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Bryn Rogers

Colour Grading for Talking Head Footage





Colour grading is one of the most powerful tools for guiding the tone of a project. For a talking head interview, the values and messages behind what's being said should always be taken into account when determining the colour palette and eventual colour grade of a shoot.


Nailing the Basics


Always start with basic colour corrections. Perfecting these initial adjustments will give you the best building blocks as you further stylise your image when the edit progresses.

These basics being White Balance, Exposure, Highlights, Shadows and Contrast.

The extent to which these adjustments are needed will vary greatly depending on the video codec and colour profile you used to shoot your project. Flat profiles, like the one used in this tutorial, will require more work compared to others that don't. Nevertheless, this step still shouldn't be overlooked. The use of a histogram will also help massively to show you what needs doing and how far to go with these adjustments.



The Importance of Punchy Skin Tones


As with any shot with a human subject, the importance of accurate and vibrant skin tones is central to making the subject stand out in the composition. Talking-head shots are a key example of this. Without adjustment, skin tones can often turn out lacking in any colour or contrast, resulting in a subject who appears flat against the background.



In order to fix this, the best method is to use the colour selector and tracking tools in your video editor (in this case Davinci Resolve) to mask off the face/figure of your subject. This will allow us to make isolated adjustments to the skin tones of the subject without impacting the colour composition of the rest of the image.


The first thing to do is to bring some colour to the skin. This can be done by introducing more saturation and then can be further perfected by changing the colour composition of the shadows, mid tones and highlights. A good rule of thumb is to add some red to the shadows, and some orange to the mid-tones with the highlights left fairly neutral. The skin tine indicator on the histogram can also help to nail this.




Once the skin colour is done, then its time to create that punchy look I've been talking about. This is done by adding contrast to the skin tones in a way that boosts the highlights and brings down the shadows. Through bringing down the shadows we will create more depth in the darker areas. Similarly, through boosting the highlights the skin will become brighter whilst maintaining the same exposure in the mid-tones. This will create skin tones that jump out from the composition and will guide focus to the subject.



Another optional adjustment is to reduce the 'mid detail' of the skin. With the harsh reproduction of detail commonly found with modern UltraHD cameras, this can be a lifesaver to create an image that is more flattering to your client. This process essentially reduces the contrast and prominence of skin details like pores and wrinkles without blurring them out like the cheap-looking beauty filers we often see on social media.


Stylise your grade


Once you have established basic colour correction and punchy skin tones, its time to begin to stylise your grade. This can vary greatly depending on the requirements of a project. Some clients may require an organic and natural-looking video whilst others may want a more dramatic feel with an exaggerated colour palette. Blue colour palette's commonly infer a cold and less inviting tone, whilst warmer palettes are more inviting and comforting to the viewer. For my project with Miss Kick I chose to go the more natural route by neutralising the background colours and leaning heavily on the warmer tones of the filming location. I did also bring a slight bit of blue into the shadows to infer a very subtle teal and orange look. This step can also be achieved by applying a LUT which is essentially a filter that adjusts your image for you. These are a great place to start, however, they aren't as precise as doing these adjustments yourself. The extent to which you stylise your grade is entirely up to you but do remember to always take into account the function of your video project.




Guiding focus


This is essentially an extension of how you stylise your grade but specifically centres on how that stylisation brings focus to your subject. It's by no means the most important aspect of an edit but can absolutely bring that extra polish that sells the viewer on the professionalism of your editing.


The use of Vignettes and masked blurring can be very powerful to further separate the subject from the background. These effects can emphasise focus and guide the viewer to the subjects face/figure.





As mentioned in the previous section, controlling the colours of the background is also very important. For my Miss Kick project, I desaturated the background and changed the more fleshy orange tones to be more yellow. This meant the background colours were less overwhelming and didn't compete with the skin tones of the subject, thus allowing for more focus on them and what they had to say.






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