I finally learned how to color grade MLV Raw videos! (video stills)

[has_abandonment_issu]

I spent the last two weeks going over old footage with the intention to finally learn how color grading works, instead of just turning dials at random until something looks okay.

Shot in really dark conditions with a 5D MKIII and a Canon 50mm f1.8 STM. Most shots around ISO 1600 at 1920x960 48 or 60fps (did not know how to use the settings at the time really). Because it was a paid gig, I had the foresight to bring two very strong high CRI Zebralight led flashlights with diffusers in both warm and cool color temperatures. It made shooting possible in the conditions.

Converted to Alexa log via MLVAPP , exported as Prores 422HQ and then put into Resolve for curves adjustment. Denoised with Neatvideo. Did not use any presets, which I'm very proud of. I mostly relied on the curves adjustment tool.

I still don't really know how to stitch footage together in a cohesive way so that's the next thing I'm going to be working on.

Here is the before and after -

Log:



Graded:




Log:



Graded:



Log:



Graded:

[SoFloCineFile]

Converted to Alexa log via MLVAPP , exported as Prores 422HQ and then put into Resolve for curves adjustment. Denoised with Neatvideo.

Great looking shots Did you use the paid version of Neatvideo? I'm considering to get that plugin myself and am really glad to see that its denoising algorithm doesn't lower the clarity too much. Did you also add some sharpness after denoising or no?

[has_abandonment_issu]

Thank you!

Neat video seems to work very well. I am using the paid version. It’s much more capable than the various tools in resolve or MLVAPP in my testing. I didn’t add any extra sharpening. "Sharpness" in your footage is going to tend to go down in the shooting conditions that would require noise reduction, so that's something to think about, but Neat Video derives its denoising calculations from noise samples that you take from the footage, so it does a very good job of preserving detail.

I’m not sure if there’s a freeware equivalent, but I don’t think I would try to deliver serious work shot in low light without something like it.

[LoO93]

Cut the blue in your shadows!!
Looks very amateurish and I would highly recommend starting with some LUTs instead of getting everything done by curves, especially if you're new to grading.

If you take some time, u can find a lot of really good workflow breakdowns in some of the posts in this forum...

[has_abandonment_issu]

Cut the blue in your shadows!!
Looks very amateurish and I would highly recommend starting with some LUTs instead of getting everything done by curves, especially if you're new to grading.

If you take some time, u can find a lot of really good workflow breakdowns in some of the posts in this forum...

Thank you for the feedback!

I graded all the images neutrally before I applied the "creative" look. I thought I did okay:



(blacks are crushed in that still so "mostly neutral") And then I added a blue overcast to the shadows and mids! It just seemed more fun. I am really happy that I actually know what you're talking about though. At first it was really confusing.

I have been reading everything I can in the forums and I actually was going to post a question, maybe you can help!

In resolve, when do you apply a technical lut? I know you're "supposed" to apply it at the start of your grade so you're working in a different color space, but in practice resolve's tools seem to work really well with log files and I have been able to make adjustments seemingly more easily with a lut at the end of my workflow. How do you do it and why?

Online there is supposedly some heavy discussion about this and a certain answer was confusing to settle on.