A simple tool used in a sophisticated way, that’s how Jim Welninski explains this color grading technique, which can be applied to different types of photos, for almost infinite results. Try it!
Created as part of ON1’s Photo RAW promotional effort, the video entitled “Color Grade Your Photos Like A Pro” transcends its promotional idea, effectively explaining photographers how color grading can be easy, once you know how to use the tools you’ve available in the program.
Recently crowned by users of ON1 Photo RAW “the Bob Ross of ON1”, for his efforts to create and share simple solutions for what sometimes seems like complex problems, Jim Welninski reveals, again, in this 10-minute video, how justified is the comparison with the painter Robert Norman Ross, responsible for the television program the Joy if Painting.
https://youtu.be/kY6b5NGwnOA
Using a photograph he took of a friend, Jim Welninski explains in the video how he decided to take a different approach when editing it, while in Effects, and ended using a really simple tool to do color grading in “kind of a sophisticated way”. The experiment opens the door, he believes, to the exploration of a much larger subject that he encourages users of ON1 Photo RAW to explore and play with.
Once the base work for color grading the photo has been done, Jim Welninski show how by simply adjusting curves in each of the channels it is possible to change the mood in a photograph. The photographer says that this solution is twofold, as adding a color grade can not only make managing color easier, it also allows you to create mood and pull the whole photo together.
Jim Welninski says that a lot of photographers he knows don’t take color grading very seriously but he believes they should, as “a good colored grade has the power to bring your whole photograph together and make it a cohesive whole and unify the mood of the piece you’re working on.”