How to tell whether more contrast means more colour
Tell Vizard Agent how the footage looks to you rather than which control to move. "More contrast" almost always means more punch and more colour, so it raises saturation and brings the highlights under control before touching the blacks. When shadows do get deeper than you wanted, it lifts them again while keeping the vividness you asked for.
What do you type into Vizard Agent?
Describe the impression, not the tool. Asking for contrast gets you contrast. Saying the footage looks dull and you want it vivid gets you the grade you actually meant, which usually involves saturation more than the black point. A reference point helps too: "it looks like it was shot twenty years ago" is more useful than any number.
Prompt
What does Vizard Agent actually do?
Grading notes describe a feeling in words borrowed from controls. Taken literally, "more contrast" darkens the shadows, which nobody was asking for. The punch mostly comes from saturation and highlight control, so Vizard Agent starts there, and it judges each version on frames rather than from its settings. In the session behind this article it:
- Reviewed representative frames from each of a pair of clips, then built a brighter, clearer version as a clean starting point.
- Applied a richer, more modern colour grade and refined it with controlled highlights.
- Tried a dramatic high-contrast look when asked, and was told the shadows were too deep.
- Balanced the contrast while preserving detail, and lifted the shadows while keeping the colourful, punchy look.
- Reviewed the brighter version on frames rather than assuming it worked, keeping the earlier versions instead of overwriting them.
When does this not work well?
When the footage has nothing left to bring out, and Vizard Agent will say so early. A flat log file has real range to work with. A heavily compressed clip that has already been graded once doesn't, and pushing saturation into it produces banding rather than richness. Skin tones go wrong first, and a grade can take brand colours off-brand.
Common questions
Will it crush my blacks? Not unless you want that. Vizard Agent lifts them if you say so.
Can it protect skin tones? Yes, and Vizard Agent will usually do it without being asked.
Can it go back a version? Yes. Vizard Agent keeps the earlier grades rather than overwriting them.