So check this out - back in my last post, Color Correcting problems part 1, we discussed my use of the PANALOOK preset, problems with shooting in very bright sunlight, my issues with a technique I was trying, called Deep Focus, and my overall unhappiness with the color of my video.

The Original Image
Below, we see a sample image taken from my video.  We can obviously see that this is a bright green muscle car.  Standing there in person, it's almost too much to look at.  But looking at the image just breaks my heart.  I didn't capture any of the pop and sizzle of the real car.  I mean, look at the tires for Pete's sake (who's this Pete anyways?).  Those bad boys should be blacker than midnight, blacker than the devil's soul.  I don't know, they should be way black and they're not.

In the comments below my blog post, we see that I discussed duplicating video tracks on top of themselves to get more color out of my image.  This kindof worked, but overall was a step in the wrong direction.  I was experimenting with oversaturating one video with color and pulling brightness out of it, then having the other clip be overly bright and contrasty.  Then I worked the opacity of each for a good mix.  This really didn't work too well for me.  The results were promising early on but I just couldn't dial in the look I wanted.  There were too many parameters that I was messing with and I may never have found the right combination.  Plus, each clip would be different, so the workflow couldn't transfer from clip to clip.

It's like a have a picture of a beautiful cake that I want to bake.  And I have a cupboard full of baking supplies.  Unfortunately, my oven doesn't have a temperature setting, there are no instructions on how to bake said cake, and I have no baking experience whatsoever. So I'm kindof flying blind.  Or baking blind.  Or color correcting blind, which doesn't make sense, but you get the point.

Ok, so I abandoned the duplicated video idea and went searching for color correcting help.  I watched some tutorials on color correcting for various different video editing software (I am using Premier Elements and there really aren't any tutorials for it, at least none that I could find.  Maybe I'll make some when I'm done with this current video.)  I also read and checked out some tutorials on color correcting images and working with shadows and highlights.  Great, so I found a big void in my knowledge and am now filling it with useful info.

Even though the tools in Premier Elements are very...(I want to say, but it's not exactly right) simple, they are actually pretty powerful.  My problem was that I didn't know what the hell I was doing.  Not counting, and not knowing all of the options, there have got to be over 20 different tools in Premier Elements to correct/fix color and many other problems with video.

Messing with Saturation
So after watching many tutorials and reading a lot (including comments on my last blog from helpful members here, including Shiv) I have a better understanding of how R and G and B work together, and how Saturation works, and many other things.  And after some trial and error, I came up with what you see below!

Whoa!  It looks awesome, right?  Well, regardless, I'm really pleased with what I've done.  Look at how the green just pops!  I mean, it's still a little faded-looking, but overall it looks much, much better than the original.  To get this look I only tweaked three parameters; Saturation - I took the level from 100 to 125, Contrast - I went from 100 to 104, and Brightness - from 0 to -5.  This pulled more color out of the colorful areas of the picture, made the highlights a little, tiny bit brighter, and then darkened everything overall.  I'm pretty happy with it, but I'm just starting to learn color correcting and I think I can do better.

Crushing the Blacks
So now I want to take that above image to the next level.  I noticed that my buddy Shiv commented on someone else's video about "crushing the blacks" to make the colors pop more.  I thought that this was an interesting idea because to make my colors pop I have been boosting Saturation and Contrast, then slightly lowering overall Brightness.  If there is another approach to making colors really scream then I want to know about it. 

His post mentioned messing with the "Levels" control for your images and sliding the left fader (the blacks) towards the middle of the slider area.  I am familiar with this tactic from using Photoshop.  Unfortunately, Premier Elements (made by Adobe, the same people who bring you Photoshop) doesn't have such a function.  However, there is an option called "Shadow/Highlight" for working with dark and light areas of an image. 

Let me tell you that this Shadow/Highlight function is a complicated little tool.  Most of the parameters are actually used to brighten shadows, which is the opposite of what I wanted to do.  My understanding was that I want to take shadow/dark areas of the video and really darken them.  So after brightening and lightening shadows for a good 1/2 hour I started to figure out how to use the tool effectively for what I want it to do.  Basically, there are 12-15 different parameters to tweak in the Shadow/Highlight function and there is only one that did what I wanted it to do (darken the blacks.)  So once I zeroed out all of the other things that are automatically set, I could really start "crushing the blacks."  This paramter is called "Black Clip."  So I guess for me it would be clipping the blacks instead of crushing them.  Whatever.

Here is where I'm currently at.  See this bad boy below!

So I took my buddy Shiv's direction and tried crushing the blacks, or "clipping" them as Premier Elements would have you do.  I am really happy with this setup.  But overall my parameters have changed.  Before I messed with Saturation, Contrast, and Brightness.  For this one, I'm working with a few other parameters.

I've got Saturation from 100 to 126, I've got Black Clip set at 4.00%, and I also tweaked the RGB functions by taking Blue from 100 to 106 and taking Green from 100 to 104.  I am really happy with the results.  The difference between the this image and the one above this one are subtle, especially on a down-rez JPG.  But the look of the footage in Premier is stunning.  I'm really excited with the video now and will keep moving forward. 

Some Words on Music
And I've scrapped (for now, at least) the Beach Boys song I was using. Yes, any Beach Boys song is appropriate music for muscle cars and old-school cruisers.  But so is some modern and classic rock music, and...a beautiful classical music version of a heavy metal song.  I don't want to spill the beans on what I'm doing musically with this piece but I'm very excited about it.  Hopefully it works out ok.

Also, I thought that using copyrighted music was a no, no.  But I see videos on here, and other popular destinations, like Vimeo, that are using mainstream songs in their videos.  I know that Moby and other artists are saying that you can use their music for anything artistic, as long as there is no commercial gain, and that Warner Brothers opened up their catalog last year to the booming YouTube crowd.

Can I use any song that I want, by anybody, and use it for my videos?  I mean, the video I'm working on now is two-fold.  I'm doing an "artistic" version for myself, or my portfolio, with the previously mentioned classical/heavy metal song.  I should be ok to use any song, by anbody for this artistic version. Is this correct?

But the actual final video that I deliver to my employer will likely be shown and played (for promotional purposes) on one of our commercial/retail websites.  (StylinTrucks.com or JCW.com)  I certainly can't use a Beach Boys song, or whichever artist I choose, for commercial gain without paying them for it.  How does one go about doing this?  Do I post the video and wait to hear from someone's lawyers?  I don't think so.  What is the appropriate approach?  Do I find someone to knock-off a Beach Boys song?  That sounds silly.

Local, Free Music?
Maybe, as I did for my "Truck Show Video," I need to find local musicians and use their work.  I get the songs for free and they let me use them for anything I want.  It helps me with music, and it helps them get exposure.  There are some great artists in Cleveland and I'm certain I can find a local band with a Summery, Happy-go-lucky sound.  We'll see what I can find.

Please, as always, leave any comments or suggestions.  Feedback.  Anything.  Have at it.

Update:
There is another blog post in this series, so go check out Color Correcting issues #3.

Also, the video is complete. It's called Classical Cruisers, check it out.