Anatomy of a Grade - Ep 14 - Carolina Panthers Product Shot Breakdown

Well we're in the midst of football season and in honor of the pigskin I thought it might be fun to take a look at a football-themed shot for the latest installment of "Anatomy of a Grade". This is a grade that I did a while back for the Mullen Lowe Agency and the North Carolina Education Lottery and their new line of Carolina Panthers lottery tickets. Product shots require a bit of a different "perspective" in the grading suite. Obviously with a shot like this, "it's all about the product" and making it look good! But there's also a lot more that goes into the decision making of a grade like this. This episode marks a slight "shift" in the Anatomy of a Grade Series as I'd like to start placing a stronger emphasis on "WHY" colorists make the decisions they do in grading a particular shot, as opposed to the "how" of the specific tools they used to get their result.

I've found that in my own education regarding color correction, the "HOW" of color grading is often very simple and straightforward and can be gleaned from a bit of education and practice. The "WHY" however, is MUCH more complicated and unique to each colorist, and in my opinion is the more important factor that leads to the particular results that a colorist gets out of an image and a project. The "WHY" is really what makes a grade, and explains why one colorist gets one result and another will get something entirely different with the same piece of footage. For myself, I always wished people would explain more of the decision making process that got them to their end result, moreso than the particulars of the software and tools they used to do it. And so, without further ado, here's my "WHY" on this particularly fun commercial grade. Enjoy!