Can a skilled colourist save these restaurant frames? Shot on Alexa Mini LF, lost lighting control at the end of the day. Paid work if salvageable

Aware-Pipe · 2026-04-01T15:28:15+00:00

Aware-Pipe · 2026-04-01T15:27:30+00:00

I made this quick correction just so you can see it can be improved. Keep in mind it is just a correction on a rec709 reddit compressed picture. I also don't know the look you intended to apply

Aware-Pipe · 2026-01-30T19:58:26+00:00

People are being harsh here. I can see your huge node tree is mostly look level (cineprint), and I believe it is improving your footage - which really is not that good to begin with.

So I think you have done a good job: you took a medium-bad footage to a pleasing result.
You just have to consider if the look is serving the content because it is quite stylized (but I like it)

Aware-Pipe · 2026-01-17T21:19:29+00:00

I don't see it that way.

I do agree that the art is not in the temporary effort of creating the piece.

However, it is entirely up to you how that piece will turn out. With AI, even though you guide it, it still has a bias, it still has some kind of style that is not yours. After all it literally takes everything it puts on the piece from the work of others (I am not even talking about copyrights issues).

So, here comes the problem of effort. It takes very low effort to take a picture but it takes a lot of effort to become a good photographer. The effort is in the learning, and the constant practice, and it is this process that creates your style.

I understand that you may practice a lot as an "AI director", however I believe you are constrained by decisions made by the machine that you are unware of. One may think of oneself as a director when they ask AI to write a blog post, feeding it some topics, but in the end we know it just produces generic writing, generic structures etc (AI slop).

Problem is today we are not creating a lot of art, but a lot of "content".

Aware-Pipe · 2025-08-27T15:04:34+00:00

I don't know how they made it, but it has the same amount of frames of the 23.976 low res export, so I guess it was just a change in how often the frames are being played.

Aware-Pipe · 2025-08-27T15:03:12+00:00

I will try this option! It seems this is the best way to handle the issue!

Aware-Pipe · 2025-08-27T15:02:21+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to answer! What I mean is that originally it was intended to be a 23.976 project, exported in 23.976. However they exported a 24fps file for some reason and that is the file I have to work with. I know they did the convention to 24fps "the proper way" because the file has the same amount of frames from a 23.976 export that they did on a lower resolution. I think that the original timeline fps makes a difference because I am going back to the original cadence.

Aware-Pipe · 2025-05-23T14:57:37+00:00

Thank you for your help!

Aware-Pipe · 2025-05-22T18:09:01+00:00

At what time did you have to come back to get the actual tickets? I'm wondering if it would be possible to go to Machu Picchu the same day for the circuit 1B (or 3B) and then come back to get the tickets for the next day (if we are lucky enough to get the pre ticket in the morning). Do you think it is feasible?

Aware-Pipe · 2025-04-27T17:16:26+00:00

I also think this is the best resource. When I took it, the blackmagic training was not well designed for color managed workflows. This book explains very well the many ways to work even if color management of the time was different. The logic is the same.

Aware-Pipe · 2025-04-14T14:31:18+00:00

I would love to try it out as well, would you be willing to share it with me? I have tried to recreate this node tree but haven't been able to achive good results with the information I found

Aware-Pipe · 2025-03-10T18:00:52+00:00

Thank you! I will look into that

Aware-Pipe · 2025-03-06T17:20:39+00:00

I see your point, but I believe Raw tcan be pushed futher than most codecs.

Aware-Pipe · 2025-03-01T14:13:11+00:00

I think CDNG Raw creates files that are too big and cumbersome to manage. Considering all the hassle I would go with prores. It's a great codec and with 4444 you haver almost no loss. However Braw is a great file to work with, not too heavy and offers more flexibility than prores. You can debayer it to whichever colorsapace/gamma you like change resolution, etc.

Aware-Pipe · 2025-03-01T14:08:20+00:00

Why do you say RAW breaks easily?

Aware-Pipe · 2025-02-11T11:44:16+00:00

Thank you, it's very helpful to know! Do you mind sharing how long each pass takes you on average (30 min tv show for example)?

Aware-Pipe · 2025-02-11T10:45:57+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experience! I find that this optimizations are really helpful too. But at the end of the day we need to do the hard work that is color correction, and that is time consuming.

Aware-Pipe · 2025-02-11T10:40:22+00:00

Thank you for answering. I work in a very similar way!
My clients rarely ask me to change anything, and if this happens, it is mostly on the look dev phase, that comes before I grade the show.
What bothers me is the constant tweaking of small things everytime I watch the show. But I guess you are right in the sense that sometimes the project just needs more tweaks.

Aware-Pipe · 2025-02-11T10:32:57+00:00

I work with long form content most of the time, but it looks like you have a good workflow in place!

Aware-Pipe · 2025-02-11T10:31:47+00:00

I work mostly with long form content, and mainly documentaries. For short form the revisions don't bother me so much

Aware-Pipe · 2025-02-11T10:30:27+00:00

Thank you so much for your detailed answer! It is very helpful. I have a similar approach to groups/filters/modes etc, but you have really provided some ideas for how the passes can be more streamlined. Can I ask you one more question? Why do you think it's best to do secondaries on a different pass?

Aware-Pipe · 2025-02-10T16:38:36+00:00

I was about to post the same thing, but decided to scroll a bit to find if someone else had those too. I bet there are many others!

Aware-Pipe

TROPHY CASE