The Secret Trick to White Balancing WITHOUT White
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- What to do when there's no white in a scene for color correction?
www.colorgradi...
If you've ever had a tight shot that seemingly had a white balancing issue and yet nothing in the scene could be construed as white to use a reference, you're not the first and you're not alone.
I remember as a startup colorist feeling so puzzled about, "How in the world am I going to white balance this shot with no white in it and how will I ever even know if it has been white balanced accurately?"
Well if you're anything like me I like to stew over problems and listen to the marbles roll around in my head until I come up with a solution.
And the solution to fixing a white balance issue even when there is no white in shot is to stick with what you do know.
Filmmakers and photographers can rejoice because there's finally way to fix your shots even without white.
Here's how... The main focus of any shoot is the talent, and they have skin and that skin can be used as a reference in place of white because when balanced properly it will line up on the "flesh line" of the Vectorscope!
I hope this trick resonates with you and what you can do in your color grading.
If you like this trick and would like to see even more and even discover our Color Grading Academy I invite you to step up your grade for joining me for my free 1 hour online color grading workshop:
www.colorgradi...
And if you just need something simple where you can just literally click a button and BAM! "done for you" then check out Cinema Grade:
Cinema Grade for the Mac and NOW Windows:
www.cinemagrad...
Denver Riddle
CGC Founder & Colorist
www.colorgradi...
Facebook page: / color-grading-central-...
twitter: / colorgrading
FB group (60K+ members): / colorgradingcentral
#whitebalance
Ugh! The puzzling problem of trying to fix a shot without white is SOLVED finally!!!
Thanks for the great color grading tips you continually bring. I have Cinema Grade and the Color Grading Academy membership. Also your testimony of how you got started has definitely given me encouragement during this season in life 🙂. Keep up the great work!
@@GlenReed thanks a lot Glen, that truly means a lot and if there is anything that I have been able to do to help you I consider myself honored!
Hi Denver, a few years ago I bought color finale, it was great, the problem was when FCPX updated color finale was no longer supported, I have recently bought davinci resolve so have both, are there any guarantees that if I buy cinema grade the same thing wont happen the next time Davinci or FCPX has an update? is there not a standalone version of cinema grade?
I love when they provide very accurate information without going around and around when it relates to the digital age, photography, design.
Great tip. Awesome for those tricky situations. Beautiful work as always dude!
Thanks Casey and congrats to passing 100K, you'll have to send me a pic of you with your UA-cam play button 🙌🏽
This is some of the best color grading tutorials on the internet (even though i cringe a bit every time you say something like, huorhuorhuoorrr) Keep it up!:)
LOL I'm glad the technical value is at least there if not for some entertainment 😜
I've wondered for quite some time now. Since balancing skintone to the orange skin line is so powerful. Why have I yet to see a "skin balance-eye-drop" tool like the white balance that is in all color correction suites?
I've tried to look this up over the last year or so. Why isn't this a thing??
@Color Grading Central
Please please next one should be 'Book of Eli' look recreation.
Great tips
No, not the skintones again.... what if we don't have skintones? My empirical trick is move the temperature back and forth and find the sweetspot where most of colours appear saturated and concurrently (warm+cool). Then do the same with tint. You can be a tad more precise when consulting vectorscopes (if you can read them) with the same in mind: Highest saturation (and separation) in both warm and cool colours, at the same time.
Please, make a video explaining how to color grade for 4k videos for youtube. Chrome and firefox changes the colors of 4k videos so it's very difficult to color grade. Thanks !
Dumb question: does this also apply to non-caucasian skin tones? Or what adjustments would you need to make in those instances? Thanks!!!
For darker skin tones, the trace in the vectorscope will sit on and a little to the right of the I bar, as opposed to being directly on it with caucasian skin tones
@@colorgradingcentral Awesome, thank you Denver!
That's absolutely fantastic! I started to practice this process, and it hit me that I should practice on images WITH white, so I could "check myself" after doing your trick. Practicing that way, I was able to get the feel for where my skin tones should be on the skin-tone line when I have to white balance with NO WHITE. It's making my white balancing chops better with your trick!!!! You're amazing!
Tommy that's a good idea to cross examine the two different methods and after all the skin tones are the most important subject so I'm glad that armed with these two methods you're going to optimal results 🙌🏽
Imagine you have a person with color vision deficiency and you have to teach him in a way that yields good results.
This video works in that way as it uses technical means where you don’t have to rely on your perfect vision.
I wish there where more of that kind as I’m deficient , too. Not color blind but Protanopia, red green problems.
I'm reading this comment with my colour blindness glasses on, and my premiere window open on the other half of my monitor hahaha.
@@DeanLamb your secret is safe with me :-)
“Noice” Denver, thanks again for sharing your wizardry!
Luv your reference our (Aussie) Sharon Strezelecki, noice!
Haha you're welcome dm NOICE!
LOVED YOUR TRICK BUNDLE OF THANKS . LOVE FROM PAKISTAN
This is becoming my fav channel
Hello sir
thanx for color grading plugin I install it but it's not working In adobe premiere pro
I am done grading in your plugin but when I apply it in the timeline the clip become black
Interesting!. I've got a question. Why did you not apply Temp and Tint in FCPX as you also used it in PP?. Thanks you and stay safe
You could do that as well, but you'll get more control with the curves
Is there a way to do this with brown skin? Is there a “fleshline” for black and brown people?
Tracy Collins It works with the same line for black and brown skin colors as well!
It's going to be the same, but darker skinned people's skin tones tend to sit a little further to the right of the fleshline/I-Bar than caucasian skin tones.
Ok but what does it mean your skin tones are just a blob on the vectorscope? Do you move the blob on the line?? There's no defined line showing up when i isolate skin tones.
Hey Adrian! The trace in the vectorscope represents the colors in your image. It's like a color wheel. You need to color correct the image until the trace coincides with the skin tone line. If the skin tone line does not show in your vectorscope, enable it in the vectorscope settings. If you want to deep dive a little more into how to read and use the scopes, sign up for my free color grading webinar here: www.colorgradingcentral.com/
Maybe a little off topic question: is there a simple way to do this trick on still images as well?
I know I'm one year late but to the future readers:
Import the image in DaVinci Resolve and put it in the timeline, it will be treated as a still video and you can color correct it in DaVinci.
DaVinci doesn't support raw images (as per my experience with Resolve 17).
I use lightroom to correct exposure, tint and temp in raw images then I export it as jpeg/png then color correct it in DaVinci.
@@angelosennido2903 Thanks!
This is absolutely brilliant tutorial on colour grading. Greatly appreciated your efforts and I learnt more especially on what to do if there is no white in a scene for color correction. New information to me and thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much Meena!!
Wow. I wish Lightroom had a skin tone scope like that.
Wow my big problems of trying to fix jast 1s so i love this video thanks
great tutorial but just thinking on the other hand what if its a blackman video isnt there any difference on skin tones settings ?If so then what should the black person line in in a vectorscope.thanks
Thank you! Yes darker skin tones tend to be on the I bar, but slightly further to the right than caucasian skin tones.
Great video. I discovered this myself a while back but you have confirmed that this correction is easiest to solve in Premiere Pro.
I wouldn't say that's necessarily the case. He showed three different techniques in three different NLEs, but you should be able to use the technique shown in Premiere in both Resolve and FCP.
Damn, i'm fckn love your content bro! Keep it up!!!
Thanks so much!!
This video has been awesome! I have had this question forever and now it is answered, thank you! Do you have any tips for white balancing when there are no skin tones in the image as well as no whites?
Let's say that I've gotten the skin tones and white balance perfectly. Great; color correction is done.
But what happens then when I get to the color grading part of the color edition. Won't that effect the vector scope, flesh line, and so on in an incorrect way? Or maybe that's not an issue, since it's grading and not correction?
Sorry if this question is dumb. I'm new to this.
Great video, by the way! Earned a new subscriber for sure!
@@jonasgren1107 Thanks for the sub! It its possible that your look will "mess up" your skin tones. In that case you can go back before the application of the look and tweak to fix them. It's a common issue that you need to be aware of when creating a look.
Wow great tutorial .. thank you for sharing this trick 😊😊
You're welcome! Happy to help!
Amazing trick! I always have issues with color corrections. So thank you again for your secrets
You're welcome! Happy to help!
this channel is the best color grading Online school
I never wasted my money to learn online on Color Grading Central
I think this is a Very interesting and smart Secret Trick to White Balancing WITHOUT White ... !really thank you for this useful vid.
Very good information about colour correction and this video is very helpful for me thanks for sharing this amazing video.
When you are using temperature and tint slider, how do you decide how much to use which one pls? You could keep on getting closer to flesh line by pulling more temperature but you switched to tint at certain point. Thanks
Tint is going to correct along the green to magenta spectrum. For some images this will need to be adjusted so you don't end up with overly magenta skin tones.
Color Grading Central thanks for the response. I like the fact that you mask the entire face of the talent, not a small part of it, cuz the light varies across the face. Cheers
Lovin' that hon hon hon at 2:19 😂
LOL that was a risk, but I went with it 😂
@@colorgradingcentral It was a nice silly/fun moment 🙏
This information will be very useful to me, I did not know about this, I was actually oblivious to this topic, but this will advance my photography career very well, each video you upload is very useful, thanks brother
You're welcome! Happy to help!
Very nice! Thanks!
Great tutorial. But what if there is also no skin in the shot? Then it's just guessing, right? :) And I think your skin tones are slightly too green, but this is just my opinion.
This is genius. How would you line up the colors for really dark skin tones?
Same technique but darker skin tones tend to sit on and a little to the right of the I bar while caucasian skin tones are directly on the line.
@@colorgradingcentral thank you. How would you expose for those dark skin tones using Zebras? For Caucasian I set it to 70% Zebra. Would I need to go higher than 70% or lower for really dark skin tones?
Thank you for sharing about white balancing without white. Your ideas working well
Awesome presentation like always.. can you make a tutorial on color grading an 8-bit, 4.2.0 with neutral profile. 😃
How do you do it without something white and without skin tones?
We have been struggling with wildlife to get the perfect white balance
Mind blown!! Awesome stuff dude
Thanks so much Eric!!
you r great...thank u
fantastic thank you
This is a game changer for me - thank you
You're welcome! Happy to help!
I wish I saw this few months earlier. very nice tip which I learned about a month ago. Here is a question? what if we don't have neither a white plane nor skin tone in the footage?
That is the beauty of audiovisual production, I have always wanted to be a film producer, what a great way to play with the tones, everything was perfect
@2.04 how could you do this with an adjustment layer, its a little hard to see it in the scopes as you see the clip below the adjustment layers skin tone as well in the graph? Could you maybe white balance first on the clip itself and then throw an adjustment layer and apply lumetri color grading on that ?
Hello guys, I'm curious if this trick will work on tan to dark color skin?
You never know how precious this trick for me as a newbie on video editing. God bless you, bro......pls keep good video.....you are the man (from Indonesia)
Thanks so much!
Thank you for the brilliant video!
My pleasure!
I found this really helpful
Thrilled to hear that Jaymes!
This video just saved my ass! Thanks!
Happy to hear it Jeremy!!
THxx how do u color the skin without affecting the overall background.?
Thanks for the video! I love the color in your video too. Looks great without looking preset
Your tutorials are always great and I learn so much from you. I just wish you would build a Windows version of your software. Any chance this will happen?
Cinema Grade is coming to Windows! Sign up for the Kickstarter and get 40% off at launch coming.colorgradingcentral.com/kickstarter
Get it on Kickstarter now and save up to 40% OFF retail with early bird pricing HERE: bit.ly/3nzqt7t
Quick update! Cinema Grade will be releasing this month on Windows! Here is where you can get early access and a discount: coming.cinemagrade.com/opt-in-for-cinema-grade-win/
This is a very valuable tip!!! Thanks so much. I needed it big time.
the color models are the best I have seen and even more with that
design is perfect that's what I call good pictures and good design
technology at an advanced level. good video
tq for this tutorial bro....btw, day 4 night color grading tutorial plizzzz 😅🙏
Thanks for the suggestion!
That third shot with the hands was lit by indirect sunlight. How much blue should be reintroduced in the highlights to account for naturally blue light coming from the diffused sky light in regards to what it would look like on the vectorscope?
Thanks man. But what if all my clips are without people :)
Noooice
I have a problem and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I use Davinci resolve and after changing the color wheels it only works on the selected area, not the whole shot
So boring .... In 2024, you should be able to - place a pointer on skin - select what "race" skin it is - and it should automatically give you optimal WB for the shot. No more monkeying around with Color Wheels, etc. Two seconds, problem solved.... Duh
That’s a great suggestion and I agree.
What if you don't have white OR skintones like a nature shot?
Very good video
Excellent. Another tool in my toolbox. Thanks!
Got that mask at 1:52, but rest of the screen is not black (outside mask) :/ How to do this?
Shoot Canon not Sony. White balance problem solved.
Nooice
Very interesting to see how you used 3 different programs to achieve a good white balance! Subscribed!
Thanks for the sub and the kind words!!
Thank you for this very useful tip 🙏🏼
This is awesome! I'm having some trouble though... same scene, but different shots. Subject is in a dark room lit by tungsten lamp, but in some shots, is using a laptop or phone and in others is reading. I follow your guidelines but the scene does not match across the board. Any tips?
That gets into shot matching which is a complex topic. I'd recommend signing up for our free webinar where we go more in depth with color grading techniques: www.colorgradingcentral.com/how-to-color-grade-like-a-hollywood-colorist
The way u presented the video is really amazing, I had so much fun! Thanks for sharing
You're welcome Ramiz! Glad you got a lot out of it!
NOICE!
nice
ssssecret tool.... sssssscinema grade..... sssstunning
Noice!! 😂😘
thank u so much for These videos
NOIIICE! haha! You're a LEGEND dude!!! Thanks a million!
You're welcome Cameron!!
I'm from China. I'm glad to see such a wonderful teaching video. Thank you.
Thank you! 😃
Thats a fire shirt :)
Thank you!!
Exelente!!saludos desde Argentina
I just use the crop tool. So much faster than the draw mask.
Damn dude. Great video, straight to the point and concise
Thanks so much!!
Thanks a lot brother.
You're welcome! Happy to help!
sorry don't know if i missed something...how do i add a flesh line?? thanks in advance!
ive found it!
the best wb tutorial ever
Thanks so much!!
Nice!
nice
Glad to know I've been using the secret trick without knowing it was a secret haha! Great job!
Thanks Erik!!
Absolutely great and useful tutorial, but... as always 🔥
Thanks so much!!
what if there is no white and skin in the scene, how to white balance it?
Thanks, Denver! How does this work when the skin tones don't belong to lighter toned caucasian people?
It's basically the same technique except darker skin tones tend to sit a little further to the right of the I bar than Caucasian skin tones.
@@colorgradingcentral Thanks so much, this is very helpful!
this just blew my mind. it answered my problem with getting the correct TINT from my bmpcc6k since it always looks a bit green
and i had already learned how to use the scopes too and i still felt unsure
Chvurches such a great band!
Dude....so good! 😁👍
Thanks so much!
Yes, but what if you have no skin tones, either?
Excellent color correction video it was just fun to enjoy this six minute video thanks for sharing
You're welcome, thanks for the comment jean!