Color Matching in Image

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1

Anyone got some slick techniques for color matching in Image. For me, compare modes are difficult to use to compare. I always need to resize and move the image to match what I need. An auto resize view would be great.
There is no “color match” as there is in other software. Even keeping up comparison colors is not really possible.
Any thoughts would be welcome.

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2

Which color tool are you using? When I need to match a shot my usual go to is the Color Warper, and use the “Match” tool. I go with a split view with grab of what I’m matching. Do blacks, mids and then whites, and push and pull till I’m happy. works good with solid graphics colors too.

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3

Yup, totally agree. But you would think in a brand new (well at least recent) tool, it would include the capabilities of previous tools.
When working in the timeline I like to grade before resize. That way the grade sticks with the original material, no matter where I repo it. that’s one of the reasons I do like Image.

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4

I agree this is one of those features that stops me from using image or mastergrade

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5

@Graziella Made a shader for this!

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6

Most important aspect is having rgb parade and vector scope in view covering the side-by-side and potentially a mask to focus on certain regions.

After that the color curves (hue/hue, hue/sat, etc.) and band controls for contrast.

In terms of new tools, the DaVinci color warper, which is a descendant of the Nobe color warper is most useful.

All this assuming you match a full object, nut just a single color.

7

this is one of those features I would think machine learning should be able to do amazingly well

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8

All true. And I’ve used all those techniques in the past. But again, it’s in the color warper. Should be in the Image node. I do all my grading using that node but find certain things are truly lacking.

9

What an excellent idea…Autodesk?

10

already submitted this you can vote on it
FI-02568

not sure if this link works
https://feedback.autodesk.com/project/feedback/view.html?cap=5afe6c845cb3447ab36ccbd7f0688f84&f={8FBADB72-C1B4-44AD-B55E-888E3FDC17E4}&uf={89A3F91E-BAA7-4507-BBAE-A9B24BCDF658}&a=v&t=1

11

It does. And it does say “Accepted”. I think I might have upvoted it a while ago. It does have 16 votes so I would thing they’d consider it.

Anyone else interested in upvoting it?

12

I now do pretty much all my creative colour grading, and technical colour matching in the Mastergrade node in ACES CG. For me that’s the colourspace and the tool I find best. However I did like colour match in Colour Warper, but I think it only really worked in REC709. What I would love would be a colour match tool in Mastergrade, but with the option to colour match the shadows, mids and highlights separately.

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13

Someone somewhere (Discord, maybe?) said they’d trained up a Nuke Copycat to do this by giving it ungraded footage and then the final grades.

14

Curious you do it in ACES CG. Isn’t that for comping CG material? I would have thought ACES CC or CCT. I usually work with Alexa Wide Gamut or RED IP2 viewing in REC709.

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15

There is a company called Colourlab that has an AI assisted color grading tool that integrates with Resolve https://colourlab.ai/.

I seem to recall @Dadovalentic was on the forums here at one point.

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16

yea I have checked it out I really wish we could get something like that, while it might not be perfect it would just take 60-90% of the busy work out and then the artist could just focus on the refinements which would be great.

17

Hi Hengy

The reason I like working in ACES CG is it feels like I’m working with natural light. Because it’s a linear colourspace the light reacts to changes I make, the same way it would in camera. I tend to grade stuff that involves big epic landscapes, rather than say fine beauty work, so maybe it’s a reflection of the kind of images I’m working with.

Grading in a linear colourspace just feels more photographically accurate to me.

However I would be interested to know why you or anyone else might prefer a log format.

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18

Would love a match that works! I have always done it by eye. It’s enjoyable but would be good sometimes if there was a thingy a doodle to do it!

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19

Not sure Alexa wide gamut is a log format. But I view it in rec709 and it’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to what has been shot by the dp. It gives me the best image to start with. No clipping.
I thought grading in scene linear did not react to well to balancing. Perhaps I’ll give it a try. What color space are you viewing in?