Color.io - Review and Tutorial
How to get the Film Look in your Photos and Videos
In this video, we're taking a look at Color.io, a new powerful film emulation and photo editing tool for photographers and filmmakers.
Try Color.io for FREE today: https://tinyurl.com/4z5nad9m
If you decide to purchase a Color.io Pro Lifetime Access Licence, make sure to use my discount code saving you a further 25% off
DGCINE25
This is an affiliate code for my channel, so if you do decide to upgrade your account, you'll be helping to support me and these videos, saving yourself money at the same time.
In this video, we're taking a look at Color.io, a new powerful film emulation and photo editing tool for photographers and filmmakers.
What is Color.io?
So what actually is color.io and what makes it different from other film emulation tools?
Color.io is a web based app which allows you to use it on all of your devices including, desktop, mobile and tablet.
You can edit raw photos, as well as create looks for your video footage to use with other 3rd party applications such as DaVinci Resolve & Premiere Pro.
It works in a such way that makes it easy to keep looks consistent, no matter what input color space, or picture profile you used in camera.
How do you use it?
The actual process for using Color.io is incredibly simple.
In it's most basic form, you import your image, choose a preset, edit as needed and then export.
But of course, we will go over the process in a bit more detail.
Splitting up the photo and video workflow.
So to start with
Photography Workflow
before we dive into the photography workflow, it's worth me pointing out that you can use Color.io directly in your browser but because it's a progressive web application, you do also have the option to install it on your desktop or other devices for quick full-screen access.
There is a full guide on how to do this in the Getting Started section of the guide.
I'll be using the desktop version on a mac in most of these examples.
In Color.io you work within Scenes. You can think of these as groups or different projects, depending on your workflow.
You can import and export multiple images into the same scene and copy grades between seperate ones if needed.
To add a new scene you just click on the plus icon.
The other tools you have along the top bar are your undo and redo, along with a full history of your edits which you can scroll back through.
You have the option to turn on or off the histogram overlay, this will also update depending on what part of the image you are zoomed in on.
You can toggle on the 3D Lut view, as well as the split screen, allowing you to quickly swipe between a before and after of your look.
You will find the full-screen control here as well, along with your account information and support tools.
When you first start a new scene, you'll be greeted with the import dialogue box, this is where you can add all of the images you want to grade for this particular scene.
You can either drag and drop them, or just click open images.
The first thing to do is choose your input and output color space. If you are editing raw images, the recommended input option is VisionLog RAW. If you just shot jpeg mode, you can use sRGB. For the output I just used sRGB but this will depend on your individual needs. If you want to use it for print or web for example.
I won't go into full detail of how color managment works within Color.io as the user guide will do a much better job of this than I ever will, but essentially it uses an input display tranform to convert whatever format you've used into an ACES workflow and then it will use an output display transform to convert it into your desired output, wether that be rec709 for video or sRGB for photos as an example.
Once you've chosen you input and output, this is where the fun begins!
You will see you have a whole range of presets to choose from, including if you have a pro licence the ability to generate a look from scratch with spectra AI. This can even be adapted to suit your taste.
Each of these presets can be completely customised to the look you want to achieve, so once you find something you like, you can move on to dialling it in even further.
Within the color engine, you have a range of tools that you may already be familiar with.
To start with you have spectral volume and spectral balance.
Spectral volume controls the color density and luminance of your image.
Think of color density as saturation or vibrance. Dragging up and down will control the brightness and left and right will control the saturation.
spectral balance controls the temperature and tint.
Left and right is warmer and colder, up and down is green and magenta.
You can adjust the mix of any of these tools with the percentage slider.
Next up, you have the color scattering wheels.
This is where you can have finer control of the colors within your shadows and highlights.
As with all the tools within color.io they have been designed in a way to give you a natural, film-like color processing.
Following on from these two we have the Color Refraction wheels.
These allow you have further control of your red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta hue vectors. You have the option to unlink the shadows and highlights as wells as toggle the separation mask for more control.
The film density tools allow for full control over the hue and saturation of your image.
Density vs Hue Curve lets you manipulate the individual colors
Density vs Chroma Curve adjusts the density of the colors in your images by adjusting the chrominance values, these basically control how colorful a pixel is.
Similarly, the Density vs Luminance Curve adjusts the colors in your image depending on their luminance values.
An example in the user guide suggests you can use this curve do desaturate only the shadows or highlights of an image while leaving the mid-tones untouched as an example.
Moving on, The Luminance vs Luminance curve is a traditional contrast curve which you are probably familiar with.
The luma vs hue curve will brighten or darken your desired colors.
You also have the option to use the black-and-white point sliders.
these are linked as standard but can be unliked if needed for more control.
Finally, in this part we have the color mask and tone compression section.
The Color Range Mask and Tone Compression tool, allows you to exclude a specific color range from the grade and compress tones inside of that range.
Anything that is white will be isolated from the grade, everything that is black will be left unaffected.
Next up, we move onto the film effects section.
This is where you can add haltion, grain and vignettes.
Each of these has their own custom controls.
it's easy to go overboard with these sometimes, but just remember a little goes a long way.
Once you are happy with the look you've created, it's now time to export.
You can export images individually or as a batch, just select all of the ones you want.
In the export dialogue box, for images you have the option to choose your resolution and quality.
You will need to have color.io pro for lossless and full resolution exports.
That pretty much sums everything up for editing still images, now we move onto video and generating Luts.
Video Workflow
The video workflow is slightly different and there are a few key points to keep in mind.
At this stage, you can't directly import video clips into Color.io scenes. Instead you will need to export ungraded still frames from your timeline for each look you require.
These still frames can be imported into Color.io the same way photos can.
You will then need to select the correct color space for the footage you shot in, wether that be in rec.709 or in my case S-Log2.
You can also adjust the output color space, for me, I use rec.709.
You can then edit your stills to get the look you desire.
The main difference between stills and videos, however, is that you won't be able to include film grain or haltion as this information cannot be stored in the 3D Luts that will exported when you are finished.
If you are looking to add these in your final grade, they can be introduced in your third-party editing software.
Once you are finished designing your look. You can export it as a 3D Lut as mentioned.
You have a range of options to choose from and if you are not completely sure, there are some common use cases and workflows in the user guide.
Design / UI / UX
I've found the design and general UI and UX of Color.io to be straightforward and intuitive.
Everything is laid out in a clear and logical way, making the transition through the grading process incredibly smooth.
If you are unsure what a certain tool does, you can always hover over it or click the question mark.
This brings me onto my next point.
Help and Support
One of the main things that I've really appreciated about Color.io is the help and support provided.
There is an extensive user guide and if you don't find out what you need to know there, you can always ask a question directly.
There is also a clear way to report any bugs or other issues you might come across, as well as the option to sumbit ideas and see what will be added in the future.
There definitely feels like there is more of an openness and transparency to color.io than with similar tools I've used previously.
Price
So when it comes to price Color.io is as straightforward as it gets.
You have the free option or the Pro option
The pro option allows you to have your own custom preset library, full resolution & uncompressed Exports. 3D LUT exports, You can generate DCTLs (DaVinci Colorspace Transform Language)
Plus you will have access to all future updates.
Color.io Pro is available for $15 a month or $49 for the annual subscription, saving you over 70%
Probably the best option though, you can get lifetime access, no subscription required for $129
But it gets better!
Johnathan, the creator of Color.io has actually given me discount code saving you a further 25% off a lifetime access licence.
DGCINE25
This is an affiliate code for my channel, so if you do decide to upgrade your acocunt, you'll be helping to support me and these videos, saving yourself money at the same time.
Final Thoughts
I've been having a lot of fun editing still photos and create looks for my videos with Color io
If you'd like to give color io a try yourself, it's free to get started with no sign up required.
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments.
If you want to see more videos on low budget cinematogrpahy and filmmaking in general, you can subsribe below or carry on watching one of these videos.
I look forward to seeing you next time, take care.