Advice on getting these clips looking "better"

Hi,

I have some footage shot with MagicLatern.

I would really appricate some advice on getting them to look the same and to improve the look.
Each of them has had WB set, or rather BB, some basic attempt at correction and the Face Open FX thing applied as I have bigger bags than someone with, erm, large bags?
Oh, the view was set at 200% to get them nice and large, also allowing to see artefacts in the eyes.

I almost like the look of the first one:

Main Image

Main.jpg (618.87 KiB) Viewed 1451 times

Here is a sub shot that I am trying to get to look the same, failing quite well:

Sub Shot

CloseUp.jpg (683.27 KiB) Viewed 1451 times

And here is a clip from an iPhone, that I cannot get to look anything like one would expect, considering proper films are supposed to have been shot with it:

iPhone Clip

iPhone.jpg (934.65 KiB) Viewed 1451 times

Many thanks for any tips or advice,
Simon.
(who cannot look at himself in a mirror, but has spent hours editing himself:) )

There are many excellent tutorials on basic color correction out there on the web. Three I'd recommend are:

There are three very good paid Resolve tutorials out there:

Alexis Van Hurkman's Resolve Tutorials:
http://www.rippletraining.com/categorie ... i-resolve/

Patrick Inhofer's Mixing Light Resolve Tutorial:
https://mixinglight.com/

Warren Eagles' FXPHD Resolve Tutorials:
https://www.fxphd.com/resolve15/

I like all three for different reasons: Alexis' is very thorough and technical; Warren is very down-to-earth and provides practical examples; and Patrick goes into the basics and touches on non-obvious extras. Each does a very good job. I have not been as impressed by the other tutorials on the web, frequently done by people with dubious credentials.

Thanks for those links.
I have worked my way through the Master List that has its own thread, or still am.

I have read about the Basics and things, which is what I used to get the clips looking like they did.
It was taking them to the next level I needed some help with.

Guess I will go back to that list and try watching them again.

Cheers,
Simon.

what "proper films" are being shot on an iphone?

what "proper films" are being shot on an iphone?

I guess it depends on your definition of "proper"

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/03/movie ... 201941565/

Seems like a really constraining way to make a movie.

It really would take a book to explain how to make marginal shots look good, or how to make good shots look great. It's a question that's kind of like "how do I build a boat?"

You can use writer Malcolm Gladwell's theory that it takes 10,000 hours of study and practice to be good at something. I think it applies to color correction: you're not going to make great pictures the first week or even the first month, but you can learn over time. The tutorials will help to a point, but even there, it's kind of like learning how to ride a bicycle from YouTube: it helps to actually do the work and develop a knack for it.

Marc, when are you going to start posting tutorials?

This thread looks like: we might end up with a link to the sources and get it done...

Though DVR is freely available doesn't necessarily mean one who can download it can master it.
Just saying.
No offence.

However: I always felt BMD's DVR-Forum is about technicalities (of the software / hardware) - not techniques. For techniques, there are plenty forums around.

Alas, that's just me, no Gamma down here.

Marc, when are you going to start posting tutorials?

Too busy working for a living! I think I'm booked on 3 features between now and January. If I ever retire (ha!), I've considered teaching.

I was referring to the Sundance movie Tangerine, which was shot on an iPhone 5s.

I understand it takes years to master a new thing, being a Polymath.
I guess I had made a mistake in thinking that it would be possible to say, well, it looks like you could trying playing around with x,y and z to see if that makes an improvement.

I am not even trying to say I can master it, just because I can download it, have owned a BMCC and have edited for years and read loads about DvR and techniques. After all, as someone who can drive, I still marvel at what passes for other peoples driving skill.

Thank you all for your time.
Simon.

Because the lighting is so different, you're never going to get the iPhone shot to match the others. You can come closer, but it's not simple or easy.

My bad, I appreciate the lighting, among other things, mean I will never get the iPhone to match.
What I am trying to do is get, what I can only best describe, as the iPhone to get the same sort of colour depth that the Canon has.

I am guessing that the main thing you did to the image was to darken the surroundings around the face, more than the face itself.

thanks for your help,
Simon.

What I am trying to do is get, what I can only best describe, as the iPhone to get the same sort of colour depth that the Canon has.

There's not a lot of latitude for correction in such low quality footage. I would focus on working with more reasonable quality clips, and just getting them to match. For example, the skin tone in your first still is sort of tobacco brown, where the second is more red/purple, meaning there is much more blue in the mix. Artifacts in the eyes are probably from oversharpening.

I am guessing that the main thing you did to the image was to darken the surroundings around the face, more than the face itself.

That's not at all what I did, but getting the blue out of the hair and darkening the overall image so that it might "cut" with the others did have that effect. The other shots have a bright sky background and the phone image has dark foliage for the background. This shot is really not matchable.

Thank you!
That is exactly the sort of info I had hoped to get; something almost too obvious for others to wonder how I could miss it

Regards,
Simon

Try what works once out of 10 bets : select the iPhone clip > right click the first clip and choose "shot match this clip".
If you are very lucky, large steps - which would be very long to write down here anyway - are made yet and just a few nodes after can be enough. Including contrast, curves and denoise at least...

Cool, again, thank you for giving me a starting point to go from; being autistic this can be a problem for me at times.

I did shoot the clip with the app Filmic, set to 2k and Extreme bit rate / however bad it is I do need to try and use it to show the juxtaposition.

Having just found that I should turn off the use Use Mac Display Profiles option in settings I'm seeing all the clips change, and so dealing with that.

Also, it appears that even .1 for sharpening the eyes causes artefacts. However, I'm in love with that Bag Removal option!

Sam,
Wow, using that Shot Match Option was amazing. Got such a better match, quick play with the RAW settings and now I have an image that is presentable - which it was far from before.

I have even read the whole manual, remember about that section - yet when an opportunity to use strikes, forget all about it.

Cheers for that!
S.