healthier than the others.
I vote for #2 - The systematic approach to fixing the footage by using the least amount of nodes. Node organization is top-notch.
Color grading is also expression - the others did great but #2 added a look that works for the shot. Denim is woven and so the textures needed to pop out. The grungy look made for a great contrast to the "clinical" studio setting. It made the most statement out of the rest IMO. As someone studying color grading this video is great!
Not sure why the host is giving the last word after every colorist’s presentation. Like, he couldn’t fix it, so just say I like it
Cause the host built his own RUclips channel and does what ever he wants. :)
You should try it.
You’re doing great
It would be cool to see Waqas Qazi take a crack at this. Also love that you focused on colorist because I feel like it’s always overlooked
Mane I thought I was the only one thinking this!! I would have loved to see him take this on - I don't have his course but I will be buying Denver's if he wins!!
#2. Made those shirts pop the way I want them to look on me. Best product colour imo.
They all absolutely nailed fixing it though. I wouldn’t complain one way or another
This is what "influencers" should be doing. Such creative approaches to the project. Well done!
My vote is for Hopkins, yes it was a cooler tone but it just have the best sharpness and contrast level. Wish he had gone a tab bit yellower as the shirts are reflecting yellow hues
watching this makes me realize how similar color grading is to my job as an audio mixing engineer. From the terminology used, to the techniques used, even to the interface design and the way the info is displayed. loved the vid very eye opening.
It's interesting how the color adjustment curves remind me of an EQ interface. There are so many parallels between visual art, music and even flavor balance/contrast in cooking, etc.
@@ryo-kai8587 fr i thought damn this look just like a digital eq
I do both and yeah it was incredibly easy to start with photoshop doing photo manips, move to a DAW and do mixing etc, and now to video editing doing transitions and color correction, it all flows together! Happy mixing my engineer brutha!
@@DruNature u too! have a great creative 2022!
I liked Number 2, Denver. Seen his work before but aside of that he did color grade all the clips and I think they look clean. I like it more then the other contenders. Vote for #2
I think #1 was the nicest to look at. All the other color grades felt fatiguing in a way with too much contrast, but #1’s color grade just felt so much more pleasing to look at.
#1 still has some greens
#3 still has some magenta's
#4 went slightly warm
Only #2 has no color shift it's as clean as it gets.
This video is very helpful to get into the various approaches one can use as a colorist. It was really hard to choose from all of the grades, because each one of them have their pros and cons.
I'll vote for #1 as it looks the cleanest in the light rolloffs.
Number 2. Definitely not 3, it's still magenta and everything else is just blue.
I took a shot at the footage and honestly, the global offset wheel in the HDR panel and a minor hue rotation was enough to get to 90% of the balance for every shot. All of the skintone hue variance was retained and I barely had to touch secondaries for the whole set of clips. Five nodes max. As long as you respect the color space you're in, the global balancing tools can do a vast amount of your balancing work with little effort.
Grade #1: 1:47
Grade #2: 5:41
Grade #3: 14:32
Grade #4: 15:06
Edit: #4 is the best imo
#2 Denver kept it simple and easy, a four year old could understand his process
#2
#4 - Will Mannering!! Everyone did such a great job but Will was my favourite. He gave a quick run through on what he did but that finish in my opinion is so sick!
2/4 for and my taste with what they did overall, but all of them did a really great job and prove why they're the best at what they do.
I gotta throw my vote in with #4. Dude nailed the look of the scene from the film in addition to fixing something that I would have wagered was beyond salvageable.
I'm totally colourblind so I can't judge, to be honest not sure why I watched the video haha.
I’ve watched the final clip of all their finished products 12x now. Three is the one more me. Thank you for the crash course. Learned so much so quickly.
4 is the best grade - but 2 is sick because the grade works throughout - if 4's grade was throughout the whole thing then his would defo be the best
#4 is easiest on the eyes to me and gives the sense to the viewer of not immediately thinking, "how was this graded?" while also making sure to stylize the footage. Good stuff!
#3 was the best, he ended up with the best result, and you can tell he just has the best process.
All of them did a great job, but #4 pops out. Super nice.
#2. Seemed to do the most with the least amount of edits. And end result was awesome!