Color grading is a key component to editing and good video making that is often misunderstood. On many high-end spots, a dedicated colorist is brought in to create a cohesive look and feel for the spot. But that’s not always an option, so it’s a good idea to get familiar with the ins and outs of color grading.
Luckily, like with most topics, there are a host of resources online that you can go to to learn more about color grading, to download presets, and to figure out what’s trending.
Here are a few of the places you should look at if you are interested in learning more about color grading.
Movies In Color
Movies In Color has a really interesting concept, analyze a movie and pull together it’s the color palette. Then talk about it.
For a more eloquent description, here’s how site curator Roxy Radulescu describes the premise. “So far, the blog has not only been an aesthetic pursuit but also an educational pursuit that showcases the relationship between color, cinematography, set design, and production design.”
The library of film stills and color palettes is quite extensive and growing. You can review them by film, director, or cinematographer. And you can really get quite a good “picture” from the corresponding palettes.
You can even submit ideas for films that you want to be reviewed on the site.
Matt Scott Visuals
Matt Scott is a cinematographer and color grader who keeps a great blog about filmmaking. In particular, he has a tutorial section on his site with great tutorials on color grading.
Topics for the tutorials include things like “Qualifiers, Masks, & Balancing Basics”, and “The Film Look.”
It appears that Scott created a bunch of tutorials, then stopped for a while, but put up a new one this year. There’s plenty to learn from the current batch of tutorials, but we hope he continues to add more color grading tutorials in the future.
Tao Of Color Grading
The Tao Of Color is the brainchild of colorist Patrick Inhofer. While trying to describe color grading in an internet forum, he came up with the idea for Tao Of Color Grading. It’s a combination of things related to the art of color grading.
For starters, there is a blog covering news, gear, and interviews. Then there is the podcast which is essentially an interview series with production and post-production industry folks.
Additionally, Inhofer has a paid training series called Colorist Flight School. We haven’t tried the series, but if you are interested in a deep dive on color grading, his series has 2 price points of $299 and $349, depending on if you want the thumb drive.
Learn Color Grading
First off, Learn Color Grading isn’t a free resource, well mostly not free. But it is a site with in-depth tutorials for learning everything from the basics to advanced color grading techniques.
Courses include “Color Grading Simplified” which includes basic techniques and theories around color grading in DaVinci Resolve 12.5, and “DaVinci Resolve Practice”.
Courses include lifetime access with free updates, and on average, they seem to be under $100. Learn Color Grading also sells a set of professional LUTs. If you aren’t familiar with LUTs, check out our post that not only explains LUTs but includes 10 Free LUTs.
Not every course on Learn Color Grading is a paid course. So, you are welcome to try one of the 2 free courses first. These courses are “Color Correction In DaVinci Resolve” and “Coloring In Premiere Pro And SpeedGrade”.
These courses are free with a sign up to the Film Simplified site (from the same people that brought you Learn Color Grading). They also include lifetime access and should give you an idea of what the rest of the courses are like.
If you are an editor or filmmaker, you should definitely spend some time learning color grading, and you might as well start with these resources. If you have a favorite color grading resource, please tell us in the comments below.
