Some food for thought: I promise not to get too technical-This general themed piece goes over color correction which  applies to both film and still images- so think of film and video as just a series of still images for the purposes of illustration.

     Skills you may use to strive for that that perfect look in your still images and moving images (Film or Video) employ many of the same concepts of composition and basic ground rules for general still photography. Now higher quality cameras of both the still and video variety are getting more accessible to consumers (below a $1000). With this comes a great amount of disappointment when pictures do not turn out to be "magazine" or "pro quality" and videos are grainy with with an amateurish feel. Lots of disappointment, and lots of sad eyes when people realize that after years of scoffing at many photographers shows and  saying things like "It's a tree! I could take a picture just like that" -  they get the camera know nothing beyond the automatic features, nothing about lighting,Fstop, shutter speed, ISO, frame rate, or general good composting -   and they are bummed or feel cheated out of $1000 or whatever the price of their new SLR. 

      Its suffice to say that many people starting out in film or photography do not understand the work and thought that goes into getting the desired image in the end, and just look at it as a matter of spending more money for something shiny and running around clicking away. Which leads this discussion to stylizing and color correction.  There was a time in my youth where I was running around with a video camera having fun like every young'un does, and felt seriously disappointed when I noticed that my camera footage looked nothing like the movies, and my still pics  just didn't have the same flair as a stylish magazine ( I had no knowledge of photographic principles at that time either). I had no idea about how to use lighting, or what its functions was and certainly had no idea there were colorists, that made those movies I loved so much pop out of the screen and make my eyeballs tingle with excitement. Colorists get very good money to ensure the look of a film is graded and toned right. Both digital and actual film has its limitations/plusses and minuses so its good to know exactly what you can get out of something, and how far you can push it. But no matter what it starts with a good photograph using everything the camera has to offer- so learn the basics like shutter speed, ISO, f-stop, frame rate and its influences on general conditions and lighting and I will meet you below with some quick tips on color correction.

     When I got older and feasted my eyes on this Blue-Ray technology, and ingested with my eyes some glorious cinematic eye candy like Book of Eli, 300, and O' Brother Where Art Thou  I realized the practical applications of refining your images (moving or still) to get the desired look or tone and giving your subject the proper focus. Many people do not realize until the pics are harvested for the 1st time from a digital camera that the camera does not pick up exactly what the eye sees. Disappointing ? Sure, at first but there are many tools both in camera and out to help us get what we need out of the situation. Just remember: get to know the camera manual inside and out. Always think: start with a great picture it yields a great picture; start with a crappy picture end up with- well, a crappy picture. Check specifically on how to adjust white balance, and know why you use it. Also it wouldn't hurt to see how your camera reacts to different types of light and take note ( I promised I wouldn't get too technical).

(top left) the original photo: This photo is fine on its own merit, shot summer vacation style just to have a record of a journey to Our Nana's Attic an antiques store in Braselton, GA. Little did anyone know that these would be the photographs I would be working with to make a commercial for the truly unique antique outlet some months later.

Starting off, we notice right away, that the harpoon, captains wheel, small table with bottle, and framed captain is the center of focus. The elements that pull focus away from the subject are a) the light switch, b) the doorway, c) the fire extinguisher.

The end result, where i was going to be using this photograph, was in photograph where I antiquated this photo and then faded it into a color version, that made the audience feel like history was being pulled into modern day and is accessible. The definition of the subjects could stand to pop out a little more, and fading a brown antiquated photo into a brown toned photo just isn't quite as dramatic.

I will not give you a complete detailed version of every little adjustment but what I will do is tell you where to look, and what to play with in your photo editing program (many programs can do what I'm about to illustrate, but I use Photoshop). I realize not giving you specific instructions seems strange but I honestly think you may benefit from looking at some high profile photos and pictures you like and trying to understand how balancing a few things (listed below) can benefit your images in a profound way to either stylize or just make your subject a little more eye friendly.

Start with appropriate cropping; adjustments to whites, mediums and shadows; hue; saturation; simulated camera filter;and brightness. There are more, but this will get you started.

"But TJ!!" you may ask, " Why not just use pluggins?". This is a good point. You could. As a matter of fact that is what most people do and there is really nothing wrong with it. If you are doing a TV or internet show and you have to blaze though production to meet a deadline, things like Red Giant's Magic Bullet comes in handy. And if you have the means to buy and hire somebody to run a Davinci (Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve ) then awesome, your production is going to rock!

I personally am one of those people that for most part of my life loved driving a stick shift vs. an automatic because of the control over the car you get on the road, around turns/uphill, downshifting etc. When my dad taught me how to drive he took me out on the worst conditions on the worst hills, His philosophy being if I knew what the car was capable of doing  and how it reacted in every situation I would have a better understanding over all- flash forward years later - I'm applying that philosophy to color correction. Sure, I could use some quick filters and it might be easier but I'm usually not happy with the outcome if I can't finely tune it. Its good to know the nuts and bolts of how something works even if you do end up using a program or pluggin at a later point.

(middle left) This picture has been cropped, adjustments have been made to better distinguish the absolute brights from the darker colors of the wood and lines. The saturation has been brought down slightly, the fire extinguisher, handkerchief and light switch have all been taken out.

A conscious decision was made to work with the hue and an artificial camera filter together to create  a blue-ish aquatic hue to give the photo tone that would easily contrast better with the animated morph that would be forthcoming in the television commercial this was designed for.

Notice the wood grains "pop" a little more, the glass on the bottle looks a little more "like glass", and the portrait is sharper with just a few subtle changes.

(bottom left) The last step in this particular exercise was to antiquate the photo for the commercial. Photoshop has a feature which allows you to record "actions" that you do when sweetening a photo so you can reapply it to other photo's. Anyone can make an action and many can be found in various places on the web. I typically set up the function in the actions window of Photoshop to stop or pause after each step. I sometimes use part of several different actions, and if you set up for actions window the same as mine to stop on each action, you can in a way learn how to use Photoshop in ways you never expected, as well as learning what that cool tool was on the tool bar that beckoned you but you were afraid to touch. If this cheating? In my opinion if used correctly you can learn a lot from actions, in the way that you can learn a lot from a recipe in a gourmet recipe book - to fit the analogy- following a set of instructions (as actions are programmed set of instructions as well) in a recipe book is not cheating you are measuring, cooking, planning, cleaning; now if you hired a chef to come over and fix the same meal for you then pass it off to your lover or win a blue ribbon and take credit - yeah that's cheating.

I used parts of thee actions and some of my own fine tuning (at left) . first step was finding a picture of the time period that I was trying to simulate, taking note of the colors in that era and limitations - then used a combination of several different things to get the specific look I was going for.

Water spots were added to give it a more nautical feel, and a border. Then for the effect which lasted a total of about 3-4 seconds in the actual commercial, the antiquated photo (bottom left) morphed into the modern "sweetened" photo (middle left).

You read correctly - what I have just explained to you is in actuality only 3-4 seconds on the screen. As time goes on you will get faster and more efficient; and if you didn't know before, maybe you do now:  making media entails some tedious work, but pride of making something of "quality"  takes a little of the sting out of it.

Tom Parsons

The founder of Uddershiet Films and film enthusiast, maintains a fun collection of movies that he regularly references for technical examples, discussions with colleagues, friends, students, and production staff. Although there are particular films, shorts, and videos that he prefers over others, seldom is there a movie that he doesn't like.