Why do videographers need to color correct?

458 viewsOtherTechnology

I have worked with a few videographers on big shoots, but don’t have much experience myself other than little behind the scenes type of videos shot with an iPhone. One thing I noticed is that the initial footage is always super washed out. Then they color correct it, and bam! Awesome footage.

Why do they shoot it that way? It’s obvious to me that there’s a reason— they’re I professionals, and they know what they’re doing— but I have no idea what that reason is!

In: Technology

13 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

for an idea of what shadows might look like when you dont apply any kind of log mapping, check out [this tom scott video](https://youtu.be/h9j89L8eQQk?si=gajHxTSZi7mn7X_q)

Anonymous 0 Comments

When you’re coloring in your coloring book, it might be a good idea to use the lightest crayon colors you can so that you can adjust with deeper colors as your coloring progresses. Maybe the tiger needs to be a deeper orange, or the tree’s leaves need to be darker.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It used to be, in the days of film, that a videographer had to know how the film they were using reacted to certain lighting, and then make sure they lit the scene in a way that rendered an image they wanted. You could (and did) do color correction in the lab but it was limited.

So there *used* to be an age of “you have to shoot it right on the day.”

But the digital tools greatly expand what’s possible with color correction and so the videographer has a lot of control in post-production that they didn’t use to have. So they shoot in a way to give them the most information to work with, and they worry about other things when they’re on set or on location.