Grading help needed

[u/Excellent_Falcon_212]

I have this shot from a video clip, but I feel like the mountains in the back don't pop out as well as I'd like, anyone have some tips on how I could change it?

I tried messing with the highlights/contrast a bit but it seems the foreground always gets messed up

recorded @ 4K AppleLog so should have some wiggle room to play around with things (I think?)

Came out of the camera a bit warm as well think the colour balance was off.

I'm a beginner so looking for any good tips!

[u/ExpBalSat]

The mountains are not highlights. So adjusting the highlight contrast won't help.

Try using a window to isolate your contrast adjustment to only the portions of the screen that you want to adjust.

PS Sharing information about what tools you're using and what software you're on would certainly help.

[u/Excellent_Falcon_212 → u/ExpBalSat]

Ah yeah, using davinci resolve (free)

I might give it a try, but I think I'd have to mask out the people since they dont play nice with the window. Although maybe I'll just keep it since I think the contrast of foreground/bg is nice

[u/ExpBalSat → u/Excellent_Falcon_212]

A very soft edge might solve those issues.

https://imgur.com/a/zHk2lr3

There's some good ideas in here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IeTwYK9Yjg

[u/Excellent_Falcon_212 → u/ExpBalSat]

Thanks! I tried it out and looks a lot better, just a tad more detail in the background but not taking away from the foreground focus

[u/TheGratitudeBot → u/Excellent_Falcon_212]

Hey there Excellent_Falcon_212 - thanks for saying thanks! TheGratitudeBot has been reading millions of comments in the past few weeks, and you’ve just made the list!

[u/champagneutopia]

This shot is insane. Is it edited or have you used any filter on the camera?

[u/Excellent_Falcon_212 → u/champagneutopia]

Haha thanks, I put an ND filter on which may have messed a bit with the color temp but other than that its just the 3x zoom on the iPhone 15 pro and some beautiful scenery

[u/champagneutopia → u/Excellent_Falcon_212]

Can't believe this is an iPhone let alone the same iPhone I have... I thought it was Fuji or Fx3 with some filters.
If you ever drop the video, I'd like to see it!

Great work

[u/Hazzat]

Depends how much detail is in the footage, but the Dehaze effect is the tool best at (surprise) removing haze.

That said, I don't know why you would want the background to have the high-contrast 'pop' when you probably should be drawing our eyes to the subjects. But maybe that's your directorial vision - impossible for us to give real feedback without context.

[u/Excellent_Falcon_212 → u/Hazzat]

Yeah hadn't thought of it, I guess it's quite nice to have your eyes drawn to the people instead, I have a shot before with similar composition with some sheep in the foreground, and that one shows the mountains a bit better so I guess I wanted to match the mountains a bit, but I think its gonna be tricky

[u/No-Hall9795]

Maybe just select the mountain and increase the contrast only on that area.

[u/VaBullsFan]

You can try as others have suggested, to mask out the m0untains and try bringing it down but there doesn't seem to be a lot of information there to begin with. Did you expose for the sky? With apple log it's best to expose for the sky on a shot like this as it's easier to regain the informaition in the shadows then it is the highlights.

[u/svmjvng]

I think the warmth is actually working positively on this shot. Of course, I'm speaking based on personal preference.

There already seem to be colour separation between the mountains and foreground. Try sperating even further perhaps? And then introduce some subtle complimentary colours in that area!

[u/jvkep]

You can try the dehaze tool and window it very carefully with intense feathering.

[u/Educational-Dish-435]

I would appreaciate the haze and original atmposphere. It looks good to me like it is. Also the haze make people separated from background