Hey there!

I was wondering if anyone could point me out on a tutorial, where they teach you how to make a normal video look darkened and desaturated. Like on the picture... I've tried screwing around with the contrast, brightness and saturation, but it doesn't give that exact effect. Any help?

Thanks!

Well, there won't ever be a tutorial for every single type of setting, but I can tell you how I would go about doing it.

First, add a vignette: Create a black layer on top of the video, and double click on the circular mask tool. This should make a black circle the height and width of the composition. Under the mask1 properties for the black layer, change the mask type to Subtract (from Add). Then, increase the Mask Feather until there is a nice black vignette around the subject. You can also play around with the mask expansion to get your desired effect.

I used the following settings (Create a new Adjustment layer on top of everything, and apply the following effects to it):

Hue/Saturation:
Check "Colorize" and play with the hue until you get the desired color. Then increase the saturation a bit. I wouldn't play with the color lightness, we'll deal with that later.

Color Balance:
Don't do anything except bump up the blue balances (all three, shadow, midtone, and highlight) anywhere between 15-25. This is just to make it a bit more blue.

Curves:
Click a single point in the center of the line and pull it down just a bit, this will make the entire thing a bit darker.

Exposure:
This may seem counterproductive, but it isn't. Exposure will mess with the lightness/darkness of things, justlike curves, but unlike curves, the brighter things get brighter faster, so in exposure, bump up the master exposure a LITTLE bit. I used .90. Be sure to check "Bypass Linear Light Conversion" This should make the sun look much brighter.

Color Balance (HLS)
This is just to adjust the saturation just a bit more. Don't worry about the hue or lightness, just decrease the saturation a bit more (I used -33).

That should be it! I used the same technique on a vista sample picture:
Initial:
Click to view attachment

After Effects:
Click to view attachment

Don't worry if you don't get how to do this in any situation. It truly is an art. Studios all around the world make millions because they can do this so well. It's all about playing around with your tools.

Good luck and have fun

Thnks! I'll try it out...

Coolio, be sure to post your results, I'd love to see what you do!