3 Tips for Better Color in Your Videos
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,320 words · ~6 min read
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BenQ reached out to us to sponsor a video
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about their SW271 monitor,
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which is marketed as engineered for photographers
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and great for video editing too.
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But what does that mean?
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Well, it means it has hardware calibration support,
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fantastically accurate colors,
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covering over 99% of the Adobe RGB color space,
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and it's 4K to boot.
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So then, with a tool like this at our disposal,
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we thought, well, hey,
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why don't we take this opportunity to take a look
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at how we have done a less than perfect job
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of color correcting some of our own videos here at LTT
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while offering you guys three tips and tricks
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for taking our color correction,
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and maybe yours too, to the next level.
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And since I can't tell pink from periwinkle,
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I've enlisted the help
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of our very own director of photography, Brandon Lee.
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There you go.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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So taking a look at our backlog
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from the last six months or so,
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I was able to identify three common,
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let's call them shortcomings,
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that I think we could improve on.
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The script is not moving at all.
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What the heck?
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Number one, foreground to background color exposure balancing.
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This can be really challenging,
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especially if you're shooting outdoors
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like we were in our recent ASUS AI Mesh video.
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Let's freeze frame there.
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We did an okay job balancing the exposure here,
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but it could have been better.
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The image is overexposed overall,
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but it's particularly bright in the background
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compared to Linus.
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What we should have done
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is brought the background highlights down
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to make Linus and the laptop stand out more like this.
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Number two, color consistency throughout the video.
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If your colors are inconsistent,
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then scene changes are really jarring
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and distract the viewer.
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We were guilty of this
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on our TechLink announcement video,
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where we quickly jumped from location to location
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and each spot had a different dominant light source.
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In this case, the biggest issue is white balance.
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At the beginning, we start in Linus's office
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where he's being lit by a daylight balanced Aputure 120D.
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The daylight balance is 120D, 120D, 120D, 120D, 120D, 120D, 120D.
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Daylight from the outside
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is mostly being stopped by the window shades
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and the white balance on the camera is a little warmer
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because I personally think it's a good fit
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for the friendly tone of the video.
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But then we move to Nick's office
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where the guys are being lit by much warmer overhead lights
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and the shades are open,
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so we see blue daylight behind them.
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To keep the color ideal for this shot,
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I split my white balance between the cool daylight
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and warm overheads,
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otherwise their skin would look really orange.
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But in a fast-paced shooting environment,
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you have to make these changes on the fly
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and they're not going to be perfect,
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which is okay as long as you close the gap in post-production,
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which we didn't do this time.
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We release a video every day, all right?
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Give me a break.
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All right, that's fine
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because I've done the color correction now
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and watching the before and after,
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you can see that it's a smoother experience
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since the scenes have more unity.
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And finally, number three, color grading.
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This is the process of deliberately altering the colors
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in the pursuit of artistic expression
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rather than neutrality and realism.
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But here's the thing,
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in order to do a color grading properly,
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color correction has to be done first.
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If your starting point doesn't have consistent
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and neutral colors and exposure,
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then color grading will usually only serve
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to make your videos look amateurish.
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Our camping battle station video is a good example
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of a video that is ready for color grading.
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It's nicely balanced,
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but it lacks that wow factor to take it to the next level.
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Tweaking the green and yellow tones throughout each shot,
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as well as the adjustments to the overall contrast,
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make the video pop just a little bit more.
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We did actually color grade our murder box video.
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See how those warm colors shine through?
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But in my personal opinion,
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we could have worked in a bit more color contrast
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by pushing cooler colors in the shadows
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to contrast the warm orange mid-tones.
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There we go.
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So that's it.
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Brandon's top three tips for taking your videos,
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our videos, to the next level.
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Back to you, Linus.
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Thanks, Brandon.
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Now, are we really doing the newscaster bit?
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Okay, whatever.
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Now let's take a closer look at the SW271.
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So first and foremost, it comes with a shading hood.
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This not only helps cut out glare,
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but perhaps more importantly,
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makes your monitor, and by extension you,
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look like a super badass.
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It even comes with this little door in the top
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for your spectrophotometer or your colorimeter,
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so you don't need to take the hood off
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when you need to calibrate the display,
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which you can do with the included
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Palette Master Element software that, in our case,
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made the already great out-of-the-box color accuracy
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even better thanks to hardware calibration.
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It managed Delta E values,
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under one, well under what's perceivable by the human eye.
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So thank you, 14-bit 3D lookup table.
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It also comes with this little puck control,
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right for the face, puck controller,
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which not only makes the on-screen display easier to use,
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but also lets you set shortcuts,
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like switching between sRGB, Adobe RGB,
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and advanced black and white modes,
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and it nests nicely into the stand
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in this little nook right here, keeping it nice and clean.
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The stand, by the way,
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is very sturdy, mitigating screen wobble
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while still affording a generous amount of swivel,
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elevation, tilt, and even 90-degree pivot.
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Although it should be noted that your shade
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will not function quite the way that it does
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when you have it in landscape mode.
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Incorrect.
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This gives a-
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Actually, it has more parts that you can use
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to put it in the other mode.
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Oh, really?
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Yes.
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Oh, cool.
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Nevermind, I stand corrected.
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Now, in terms of IO, we've got two HDMI 2.0s,
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one for the DisplayPort 1.4,
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as well as DisplayPort over USB type C,
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which can also deliver both data and 10 watts of power.
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Plus, there's a no-rotation required USB hub
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with an integrated SD reader
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that you can check out here on the side.
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So, a big thank you to BenQ for sponsoring this video.
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Big thank you to Brandon for providing me
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with some much-needed color correction tips.
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You guys can check out the SW271 photographers monitors,
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as well as other monitors in this lineup,
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like the SW320,
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the SW2700PT,
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and SW240,
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which is just 400 bucks,
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at the links below.
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There's one for B&H Photo and one for amazon.com,
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where the first 50 people can get 10% off
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by using our promo code.
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Then, after you buy one,
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you can get a $25 gift card just for writing a review.
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And if you have more color correction questions,
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make sure you leave a post on our forum,
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where you can chat with a giant community,
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which includes, believe it or not,
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some professionals and enthusiasts,
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as well as some trolls.
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I'm not gonna oversell it.
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So thanks for watching, guys.
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If this video sucked, you know what to do.
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But if it was awesome, get subscribed,
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hit that like button,
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or maybe check out the link to where to buy the stuff
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we featured in the video description.
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Also down there is our merch store,
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which has cool shirts like this one,
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and our community forum, which you should totally join.