Vibrant colors in video

July 23, 2008 12:27 PM

How did the people in this video get the colors to become so vibrant? Skip to 1:30 and watch from there.

The video itself is not very professional, but the colors are very bright. The reds are very red, the greens and very green - it reminds me a bit of bollywood musicals.

Is this done with the camera or with post processing? If post processing, what do they use? If camera, what would be the cheapest camera that will give me similar results?

When I shoot any video with my prosumer cameras, the colors are quite dull. What's the secret for those bright colors?

posted by ChabonJabon to media & arts (6 comments total)

My best guess is post processing. Any editing program worth it's salt has a "Chroma" or "Saturation" slider that will allow you to punch up your colors to any level you want. Final Cut Pro or Avid are both great examples of this.
posted by Spyder's Game at 12:40 PM on July 23, 2008

It looks more like they chose vibrant colored clothing to wear. Honestly, it doesn't look any different from reality to me. It's no CSI:Miami.
posted by gjc at 12:55 PM on July 23, 2008

It looks overexposed and/or oversaturated to me. There are hotspots all over the place.
posted by owtytrof at 1:02 PM on July 23, 2008

Bright colors in daylight, oversaturated in post processing. There are numerous plugins for programs like Final Cut Pro/Express that will adjust colors or the overall look of a scene.
posted by shinynewnick at 1:47 PM on July 23, 2008

As every one has said they cranked up the chroma in post. But if you look at the colorbars up front you will probably see that the transfer is a bit saturated as well. Really it depends on your monitor calibration though.

If you look at the color cast that is shown up on his face at times a strange bounce or colored gel may have been used on a fill light.

You have to remember that almost everything you see broadcast has had some level of color grading done to enhance the picture. You rarely see a raw shot in anything that has had any post production work done on it.

If you want to get better results look into the what you can accomplish with a simple editing program and the color correction filters provided.
posted by jade east at 3:35 PM on July 23, 2008

Here's some colour correction demos on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02olRXXEOkE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i3hAurfk44
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp2M0yjsTJM

Some are better than others, but it gives you an idea of the scope of video colour correction.
posted by sycophant at 5:38 PM on July 23, 2008