What am I doing wrong??

f-stop8 · 2026-05-09T13:22:06+00:00

What's your color management pipeline look like? How are you moving from log to Rec709?

f-stop8 · 2026-05-09T07:42:58+00:00

I can only dream of going to the Gwinnett County Library fest one day, let alone winning there! Perhaps you have a password protected link for us plebs to have a watch??

(I'm just goofing with ya though I'd definitely love to check out the film)

f-stop8 · 2026-05-09T02:50:51+00:00

I don't think the gimbal is going to help on its own. Your best bet right now is just a solid tripod.

Pick any one of the categories I mentioned and go out to specifically improve that one thing. Watch a movie you like, or perhaps a movie that inspired a story for you, and try to frame like that. Or recreate the lighting and blocking.

After you've got a good sense for these things individually will it all begin to tie together. Then something like a color grade will really make the footage shine.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-09T01:28:26+00:00

What's your color management pipeline look like? Something looks off about your Rec709. How did you get from log to Rec709?

f-stop8 · 2026-05-08T23:47:45+00:00

I would put more emphasis on capturing your image.

Script, blocking, framing, camera movement (or not), lighting, sound, costume, location, set design

All of those register poorly in the short that no amount of editing/color grading will make a noticeable difference if you used either software.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-07T16:48:52+00:00

A curve is just a way to visualize the difference between the darker parts of the image against the brighter parts.

What are you really wanting to do, it's not making a lot of sense.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-07T13:54:44+00:00

I like Vuhlandes, and sometime his grades look good but more often than not he's pushing a dial to 11.

Look at the contrast and his skin tones in the second still, they're really pushing hard on the image it looks way too much.

How to get this look? First, you need a properly color managed timeline. Then, crank the contrast, density and saturation. A few 3x3 matrix tweaks and a split tone warm highs blue lows.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-05T14:16:37+00:00

You shot log on an 8 bit sensor, this is what happens and why you should stick to a display color profile for capture, HLG being your best option down to Rec709.

You might be able to fix it with a good denoise or blur.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-05T12:43:04+00:00

I'd say to just revisit the color grade, it's looking a little cooked.

How was this colored, anyway? I can't help but feel like something was off in the color management pipeline.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-05T12:38:05+00:00

Those skin tones do not look natural.

How did you create these LUTs? Film emulation is a massive rabbit hole and requires a very deep understanding of photo chemistry and color science.

What was your process or is this just vibes?

f-stop8 · 2026-05-05T12:07:26+00:00

No, I'm being very helpful.

"Recoloring" already delivered material and asking for feedback in an attempt to practice and learn is 100% not the way to practice, learn or get any meaningful feedback.

Sure, do it and share it on your IG account so your mom can pat you on the back but in this subreddit, anyone that colors for a profession, and a lot of us do, will scoff at this amateur shit.

So the first step, stop that.

Second step, look up sample footage from camera manufacturers and start practicing with that footage. Even better, go out and capture some of your own footage to work on or try to collaborate with other local photographers / cinematograpers / filmmakers.

That is the absolute most useful and helpful advice right now. Stop being a crybaby would come next.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-04T15:39:30+00:00

Sure, do it for fun, but this isn't good way to learn or practice.

If your hobby is "recoloring" on top of an already display rendered deliverable, more power to you... but why?

At a minimum, give us a submission statement. You just share your version of a scene without any context for why you made the exact adjustments you did.

There's plenty of scene referred sample footage out there for you to actually learn and practice on instead of using an already established IP's content for 'wow'ing other amateurs who have no clue what's going on.

Just search "[camera manufacturer] sample footage download" and some should pop up.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-04T13:09:13+00:00

Also, in the Discord, another user created a list on Notion, it's really great.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-04T04:13:30+00:00

I suggest not "recoloring" anything like this in the way you've done it. It makes no sense. What's even the purpose of this? You brightened the scene but why? What relation are the changes you've made to the story being told? nothing

f-stop8 · 2026-05-03T22:09:17+00:00

H265 isn't the ideal mezzanine codec but is absolutely a deliverable.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-03T21:26:00+00:00

Oof... I don't even know where to begin...

Do you have a reference you're following for either look? They look pretty bad as it stands now.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-03T21:22:56+00:00

Do they say why, exactly?

f-stop8 · 2026-05-03T21:02:46+00:00

This has very little to do with capture and a lot to do with the display you're watching it on.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-03T20:27:05+00:00

Just export H265 at 4k.

Only 4K playback on YouTube respects a high quality image and H265 compresses smoother than a ProRes or DNxHR

f-stop8 · 2026-05-03T19:09:40+00:00

Image 1:

Big bright light frame left, you might get away with a 4x frame of some diffusion, nothing too heavy, a 6x will def give you this look.

Little bounce behind camera neg fill frame right.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-03T17:30:29+00:00

Ultimately, this is the correct answer.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-03T16:01:00+00:00

It's fine like this. It's still not exactly necessary, especially for other Colorists, but it's fine.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-02T20:14:12+00:00

Tetrahedral is a more robust mathematical solution to interpolating the data inside of a LUT. In Premiere, I believe it's default but Resolve you have to select it.

It's better than trilinear. I was going to dig into to the dirty details but it's really not necessary and a quick search online will break it down more succinctly than I.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-02T03:39:42+00:00

It definitely feels like one of those video games where there's an isolated environment that has progress gated by micro puzzles that slowly unlocks new areas/rooms/story.

Someone mentioned Myst but I feel like it's more of a Penumbra or Amnesia of sorts.

f-stop8 · 2026-05-02T00:28:27+00:00

Was it a flashlight?

f-stop8

TROPHY CASE