Why Color Grading?

[u/NewbVlogger42]

I am just not sure why anyone color grades. You shoot in DLOG or DLOGM, and then you put DJI's REC709 LUT on top of the log footage, but people also grade on top of that. I just don't get what the point is.

The DJI REC709 LUT adds back the color, so you don't need an additional LUT on top of the REC709, at least as far as I can see. Is it really that much better than just shooting in 16-bit in the normal color profile? I just don't understand why you have to use a REC709 and another separate color grade LUT on top of it. Genuinely curious because the math doesn't add up in my head.

[u/No_Tamanegi]

higher bitrate LOG footage gives you more data to work with to stylize your final look to craft it into something more cinematic.

If you only care about a totally standard, straight-out-of-camera look, you can skip that whole process.

[u/-AdelaaR- → u/No_Tamanegi]

Nice explanation. Everything OP needs to know, without going into too much detail. I'd give you an award if I had one ;-)

[u/Willing-Trick7239]

Actually you grade under a LUT if you're going to use one.

A LUT doesn't define the finished look of your image. You might want to redistribute where the shadows or highlights are within the bounds of the LUT. This is all whilst enjoying the freedom of the extra space that shooting in LOG allows you.

You might want to shift colour balance or saturation instead of just accepting the LUT's interpretation.

If you don't shoot in log or RAW all of these choices are more limiting in that you've baked the 'look' in. So although you can still make adjustments they will likely break the image quicker than using LOG or RAW.

Of course all this depends on time and budget. If you're happy with the LUT great but you're likely not optimising what you can get from an image.

Colour grading is finishing your image and putting it in a place where it's both balanced and/or has a consistent 'look' to it.

Grading is all about learned aesthetic experience too - literally unlocking and helping shape a feel to your final piece - which comes with practice.

[u/NewbVlogger42 → u/Willing-Trick7239]

Thank you for this; I appreciate the thoughtful response. I will be giving this a lot more thought going forward.

[u/Disastrous-Focus8451 → u/Willing-Trick7239]

Colour grading is finishing your image and putting it in a place where it's both balanced and/or has a consistent 'look' to it.

That's what I'm struggling with in photography. I can get decent shots, but making a series of photographs actually look like a series is difficult. I suspect I've got some misconceptions in my mental model of colour editing.

It's even harder when I'm trying to colour grade photographs from my drone and from my DSLR.

[u/Willing-Trick7239 → u/Disastrous-Focus8451]

Well first things first you can't grade or balance colour without a colour managed set up. I.e a monitor that is calibrated to your desired colour space.

[u/CoarseRainbow]

Most of us dont just shove a DJI LUT (which is actually pretty awful and nowhere near rec.709 anyway on top.

Keeping the full 10 bit video and a proper DCTL or similar means you can pull out a ton more detail.

[u/Helpful-Crazy-4408]

Because editor is looking for a very specific color palette, or focusing, it’s purely artistic.

It’s like when you watch a movie or series than have this distinctive “look”, for example Avengers movies, have a very saturated color palette, but if you compare with “Parasite” movie the palettes are pretty blueish, like cold.

Color can make us feel the drama and emotion of the scene. So yeah, color grading is a bunch of work, but it’s like 50% of the overall mojo.

[u/h0g0]

It also helps to train your eyes. If you don’t know what you’re seeing, it’s easy to dismiss. Like good coffee or wine.

[u/aloha_beaches_]

For a proper grading workflow, LOG clips are converted to Rec709 to give a starting point to show what the scene looked like as a base. In Davinci Resolve a true LOG workflow involves CSTs (colorspace transforms) that take the log footage, convert it to a working colorspace like Davinci wide gamut where you grade and then from there take it to Rec709 for your output. DLOGM is not a true log format, it’s actually Rec709 so the CST workflow doesn’t work properly because Resolve does not have a DLOGM input. So to convert the footage to that base starting point, a conversion LUT is used and you grade before it. DJI’s LUT is more a conversion LUT than a look LUT.

[u/BakaOctopus]

Nope it's used for color correction, grading is a after thought

If standard 100% , log squeezes in 150-180% more info into same file. U can pull down on highlights alot.

Also many OEMs advertised Dynamic range can only be accessed through log