Archive for August, 2012

SpeedGrade CS6 (6.0.3) Update

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (2)

Today, the SpeedGrade CS6 (6.0.3) update was released. Thank you everyone for your feedback!

If Adobe Application Manager hasn’t already told you about this, go ahead and check for new updates by choosing Help > Updates in Adobe Bridge. The best way to check for updates is by closing all Adobe applications other than Adobe Bridge, and choosing Help > Updates in Adobe Bridge; this ensures that all processes related to Adobe video applications have been quit and can be updated safely.

Ideally, you should install the updates automatically as described above, but you can also directly download the update packages from the download page for Windows or Mac OS. Continue reading…

Adding Atmosphere with Vignettes

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

Vignettes are a great tool for visual storytelling. They add a depth to shots and they help give digital content a more filmic feel – and Adobe SpeedGrade CS6 offers powerful tools for creating them.

Psychologically, vignettes allow you to focus the viewer’s attention on the subject and subtly mimic the human eye, where color perception drops off around the periphery of our field of vision.

You create vignettes for an individual shot, by adding a mask to a grading layer, within a clip, or by adding a separate grading track on the timeline, for example to go across multiple clips. Colorists sometimes combine vignettes, adding atmosphere and a greater sense of space to their shots. In this post we’re going to look at how to add a single vignette to a shot in SpeedGrade. Continue reading…

Grading Secondaries in SpeedGrade

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (0)

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the SpeedGrade webinar with Jeff August last week! In case you missed it, we’ll have a recording of the webinar available in a few days. In this post we’re taking a look at how to apply secondaries in Adobe SpeedGrade CS6.

Secondary color corrections are applied to specific colors within your images – as opposed to primary color corrections which affect the whole image.

For each secondary, you select a color range, and then apply adjustments to just those pixels. Secondary adjustments allow you to accent, modify, or tone down parts of your image. With SpeedGrade, secondary color corrections are added as individual grading layers within the overall grade. Continue reading…

Upcoming: SpeedGrade webinar for editors

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (23)

Please join us for SpeedGrade for Aspiring Colorists, a special webinar on August 16, starting at 10:00 am PST.

If you are an editor, and you want to learn about color grading, this course if for you. The session will start with a review of the color tools in  Adobe Premiere Pro and then move on to provide a primer in the powerful color correction and look design capabilities of Adobe SpeedGrade CS6. Continue reading…

Extending SpeedGrade with SpeedLooks

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Eric Philpott | Comments (6)

SpeedGrade CS6 has been out for a few months now and we’re already seeing some great third-party additions. SpeedLooks, created by LookLabs, are a great example, and help to illustrate the power of color grading to dramatically transform your images.

I chatted with colorist Jeff August of LookLabs recently to learn more – quick plug: Jeff will be giving an online seminar on color grading for video editors on August 16

Continue reading…