Had a cameraman at a wedding tell me I was overediting my clips and it hit hard

I was shooting a wedding last Saturday as a second shooter. During dinner the main cameraman looked at my laptop and said "you're killing your color grade with too many layers." He showed me his raw edit with just 2 adjustments and it looked SO much cleaner. I realized I've been stacking 5-6 LUTs and tweaks trying to make things pop when they already looked good. Has anyone else had a seasoned pro call them out on overcomplicating stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

olivia_harris1918d ago

I used to think more layers meant more control, you know, like stacking adjustments to get that "cinematic look." But then I shot with this older videographer last year and he literally pulled up my timeline, looked at my 7-layer nightmare on a clip, and just said "why?" with this deadpan face. He showed me his - one LUT, one curves tweak, and it was so much more natural and clean. That totally flipped my thinking. Now I keep it to 2-3 max and it honestly takes half the time and looks better. It's humbling but I'm glad someone called me out early.

jenny_coleman18d ago

I get what olivia_harris19 is saying about that clean 2-layer look, but honestly I think it depends on what you're going for. Sometimes that "clean" look just feels flat to me when I'm trying to match a moodier vibe or fix weird lighting in a reception hall. I've had times where 5 adjustments got me exactly what I wanted and the client raved about it, even though a pro would probably hate my timeline. Your mileage may vary, but I don't think more layers always means overcomplicated if you know why each one is there.