Thank you! Glad it's helping!

@@CullenKelly For a pro colorist, you’ve got a lot of banding in your video.. probably time to check export settings, check the way you are exposing log on your camera, and if you aren’t shooting log, then it’s time to start... because at 1080p, the entire section of wall to your left between you and the monitor is all banding.. doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that you know how to prepare a deliverable optimized for socials..

@@CullenKelly 2:13 you’re basically saying “if the client isn’t looking at a perfectly calibrated color grading display, nothing you can do can fix their issue.” This is false. Instagram compression changes the image, KZfaq compression changes the image, someone consuming content on a tv vs an android vs a Mac vs iPhone are all going to have mild color shifts and gamma shifts. The job of the colorist is to craft a final grade that is balanced enough to look good on a range of displays. A part of your export testing should be to upload to KZfaq and watch it back on 4k, then watch at each setting down to 720p. If you’re getting any banding at any KZfaq resolution settings above 720p (1080, 2160 etc) then you know you have a problem with the grade or export settings. It doesn’t do anyone any good to have a colorist tell them “well it looks perfect on my little calibrated monitor that none of your viewers have.” Sure, grade on a calibrated monitor, but then test it on consumer devices. This is a huge part of audio mixing/mastering as well: you try the final mixes on consumer earbuds, consumer car stereo, laptop speakers etc, PLUS trying it on studio monitors.. you have to sample your product the way it will be consumed as a final step, and make revisions as needed..

@@RustyShackleford9000 Plenty of youtube videos shot on high end cameras and colored by professional colorist have banding in walls, here i believe the importance has to be more on what he is trying to convey and if this helps him in getting out a video each week sure i can compromise on the quality. Also are you uploading the images that the client is going to see on instagram, youtube? youtube compression is terrible where even if banding isnt there in the source file its there once it gets uploaded to youtube. going by your logic most colorists dont know how to grade since banding in walls is quite common on youtube. also the color shifts which happen from device to device cant be taken into account what if the device he had is slightly tinted to yellow while others with the same device have it slightly tinted to blue? also do you treat time as non existent? for him to rewatch the same clip thrice at different quality settings? his job is being a colorist, how its exported is decided by the client who specifies how he wants it to be exported. Since this is a yt video for the grade school, as his intended audience im okay with saying this is fine. You made me a lot angry frankly and made me ramble, its so f**king annoying when people like you just trash on the person who is teaching everyone his skills, making it sound like oh you should have done this dont you even know this?? just effing irritates me the most, BE UNDERSTANDING AT THE END OF THE DAY

@@Meh2021 “KZfaq compression is terrible where even if banding isn’t there in the source file it’s there once it gets uploaded to KZfaq” bro.. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ Obviously banding that isn’t there before is appearing after yt compression…. That’s the point lmao.. you have to select output color spaces, bit rates, and debayering options etc that COMPENSATE for what KZfaq does to the final product. Unless you are grading for something that will only ever be viewed offline by a client like a home movie, you need to grade and export in a way that banding doesn’t appear in 90% of circumstances. If he was in an alley at night with zero additional lighting, sure, a TINY bit of banding when playing back at 720p or below is acceptable… but this is an INDOOR prepared lighting environment that he has PREPPED for a video claiming to be a PRO colorist… and there’s banding?? Is he too lazy to just go increase the bitrate in his export settings with like 5 clicks??? On your comment about him not having time and needing to get frequent videos out… that actually works AGAINST your argument that we should just excuse lazy export settings/grading. If he is using the same set repeatedly for videos.. isn’t that MORE of an opportunity to get it right? If it’s repeatable, wouldn’t you think he would have taken the time ONCE to perfect the lighting, exposure settings on his camera, and grading/export workflow to eliminate banding and other artifacts?? Think about it.. And YES, there are TONS of people on yt who take amazing footage and then are too lazy to figure out and take the time to actually optimize the export file settings for the socials they are uploading to.. but then on the other hand, there are even more creators who DO upload optimized files without banding except in the 5% of extreme cases where it may show up for a few seconds in extreme low light. “Color shifts from device to device can’t be taken into account” LMAOO ok cool, so it’s impossible to do an export test that you view on a desktop, laptop, and phone to make sure the gamma and color shifts aren’t drastic? Got it. An absolute impossibility likened to climbing Everest lol. As for your statement thst the client defines the deliverable format, and any banding is completely out of the hands of the colorist is one of the most out of touch statements I have read on the topic of color grading recently.. sure a client will say “I want ProRes/H264/etc” but they aren’t gonna walk you thru every single check box and optional export setting field in DaVinci.. it’s up to YOU to tweak the settings WITHIN whatever deliverable format they select to get the best result.. I guarantee if everything you give clients has a ton of banding even in evenly lit indoor scenes… you ain’t getting the call back after a while.. Also, if he was saying “hey guys, I’m definitely not the top expert here, but this is how I personally like to grade” that would be one thing, but I’m not going to be “understanding at the end of the day” about someone who is claiming to be a “pro colorist” and telling people that they can benefit from copying their process. I don’t have a lot of slack for people who claim to be teaching but are transferring bad habits to people genuinely trying to learn. Especially when there are so many creators on yt doing what this guy CLAIMS to do, but actually doing it WELL.

My pleasure!

It probably is KZfaq compression

Most likely export setting. He needs to export in 10bit

@@MrKokom If you export in 10 bit, KZfaq will compress it to 8 bit anyway

@@jobpasveertech2339 10 bit high 10

@@MrKokomyeah I think Kelly don’t know that 😂 seriously?!?

Where do we see your grades?

Where do we see your grades?

I had the same question; does anyone have a reference/link?

@@LRRipley me too

He said it before. I believe it changes the middle gray of the contrast tool

Great question! I never touch the ISO setting, because I can get the same result using grading tools -- specifically the HDR Global Wheel. I prefer this approach because I can use it regardless of whether the shot I'm grading is in raw. Hope this helps!

I think the ability to sit in one room is becoming harder by the day. We can't be all living in Los Angeles, or NY have a 20K dollar monitor and the deadlines are so tight that your client might even not have the time to hit your suite and work off notes alone. Same in mixing and mastering for audio, where I come from. Color grading is in fact, to me, the equivalent of audio mastering. I never had any client in my room when mastering, and for sure they don't reference the masters on high end gear. If there were a single, standard, successful solution, monitor, etc everybody would get that. I think the direction will mostly be (some colorists will cringe but hey, their problem) You work off your calibrated monitor AND an OLED iPad at the same time (or whatever affordable, valid AND portable solution a client might afford) and reference to that. It's like switching speakers in the mixing room. It is much easier to agree on a common image this way. Scopes also help.

Calibrated iPads are used for this purpose

@@Fedor_Dokuchaev_Color Yes but colorists keep saying that they would never color grade on them in a pinch. I think that is a wrong approach to the whole matter. I have read people say 'The iPad so closely matches my Sony reference grade monitor, but nah...I will never color on those'. Time will tell.

@@andycrystal I would not color grade on Ipad either, it is too small. But it is good enough as client viewing device.

@@Fedor_Dokuchaev_Color I'd argue size is an issue.

Nothing in real life is true black tough.

@@andycrystal space? that is kind of the point of OLED's being able to show actual black...there is plenty of stuff that should be black on screen, not gray.

or an even better example, watch the scene in "The Batman" in the subway, where Batman comes out of the dark tunnel. None of the people are supposed to be able to see any details, that heightens their fear because they can't see what is coming. There is, by definition, no detail down that tunnel. It looks a lot better in OLED than when it shows up as gray on an LCD tv.

The ideal of true black has always dominated certain visual theory. I personally am against colorists who preached that if you don't "crush" the black, your image won't look good. People like these are often from Western markets, where lost of details in shadows are encouraged. In the Asian market, details in shadow are often retained.

This is a great question! Where the darkest part of your image sits, whether that's 0 or somewhere slightly above, should be a creative choice. The desired shape of the toe can be very subjective, as well as project dependent. The collaboration between you and your client will ultimately dictate the shape of the bottom end. Hope that helps!

This is a great question, and also a tough one to answer. Sometimes you can only do so much. I would try to find out what type of display they're using to view the material. Their answer may indicate why they feel one way or another about the images. Suggest an alternative, such as an LG OLED or perhaps an iPad Pro, and see if that doesn't help their viewing experience.

@@CullenKelly thank you. i appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Hey Cullen, thanks for this. Do you also know if you can send vision out to an iPhone to check colours? I’ve worked as a sound engineer earlier in my career everyone from Usher to Jet and we’d often check out final product on studio speaker, then the car, and on set of $5 computer speakers. Now that I’m in film I’m trying to disperse color graded over a couple of screens, including gamma shifts once uploaded to YT, IG and FB. Any help on sending picture to iPhones would be great. I don’t like resolves remote app… it’s literally and ironically… crushes the blacks lol

Doesn’t every professional introduce themselves when giving a presentation ?

@@AlexDerrick_DPno

Nah man, it's all about letting those color grades pull themselves up by the bootstraps

Time is money and this is a help video. I wouldn’t spend too much time on the color if it’s just a quick tutorial video either. Plus, lighting in that room is very simple. There’s not much to work with anyhow.

@@daemonjofficial still, advice that you give is wrong and could ruin somebody’s career

What specifically is problematic about his color management video?

You might just have a different taste in the type of images you like, which is perfectly fine. Doesn’t mean that this is “badly graded.” It looks fine to me on a calibrated display, as good as KZfaq will allow anyway.

I think it's because there are so many of us that just play one on the Internet. When it involves software - you can be an expert on the software but not understand the ins and outs of actual production and grading for clients. An oil paint and accessories sales person can know everything there is about paint, brushes and canvases, but not really know how to paint a picture.