To color grade or not...?

I'm so glad I found this thread. This question has been on my mind for a while.

I grade about 90% of the clips that I upload. And by grade I simply mean that I make sure there is no color cast, and that black and white points are where they should be. No artistic grading, just technical.

I'm actually going back over some of my first clips where this wasn't done and re-uploading.

I really enjoy grading - especially when there is a clear concept - sometimes it's really fun to be creative, and I've sold several that were heavily graded especially with artistic "interpretations". Mark ("Ironstrike") is one very successful person who is not afraid to mess with his footage, and is one of my inspirations on Pond5 because he shows how you can push things and be artistic, and still sell. Radek ("Motion_Poland") kindly helped me by out of the blue sending me a still frame he graded from one of my early shots, and his version really popped, and mine looked lame.

Definitely offer a "flat" version if you want to go "out there". (I don't as much as I should) I tend to also work with my own footage, and I've found that it helps to re-grade my own clips, as I can see where I may have gone too far, or not far enough. But I now look at each clip as an opportunity to create a version of what I had in my mind's eye when shooting. Doing art is more fun than factory work, and that's how I look at it.

Especially worthy for shooting with flat picture profiles, which I do, for better dynamic range. With the settings as I have them now, clips straight from the FS700 look dead, but with some prodding here, some poking there, they really come to life, and then since this was done on the first transcode, there is no appreciable detail loss at all, and the PJPEG mov is easier to push and pull some more, so buyers can dial it into their production.

That's my stance, and I'm sticking to it until I find reason to change it - and I'm always looking!