Lowepost – Masterclass in Color Grading with Derek Hansen

Derek Hansen is one of the most successful colorists in Los Angeles, with experience from high-end commercial work at MPC, The Mill, and Arsenal Creative. In this masterclass, you are invited into his color suite to watch how he creates great-looking images and discuss workflow, techniques, creativity, and strategies that will help you become a better colorist.

👉 This course is about the art and craft of color grading and is not designed to teach the operations of a specific software.

📥 The footage used in this course is available for download.

---

🎓 About the Instructor

Derek Hansen is a world-renowned colorist with a background from MPC, The Mill, and Arsenal Creative. He has crafted images for many top directors such as Gia Coppola, Young Replicant, Luke Monahan, and Brian Buckley and graded music videos for artists such as Miley Cyrus, St. Vincent, J. Cole, and Meghan Trainor, to name a few.

---

🎯 Who is this course designed for?

✔️ Colorists

---

🎬 COURSE OVERVIEW

🎨 LESSON 01: COLOR SETUP AND ANALYZING THE SCENE

Derek sets up the color workflow and analyzes the scene.

🎛️ LESSON 02: PRIMARY BALANCE

Starting with the primary balance and discussing its importance.

🗂️ LESSON 03: ORGANIZATION AND RIPPLING

Discussing layer organization and grade rippling.

⚖️ LESSON 04: BALANCING

Balancing and discussing all decisions regarding brightness and exposure. Addressing challenges such as thin images and sharp highlights.

🔍 LESSON 05: REFERENCES

Analyzing client references and preparing for look creation.

📈 LESSON 06: CURVE MANAGEMENT

Derek recreates characteristics of Kodak Eastman, using techniques to compress midtones and control highlights.

🎨 LESSON 07: DEEP SATURATION

Continuing the work of recreating the Kodak Eastman look, using hue curves to create deep, rich, saturated colors.

🌈 LESSON 08: HUE SHIFTING

Shifting individual hues to bring colors into harmony and create a stronger look.

🔴 LESSON 09: RED TONES

Finessing the look by incorporating red film tones.

🎭 LESSON 10: SECONDARY WORK

Finalizing with shadow, highlight, and skin keys for a better match.