Colour, RED, & Piranha

With my recent development on the REDCODE plugin for Piranha, I’ve started playing with Colour in Piranha, and grading some of my footage. In the past, grading has always been one of those things I did as a one-light to fix white balance, or exposure. With MiniDV and HDV footage, there isn’t much you can do before the image starts to break down, unless you are a real pro like Stu Maschwitz. But, with 12 bits of color, and some proper tools, I’ve found a new appreciation for the art form. As I’ve dabbled, I’m finding the possibilities of color correction, and the value it lends to creating a films look. I should clarify, I’ve always understood the value color grading lends to a film, but I don’t think I’ve fully appreciated it.

Here are a couple of single frames from R3D files that I’ve colored using Pirahna’s Colour suite. These usually include messing with the image curves, gamma, saturation, color correcting the various low, high, and mid-tones, and selective roto-scoping, with multiple passes on each. I might have added some film grain to one or two of these. The rest had the natural “grain” from the raw footage.

~ by kylemallory on February 16, 2009.