VFX Development - Test Shots & Colour Development

So I did a test photo shoot with my actress, nothing professional just in my bedroom taking photographs against a wall with RAW format so I got the best options when it came to editing them. Every photo I took is here even the messed up ones, as you can see there is a lot of work to do with them all but it's exactly what I needed.

As you can see, the images are nothing special but what I do in with my software is going to change them dramatically.

First I took my RAW (CR2) into an Adobe program called 'Camera Raw' it allows you to edit the data embedded in the image before it has all be baked in. I balance the colours of my image and made sure I have a the full range of blacks to whites. What is black is black and what is white is white, you can see this in the top right hand corner with the RGB spectrum.

Then came the quick colouring, in my head I already had a great idea of what the shot would look like, so that was my first attempt. As you can see from the image I simply added a few curve adjustments and a solid layer that had a 'Multiply' adjustment  to it. This is of course is far from the way I will be doing it when it comes to colour grading but right now I'm just looking for the look.

For ease after this I simply took my images in to 'Magic Bullet Looks' by 'Red Giant' and took a look at a few of there different ideas. Which is fine because I would be able to use these presets on my footage.

To no avail though I found that I preferred my first attempt, the colouring was dark but you could still see detail and it had the cold blue look. Enough that I could get the image to react with light which I will soon be demonstrating.