Log Grading

In this entry, I'm going to show you guys how to fix the image/footage using Log grading.

The image above will be the image that we're going to try to edit.

     If you look closely to the image's scopes, everything is below the average line. The image is dark but not crushed. What we're going to do is to try to neutralize the image.

     The image above is the edited version. It only took me less than 5 minutes to achieved this look. So here's what I did. First, I moved the offset to the right to increase all the colors. I increased it until the images' colors reached the middle portion of the waveform. Then I decreased the shadows a little bit, I also moved the midtones to the right  to give the image some details.

     I apply some contrast to give depth to the image, especially in the background. So by default, contrast is centered in the middle portion of the tonal range—right around 50% on waveform scope when using the contrast control. The Pivot control allows you to change the center point of a contrast adjustment when using the contrast control. I  also increased the saturation to make it lively. As you can see the curves is bent a little bit to the left. I did that to increase the amount of light in the image, not in an exaggerated way, just enough to make it more dramatic.

Here's the result.

                               BEFORE                                                                       AFTER

     So here is the before and after. Before the image looks dark and dull, even though there is a direct light shining to his face, the over all image seems less contrast. After, we give life to the image and increased the contrast and also corrected the amount of light that is present and also fixed the colors to make it more natural. That's how we use Log grading in DaVinci Resolve.