Hollywood Colorist Walter (CSI) about his color grading process

8 minutes ago, Adam Fiori said:

Much love @Walter Volpatto, such sage advice! After the primary node, did I understand correctly that you skip right to the scene node, adjust for the ‘look,’ and then go back to work on the L-C-R and other nodes?

One of the things you stated once remains with me...adjust contrast in B&W and see where you land. 

 

Roughly speaking, yes, just basic balance on the shot, then scene look, replicate the look to the scene then matching the shot to the hero one

12 minutes ago, Adam Fiori said:

Much love @Walter Volpatto, such sage advice! After the primary node, did I understand correctly that you skip right to the scene node, adjust for the ‘look,’ and then go back to work on the L-C-R and other nodes?

One of the things you stated once remains with me...adjust contrast in B&W and see where you land. 

 

BTW after a while I got used to do the contrast as is, I dont turn into BW anymore... I think is practice....

4 hours ago, Victor Riley said:

Dear Walter, thank you so much for this insight! It's incredibly valuable information you're providing here. I love your idea about discipline and creativity inside a constrained workflow. With open-ended tools like Resolve, it's easy to forget basics and lose oneself in dozens of correctors after correctors after correctors.

A few questions that came to mind watching your course and playing around with the node tree:

- How do you go about (if even) node caching? Depending on the footage and grading system, playback after heavy noise reduction in particular benefits from a cached node, which is why one might want to put that as the first operation on the tree.

- You've talked a bit about color management in the comments. Could you elaborate more on that? For example, how would you work when there's an ACES-workflow demanded? Or you have to work with HDR and SDR deliverables?

- Did you have the chance to play around with Resolve 17? Any new tools that piqued your interest? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the color warp tool, and I fear that the new HDR palette might be a bit overhyped for what it can really to to improve an image, but maybe you found something you really liked?

- Resolve 17: regarding the node re-numbering "feature" all of us hate that can't be turned off and f*cks with rippling – how are you gonna deal with that?

I have lots of space and I turn on [smart caching]... usually it works...

The basic idea works in HDR/SDR/and ACES.... there will be appropriate transforms either at group level, timeline level or ODTs.

i just played with V17, the color warp interest me, I played with teh Nobe plugin and I can do things that are difficult in a normal situation, but it is more for either repair a shot or create a look...

the reordering of node in V17 is highly aggravating.....

11 hours ago, Walter Volpatto said:

The basic idea is that the main tonal mapping is done at the LOOk level: LUTs, curves, look whatever you wan it to be

at the node level, you are in the LOG of the camera and printer light simulate close enough exposure and white balance as if it is done in the camera. Therefore I use almost exclusively Printerlights/offset. Luma mix at 0. Gain if i need more contrast.

Why do you set the luma mix at 0? It doesn't seem to affect offset settings, only lgg

11 hours ago, Walter Volpatto said:

The basic idea works in HDR/SDR/and ACES.... there will be appropriate transforms either at group level, timeline level or ODTs.

Thank you so much for your answers! I assume you're working  in Arri Log C whenever you can, and manage the transforms/IDTs/ODTs at a node-level – but an ACES-workflow would demand having the grading space in ACEScc/ACEScct. How do you approach this? DaVincis controls in ACES often work...unexpectedly bad.

I like the math with luma mix at 0, especially when I need to use LGG controls (rarely)

Funny enough,  in ACEScc/cct the logarithmic is such that a offset is really mathematically equivalent to a exposure change. 

42 minutes ago, Walter Volpatto said:

I like the math with luma mix at 0, especially when I need to use LGG controls (rarely)

 

Funny enough,  in ACEScc/cct the logarithmic is such that a offset is really mathematically equivalent to a exposure change. 

I really like the  offset-focused approach for its simplicity and easy transfer using different grading spaces, and I'll be surely playing around with your node tree for a while.

I'd love to see a full master class with you – I think all of us here could learn a lot watching you grade. 

On 1/12/2021 at 2:54 AM, Walter Volpatto said:

When I do the balance of the shot, I look at the subject: usually teh subject is a person, hence skin tone. 

i want the subject to be right after exposure/balance. i dont give a rat about the background shadow not being perfectly black. If I have to change the background shadow, that will be a secondary correction.

so: balance for the skin/subject
secondary on the “secondary” parts of the image.

Thanks a lot for answering! You're a legend!

Hello Walter and thanks a million for your insights!

I'd love to know your approach for using a Film Emulation Lut such as the Kodak 2383 provided in Resolve.

Do you use those LUTS at full opacity and do you do a Color Space Transform to Cineon Log for instance in order to match the Gamma the Lut is designed for? Overall how do you work with such LUTS?

Many thanks!

20 minutes ago, Douglas Dutton said:

Hello Walter and thanks a million for your insights!

I'd love to know your approach for using a Film Emulation Lut such as the Kodak 2383 provided in Resolve.

Do you use those LUTS at full opacity and do you do a Color Space Transform to Cineon Log for instance in order to match the Gamma the Lut is designed for? Overall how do you work with such LUTS?

Many thanks!

I do use them at full opacity, they are designed to work in that way, but you need to transform the color space LOG you have in cineon log/709 primaries (that is what the lut is expected for my understanding)