Because I have shot some test footage I wanted to produce a quick mockup or how Im currently visualising my final product so that I can see how realistic it is for my final outcome to turn out how I imagine it. The findings beneath are valuable as they will inform me as to what lighting, colour grading and camera setup I use.
Below is a screenshot of four colour grading techniques I have tried. The bottom right is the most neutral out of them all as It was a basic contrast, saturation and colour alteration with a fairly balanced look. The bottom left is after I balanced the footage and then tried to match it with some of the footage of Warpaint in the studio. The Top left was the result of me applying the colour grading before balancing the footage. The top right is the result of unbalanced footage with me applying a red colour correction and then dropping the saturation and upping the exposure.
Overall I have mixed feelings about these experiments. There is something really nice about the raw footage with basic colour grading in the bottom right. However the bottom left frame is very vibrant and quite interesting to the eye. I think the next step is to do the same test with different lighting conditions. Because the walls of the room are yellow the light tends to be warm. The test footage was shot in golden hour at 17:47 therefore the light was also warm meaning the footage isn't at all neutral, therefore when it comes to applying the colour grading the colour wont be built on an even foundation, so to speak. Consequently I think, as stated above, I should setup a tripod and capture a shot earlier in the day with overcast sunlight, a shot with incandescent downlighting, one with incandescent lamps and one with bright floodlight style lights inside and outside with and without diffusors. With the walls being yellow the incandescent light will naturally create a very warm look, which can be balanced out to a certain degree in Final Cut. The more fluorescent light that the flood lights give off might make the footage more neutral which might be better when it comes to the colour grading. Another important factor to take into account is that within my camera is a white balance setting. With that I can manipulate how warm or cold the footage appears. Obviously the most ideal situation would be for me to properly configure the white balance setting and then change the temperature in the editing stage, unless I want that warm saturated look that I achieved in the bottom right frame.
