#my coloring tutorial

1. screencaps

open the video you want and look for the part you want to gif. pause there, press ctrl + g on your keyboard and this window will appear. 

extrair para (extract to) you click on the yellow folder to select where the screens will be saved

the red parts are the most important. on método (method) you set yours to “only video image”

now to take the screens is simple:

press start on the window and press play on the video

after you take the screens you want you can either pause the video and press pause on the window, or just press pause on the window so the screens will stop

done!

2. loading screens on photoshop

first, let’s open the action:

window > actions (if you don’t have it yet)

then click on this icon and go to load actions

select the best action ever you downloaded <3

load the screens:

file > scripts > load multiple dicom files

or load files into stack. but dicom files are SO FAST, it’s way better. either way you’ll have to search the folder where you saved the screens

3. crop the gif and do the magic

press letter c on your keyboard or go to the crop tool, my settings are:

crop the gif the way you want

now, let me explain the action there:

500% 0,03px are the common settings that everyone are using, this one here

500% 0,03px & 400% 0,03px are in fact two sharpens that i use for low quality videos or bigger gifs, like 540x350

since i don’t have the luxury to use only 1080p+ videos, i use mostly 720p. but you can use this with 1080p+ videos too, will be even better i guess

DICOM Files and Load Files Into Stack you use depending on the way you loaded the screens on photoshop

the red boxes are just where i sharpen two times, this way if i want to change the settings before it apply i can do it. to get rid of if you just open the action on the blue arrow and uncheck the boxes that are checked (?)

now you just pick one, hit play, and it’s done!

you can’t use this to “test” the sharpening, because this action will apply the sharpening and basically make the gif for you. i explain the process here

if you want to test, you duplicate the document after you crop and then apply the action

4. the coloring yay

well, after literally no effort at all (i loaded the screens, cropped, apply the action and it’s done) i have the gif sharpened with the right speed:

4.1 CURVES

click on the white eye dropper

select the whitest or close to that part on the gif. doesn’t have to be perfect, you’ll need a better light and color correct if possible, if you think it’s not as bad as it was before, then move on

settings:

result, like i said.... not as bad as before, this coloring i can work with

4.2 PHOTO FILTER

they are just AMAZING. i used 3 of them:

result: 

4.3 EXPOSURE

not too much, but let’s brighten a little more. i use especially gamma to brighten their faces, while exposure will brighten around them only

result:

4.4 LEVELS

doesn’t look like much, but trust me will make a difference

result:

4.5 SELECTIVE COLOR

create a selective color and change the blending mode to color

settings:

result:

4.5 SELECTIVE COLOR 2

create another selective color and change the blending mode to luminosity

settings:

result:

the tutorial, finally lol

tv show high fidelity. this gonna be simple scene before going to the annoying dark/yellow/green/blue scenes on the second part of the tutorial.

this is important: i don’t always get right the first time like i’m showing this tutorial. i do all this process and then go back to the layers and adjust a few to get what i want

before:

after:

1) curves. first i brighten the gif just a little with RGB so i can see how to color correct, and to do that i use the red, green, and blue there. instead of using them up, i decrease their values, trying to leave as natural/red/magenta as possible, sometimes i increase, like i did with blue, but it’s really just a bit

okay, what do i do? i decrease the color that’s bothering me. when you increase the RGB, the color that stand out is what you will use the others to fix. like this one, the gif got too yellow, so i decrease red. then it was too green, so that’s the next one to change. i get this “controlled” yellow, it’s good but i want more red-ish/magenta tone so i can work with the colors only later, so i increase the blue just a bit for that. then you get the result

i always try to "take off” the colors here so i have more control of them in the future and edit the way i want

result:

2) levels. i use for both darken and brighten, nothing too extreme

the white arrow to brighten, it depends on the gif, but since i'll use exposure to that later, i only use around 200 to 250

the gray one to darken, if you increase this one too much then you’ll be whitewashing the shit out of the gif, i only use this way or don’t use at all. exception if it’s a really dark gif

the dark one is to darken too, i use only around 0 to 10

result:

3) exposure. this one is the one i use to brighten, here the different is minimal, but in a dark gif this works really well as you’ll see on part 2. also, i know it looks like the levels was for nothing here, but most of the time you go back to previous layers and edit a bit more. or even after use exposure and need to darken, levels is there for it

exposure. i never use more than 1,00. and sometimes only +50 is enough in a dark gif

offset. nope, never, no

gamma correction. also, never use more than 1,10. sometimes 1,05 is more than enough

result: 

4) gradient map. i wasn’t a fan, but now that i see the difference i’m always using it. i like that controls the dark parts of the gif, i could use more levels for that, but it would get weird

always soft light, and the fill i only use around 20%. sometimes my standard is 15%. i got this from sami’s tutorial and it’s amazing even tho it doesn’t look like much here

result: 

5) color balance. i’m still in that thought of “taking off” the colors, because after this layer that i’ll edit them.but also here i fix the color if the gif is practically ready. i only used midtones, but sometimes i use highlights to make the gif as natural as possible. it doesn’t look like it changed much here, but you’ll probably get back here after finishing the psd to fix a thing or two

result:

6) selective color. the fun part! honestly, just mess around the colors. i can’t really say do this or that here because i change this a lot depending on the gif, so here are some tips:

reds and yellows. i use to fix whitewashing, make the person more vivid too, you know? usually i’ve been using magenta with yellow together, you have more control if the red will stay red or it will be pink-sh, and if the yellow will stay yellow or be around green

cyans and blues. if you come across a gif where the white is blue, you adjust this on cyans. decrease the cyan and mess around magenta and yellow

magentas and whites. sometimes the gif seems too red-ish, or something, so you decrease magenta and it will make a LOT of difference. the whites it’s helpful too when the white on the gif have another annoying color, you adjust here just like the cyans

neutrals and blacks. nothing hardcore, sometimes i don’t even use neutrals. and i used to use blacks on 10 and it’s just the worst on most of the gifs, so now i use top 5, depending on the gif

result: 

7) vibrance. i don’t overdo because it will ruin everything i edited previously, like, if add more vibrance the yellow would go crazy along with the background and ugh, this way is so clean and exactly what i want. so, i never use more than 50, some scenes are really with no color, so i use more

final result:

other examples using the same process are in the post previews since tumblr won’t let me add more gifs here ;)

PART 2 OF THE TUTORIAL HERE

1. curves

1.2 select the white point eye-dropper

1.3 click on the whitest, or close to that, part on the gif. you just have to click, and click and click to find the right spot and the result you want is basically the best light and a little of color correct right away, doesn’t have to be perfect tho

result:

2. exposure

2.1 just bright a little more, don’t overdo it, specially with gamma.

result:

3. photo filter

3.1 the "color correct” the curves gave us was a bit magenta, so this should fix, also don’t overdo it

result:

4. levels

4.1 let’s bring the dark back(?). nothing too much, you can also add a bit of light too

result:

5. selective color 

5.1 add one selective color, change the blending mode to color

5.2 the settings will depend on the gif, fix a bit of whitewashing, make colors pop up, you can do it all here. i didn’t need much

result:

5.3

add another selective color, but this time change the blend mode to luminosity

this is for the light and dark parts of the gif, so you’ll mess around with whites and blacks only

result:

aaaaaaaaand it’s done!

1. curves

1.2 select the white point eye-dropper

1.3 click on the whitest, or close to that, part on the gif. the result you want is basically the best light and a little of color correct right away, doesn’t have to be perfect. most of the time to find the right spot you’ll have to zoom in

settings:

result:

2. exposure

2.1 don’t overdo it, the light is good but i wanted more. a tip: if you want more light, you can decrease gamma a bit to match the dark parts of the gif. but not too much, there is still levels you can do that too

result:

3. levels

3.1 as i said before, you can darken even more here and add more light. it’s always better not to do everything in one layer

result:

4. vibrance

4.1 you can add vibrance before or after you color correct, i like to do it before so it’s easier to color correct later. also don’t overdo it, you can add more color with selective color later

result:

5. selective color

5.1 add one selective color, change the blending mode to color

5.2 you could add before this a color balance and get rid of the green-ish, or you can do it with selective color too:

5.3 to fix the green-ish, i edited magenta and yellow on the red, same on the yellow

5.4 also, the settings on green is to get rid of the green parts of the gif, that makes green go black. cyan also influence on the green

result:

6. another selective color

6.1 add another selective color, but this time change the blend mode to luminosity

6.2 this is for the light and dark parts of the gif. like i said before, you don’t need to do it all in one layer, we used 4 layers (curves, levels, exposure, selective color) to adjust light and dark and this is better

result:

1. curves

1.2 select the white point eye-dropper

1.3 click on the whitest, or close to that, part on the gif. the result you want is basically the best light and a little of color correct right away, doesn’t have to be perfect tho. here i could go for the shirt, but it would be too bright, didn’t want that so i zoomed in on her necklace, most of the time to find the right spot you’ll have to zoom in

result:

2. exposure

2.1 don’t overdo it, just because it’s a dark scene, you shouldn’t go crazy with brightness, also i even used gamma to darken a bit more

result:

3. levels

3.1 just a few adjusts for the blacks, and add a bit more of light

result:

4. selective color

4.1 add one selective color, change the blending mode to color

4.2 now the colors, you can edit here as much as you want, and even add another one of this, but let’s keep it simple

result:

4.3

add another selective color, but this time change the blend mode to luminosity

this is for the light and dark parts of the gif, but the dark is fine, so just a bit of white is ok

result: 

aaaaaaaaand it’s done!