Color Correcting a Color Cast using a Digital Grey Kard
When using artificial lighting, a common problem that needs correcting in post is false color or color casts created. In the video above I show you what a color cast from an LED light looks like and how to go about removing it with your editing software in post production. First we shot a video clip of me in the studio while lit with only a single LED light source. The camera and the LED were both dialed in at 5500K (daylight). I bring into frame a neutral color 18% grey card with black and white. This card serves to give us a reference point to calibrate the overall color of the clip later on in post.
After bringing the clip into Final Cut Pro, I open the video scopes so I can see the highlights, mids, shadows, and RGB values of the video. In order to find the truest color possible, I want to color balance only the area where the grey card is present. To do this, I simple crop the screen so only the grey card is showingNow, using the color adjustment, I am able to dial in the levels that I want. Since we are adjusting to the neutral grey card, I want all of these levels to be pretty evened out.
Next I remove the crop to reveal the now correct color balanced video clip. The color cast that was present prior to the correction is now gone and the video has a more true color. You can see the difference in the before and after clips at the end of the video.
We used an 18% grey card by Digital Grey Kard. They also supply color options and mobile laniard cards for tight shots. We got ours from eBay following the link (Click Here).
Digital Grey Kard
Great Video!
Last year I purchased a Color Checker Passport for my portrait photography work but I’ve recently learned that it can be used as a video tool too.
At first I was bummed that there wasn’t an automatic calibration app/plug in like there was for Lightroom and dismissed it but it has a grey card built in and two slates full of coloured tiles. Combined with SpeedGrade in CS6 I can add layers to adjust specific colours picked directly from the passport tiles and tweak until the scopes look good and the Passport looks closer to the way it does to my eyes. It’s a really quick way to make really specific tweaks to certain colours in my videos to get the best starting point possible.