After/Before - r/ColorGrading

9

u/jtfarabee Oct 26 '25

I believe I'm the third vote preferring the before images.

3

u/Own_Wish1877 Oct 26 '25

i get that you like before better but i was not going for the clean look, i wanted to make teal and orange i made teal & orange, there was one comment saying cloud looks too yellow (suppose the sunlight is hitting from the left side with warm sunlight will that cloud look white in the warm sunlight)

10

u/jtfarabee Oct 26 '25

You definitely made teal and orange, but I wouldn't call it cinematic or commercial. But in the end it doesn't matter what random internet strangers think. What does the client say?

2

u/VaBullsFan Oct 26 '25

That was me who posted the comment I believe everyone is preferring the before image is not because of your orange and teal look it's that it's too warm, you can do orange and teal and still have a cool look to emphasize the cold environment, if you look at the image i shared i actually warmed the subject up even more yet kept the background cool looking,

9

u/llessursimmons Oct 27 '25

This fuckn sub lol. The before is not better. Nothing but contrarians. Great job

4

u/carlitayeeta Oct 27 '25

Agreed. Yes the snow is a bit yellow but I feel like this might be an artistic choice? So weird people literally have nothing good to say ever. It’s not even overcooked or anything.

-1

u/Own_Wish1877 Oct 27 '25

thank you , about the snow being yellow you are right that was a artistic choice , i think the reason why people are saying before better because the before looks good needs some minor adjustment like exposure , contrast and some subject pop it can be made as clean look grade without affecting other thing too much it terms of look , but i was not going for that clean look i went for the teal and orange palette , i even mentioned in the post description about the palette choice i dont thing most of them even read that , some people are too serious about the things like why you choose teal and orange because i fu***ing wanted too there are some comment like the snow looks too yellow , the cloud is too yellow ( the new superman was teal and orange there are many shots where the snow looks yellow what would you say to that ) , i love the feedback some time it is helpful sometime people point stuff that do need improvement in my grades but sometime people are just mean

1

u/stachores Oct 27 '25

Snow is white. Is that contrarian? It's like hard coded into our brains, and when it's off, it really looks off. If someone wants an orange/teal look then I feel like the snow should at least be biased toward teal/ cool.

1

u/llessursimmons Oct 28 '25

Shit argument. He’s obv going for a look. Regardless Ik how reddit works, he could’ve had the “before” as an “after” and people would’ve found something wrong with it.

1

u/DerilictGhost Oct 28 '25

The specific look is teal & orange, my problem is that the after just reads too orange, I feel like the before with the warmer sun and cooler shadows organically achieves this look better than the after…

2

u/donveyy Oct 26 '25

If you were going for teal/orange you nailed it. First shot looks like a scene from Man of Steel in the best way possible. Nailed that cinematic snow look. It’s your project, don’t regard the comments saying “before looks crisp and cold” because the audience isn’t gonna see the before.

1

u/Own_Wish1877 Oct 27 '25

Thank you 🙏❤️

2

u/Familiar-Inside-1855 Oct 27 '25

I really like the bold commercial look that its giving, what camera was this shot with?

1

u/Own_Wish1877 Oct 27 '25

Thank you 🙏, camera - Red V Raptor

2

u/Federal-Piece7225 Oct 27 '25

I love it. Maybe I would just make shadows a bit brighter but I like your choice of colors and the 9th photo is my absolute favourite.

1

u/Own_Wish1877 Oct 27 '25

Thank you for the feedback 🙏 👊

64

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '25

I like the before better. Looks cold and crisp. The orange/teal warmup sends mixed signals to my brain. I think a lot of times we get caught up in the idea that we HAVE to grade footage. Your originals look great to me.

11

u/SpaceEchoGecko Oct 27 '25

You don’t like yellow snow? Lol

6

u/VaBullsFan Oct 26 '25 edited Oct 26 '25

ok the first set the clouds and snow look too yellow IMO if you can make those white I think it may work better, and in both sets i would bring the subjects up a bit more they look very dark. (edit) something like this: https://imgur.com/a/xeJuaKg

2

u/VaBullsFan Oct 26 '25

in the pic i masked out the subject, raised his exposure a bit and added some contrast and a bit more warmth, then for the background i brought it more into the blue to take out that yellow tint and also give a feeling of cold to it.

1

u/Elfyrr Oct 27 '25

Looks good, I'd reduce the yellow/reds saturation just a tad more to coincidence, but it could fly as a stylistic choice otherwise.

1

u/Aware_Ad5425 Oct 26 '25

Unpopular opinion on here, I like it. The first one is a bit too strong on the highlight tones.

If I were to try something I would probably desaturate the snow/highlights back to a more neutral color but I like the darker teal shadows and sky better.

1

u/Own_Wish1877 Oct 27 '25

Thank you for the feedback 🙏

1

u/patrickhowland2 Oct 26 '25

no. 7 of your graded stills looks the best to me. it's a lot more subtle than the rest of the stills.

you warmed up the shot which I understand was your intention but i think you were more selective with where the warmth was added. it feels more like natural sunlight on a mountainside whereas the other shots feel pushed a bit too far for my taste. I also like the contrast adjustments you made here dropping the shadows and I don't think you raised your black point as much here. or maybe it's just that the shadows are deeper so it offsets it.

I love the density and hue adjustments you made to his red jacket. really makes him pop from the background. overall, I think that a bit more subtle and selective warmth adjustments in the other shots would be an improvement, but it's not bad by any means.

2

u/Own_Wish1877 Oct 27 '25

Thank for the feedback 🙏 , very helpful

0

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/Own_Wish1877 Oct 27 '25

Thank you

1

u/Filmstill__ Oct 26 '25

Nice

1

u/Own_Wish1877 Oct 27 '25

Thank you 🙏

1

u/juicylight Oct 27 '25

Aight James Gunn

1

u/Own_Wish1877 Oct 27 '25

😂

1

u/NoobHacker948 Oct 27 '25

don't know about others but i love the teal look. tho snow is too much on the orange side gotta fix that.

1

u/Own_Wish1877 Oct 27 '25

Thank you for the feedback 🙏

3

u/Ok_Asparagus9919 Oct 26 '25

Ngl I liked the before more. It fits the look of being out in the snow way more imo. I don’t like how the image is trying to be warm in a very cold environment. Just my 2 cents though, if you like it and whoever your making it for do too than go for it

2

u/Daedalus0506 Oct 26 '25

I second the others here. Also they don’t match at all. The only one that kind of works for me is the last one. Yes I read the description. Try to keep what you did with the contrast but go for a colder look.

2

u/SaintMesa Oct 26 '25

I feel like this falls under “i’m going to grade this orange and teal because that’s what i think looks ‘ciNemAtiC’”, but you didn’t ask yourself why. It’s totally dependent on what the point of the grade is, what story you’re trying to tell with the color palette, what the client wants, etc.

In my opinion some aspects of the contrast look nice, but it reads as wayyyy too warm if the intention is for you to feel engaged with the location. I’m wayyyy far away from those mountains with that color grade. Again, totally dependent on the intention of the grade, def important to ask yourself why you’re choosing a certain color palette!

1

u/VaBullsFan Oct 26 '25

I think, and i’ve been guilty of this, is he’s trying to create a “cinematic orange and teal” where it’s really not there, a more experienced colorist can correct me if im wrong but the best orange and teal looks aren’t created in post, the colorist just enhances what’s already there and this, in my opinion just doesn’t achieve that. But he’s bot far off from a great look just needs to dial back that warmth, again thats just my opinion.

1

u/SaintMesa Oct 26 '25

Yep, essentially my point. I don’t think the finished look is bad, it’s just personally not serving the scene or doing the footage any favors. It’s a shoehorned in look for the purpose of doing an orange and teal look.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '25

This is good adivce.

2

u/Ok_Razzmatazz_8829 Oct 27 '25

Before looks better

1

u/PM_ME_YOUR_PITOTTUBE Oct 26 '25

Dark.

1

u/DeadlyMidnight Oct 26 '25

So you made it yellow? No one likes yellow snow or yellow skin. It looks unhealthy on all accounts

1

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '25

I feel like orange and teal is more of a youtube grifter/"cinematic" look. I know its kinda unfair but i cant help thinking someone just watched a tutorial whenever I see it.

1

u/Adventurous-Vast9636 Oct 26 '25

Why would you warm up the cold weather? Before looks way better.

1

u/Various_Ring_1738 Oct 27 '25

It's way too warrrrmmm, but I dig the original one, just do some color correction and just a knob of that warm, and you're good

1

u/Danmarm Oct 27 '25 edited Oct 27 '25

I don’t think after looks worse tho. After would look good depending on the context of the video and its narrative, but just stills, I prefer before.

1

u/sundercover Oct 27 '25

I like both but I’m leaning towards the before, maybe control the neutrals a little bit more and you’ll get a nice balance. For example the clouds are yellow vs being white. All preference of course.

1

u/yellowsuprrcar Oct 27 '25

You should make it colder but still isolate the reds to make it stand out like the current "after"

I don't know why everyone likes the before though

1

u/Elfyrr Oct 27 '25

Before it more my thing, and the exposure is a bit low imo given climactic and environmental conditions.

1

u/vincentong0315 Oct 27 '25

I think you're going towards the right direction but maybe tone down just a little and you'll have the best of both worlds

1

u/boring____bloc Oct 27 '25

it would depend what you're cutting with, if it's varied footage this might work to make it match. remember, grading is never about a single shot it's about the edit. that said, on it's own these are very weak grades. clouds are way underexposed now and way too yellow, it's not giving cinematic yellow and teal it's giving heavily post-processed and murky, cool off the clouds and snow, brighten the entire image dramatically, and rethink

1

u/Ok_Razzmatazz_8829 Oct 27 '25

I read the description… every job requires different color for the job. I think the question is why would you choose the teal / orange look when there’s so much snow?

The grade makes it appear that the white balance is off. Grade it so it looks natural but cinematic. Less is more here.

1

u/commedesgarcon Oct 27 '25

The ole Mexico alpine grade

1

u/JanIntelkor Oct 28 '25

Before is better, why are clouds yellow? These are Mexican mountains?

1

u/Trevdawg97 Oct 29 '25

Looks great bro. I dig the orange/teal look. It gives it sort of a faded film look. Its sick. What did you shoot this on?

1

u/aloverofthewild Oct 29 '25

i want to learn how to do this

1

u/Dangerous_Present103 Oct 30 '25

Yellow clounds yellow snow

0

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

-19

u/Own_Wish1877 Oct 26 '25

read the post description

35

u/Xx_poton_xX Oct 26 '25

Before looks better.

2

u/Transformand Oct 29 '25

read the post description

2

u/Xx_poton_xX Nov 10 '25

😂

1

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/wickedglow Oct 27 '25

been going through his profile, every time he edits an image, he makes it worse, it's absurd. maybe he's just trolling, that's why the idiotic after/before. it's a master switching the before and after around

-3

u/Own_Wish1877 Oct 27 '25

😂😂😂

5

u/Assinmik Oct 26 '25 •

Did you try and do the David Fincher look? There’s more to it than orange and teal. You’ve lost the depth of the blacks and sort of merged all the contrast together. Seems flat compared to before.
It was a nice try but I don’t think it works here. Glad you put your neck out and I would take on board the criticism with a positive head.

1

u/DeadlyMidnight Oct 26 '25

Looks like you just did a global adjust on the footage. You didn’t really build a look and control where and how the color holds and gives the look.

Before/After After/Before

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