3 Tips to Optimize Color Grading On Your Commercial Video Projects
Color Grading plays an important role in producing a video clip or film. It is the process of modifying your video clip or film to achieve a unified color look. Without refining your color grading, your footage will become a mess of various colors. While it is true that color grading is a skill that takes years to master, you can learn the basic concepts of color grading by learning from commercial video projects. This is because commercial video projects require the most amount and application of color grading. A commercial project may only last for a couple of minutes, even seconds, but it consists of dozens of shots and clips that will take a couple of days to color grade.
For those who are working with commercial video projects and is wanting to improve their color grading skills, we’ve prepared these 3 tips to optimize your color grading on your commercial video projects.
- It’s all about the Mid tone
Commercial video projects mainly focus on mid tone. You need to identify the most “accurate, neutral and pleasing mid tones” to bring out the best appearance of your talent. Keep in mind that the talents or models in a commercial project is trying to sell a product. So their skin, appearance, and complexion must be attractive and inviting to the audience. You can achieve that by correcting the mid tones and color grade of your talent’s skin.
- Use Power Windows
A lot of power windows are being used when working with commercial projects than a film project. Since the storytelling time in a commercial project is very limited, you need to focus on highlighting the visual aspect of your video. You need to pay attention and highlight the elements like the people, the environment, the background and most importantly, the product in order to catch the attention and interest of your audience.If your commercial project is trying to sell a soap, you need to match the color grade of your commercial video to the actual product color approved by your client. Since soap products primarily “whitens your skin”, your video must also project the desired results when using the product. In order to achieve this, you need to use Power windows. Power windows will help you capture and highlight the important details and frames on your video, without looking like it has windows all over it.
- Don’t Over-style
Although you need to pay high attention in the visual aspect of your commercial video project, it is important not to overdo them. You can apply LUTS to balance out your shots and frames as you add them in your power windows. Always remember the thumb rule in working with commercial video projects: it must have a neutral and accurate look.
Color Grading can also be done in two ways, either color grading with presets or by hand. You can use Magic Bullet Looks by Red Giant to master your color grading skills. Its presets are designed to achieve real “Hollywood-Blockbuster” styles and color looks. However, if you are in tight budget, you have the option to download free online color grading presets. There are color grading resources and presets you can already use for Premiere Pro, FCPX, Avid and Da Vinci Resolver.
