Voodoo

[seaseadee]

Folks,
I have decided that color correcting footage from my GoPro is nothing short of Voodoo (or Black Magic, Witchcraft,
Wizardry whatever you want to call it). To that end, I am asking the Shamans, Charlatans, Witch Doctors out there to help me understand the basic principles of said Voodoo. I have also noticed that general questions like this tend to go down in a morass of vague answers. To help prevent this I have two GoPro videos I shot this past weekend in Boynton Beach. They can be downloaded here:


Camera Setup:

1. GoPro Hero 3 Silver.
2. This light and tray bundle.
3. Backscatter 3.1 Flip
4. Protune ON
5. White Balance Auto (I think this should have been CAMRAW, but someone needs to tell me why).

Software:
I am using color director 3 for the color correction. I don't really need instructions on how to correct these videos in Color Director, I am much more interested in the principles behind the color correction.

Videos:
One is with the Backscatter shallow filter and the other without the filter. The dive was done at a depth of 50'-60'. I decided to use the shallow filter because I noticed that my videos were VERY red with the deep filter. These clips were not the actual files off the gopro, I used Avidemux to trim them down. I compared the original and resulting clips and I could not see any differences. Even the I-Frames were in the same spots.

I would be willing to pay in Eyes of Newt or Gizzard of Frog, if it helps.

 

[TheTrickster]

Howdy Seaseadee,

If I'm understanding your correctly you just want to understand 'what to correct' not 'how to..' Given then you know how to use Color Director.

The GoPro AWB when you first hit record, so if you can have something white ish when starting this may help a little. I really wouldn't recommend Protune or the CAMRAW. As it ends up giving you a lot more work to do in post. Basically Protune, turns off all in camera sharpening, noise reduction etc, as it thinks you will do all this in post, yes you get access to higher bitrates, but you do have to work for it

What's actually wrong with the filtered one? At 60' you have lost much of the red channel, but to be honest, with some slight contrast adjustments there is nothing wrong with it!

 

[seaseadee]

Howdy Seaseadee,

If I'm understanding your correctly you just want to understand 'what to correct' not 'how to..' Given then you know how to use Color Director.

Yes and no. I can see all the different knobs in Color Director, but I don't know which ones to twiddle and what effect it would have. I thought if someone said "OK, go to the red curve and increase the mid tones, lower the shadows and increase the blue highlights it will improve the video", then I have somewhere to start. (I realise that correcting these videos will be waaaay more involved than that).

The GoPro AWB when you first hit record, so if you can have something white ish when starting this may help a little. I really wouldn't recommend Protune or the CAMRAW. As it ends up giving you a lot more work to do in post. Basically Protune, turns off all in camera sharpening, noise reduction etc, as it thinks you will do all this in post, yes you get access to higher bitrates, but you do have to work for it

A white or gray balance card is on my list of things to get. I have no problem with the extra work if I will get better results.

What's actually wrong with the filtered one? At 60' you have lost much of the red channel, but to be honest, with some slight contrast adjustments there is nothing wrong with it!

That's just it. I know there is very little that needs to be done to this video, I am just unsure of what that is. Do I just increase the contrast knob and stop there? Or are there other things I can do to make the video look more natural?

 

[toozler]

It seems murky white - was that due to low visibility, the filter or the editing?

 

[seaseadee]

No editing was done to either video. Both files were the raw mp4's from the gopro. The milky white may be due to the viz. or it may be backscatter from the lights.

 

[peterbucknell]

Hey,
The murky white results are interesting. It's hard to diagnose from a distance, but it looks like the GoPro is pushing the ISO up to 6400.
Have a look in your settings for ISO limit, and make sure it is set to 1600.
Also keep going down the menu to exposure compensation (It's a +/- icon), should be set to 0 or less.
Hope I have helped in some way...
I wrote a book about it, so you should find your answer in there (see below in my signature).
(If you are a non-mac user, shoot me an email at poita@me.com )

Pete

 

[seaseadee]

Thanks for the info. I will certainly look at those settings. Where can I get a copy of your book? It sounds like a really good resource.