Color User Manual
K Apple Inc. Copyright © 2007 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Your rights to the software are governed by the accompanying software license agreement. The owner or authorized user of a valid copy of Final Cut Studio software may reproduce this publication for the purpose of learning to use such software. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, such as selling copies of this publication or for providing paid for support services.
1 Contents Preface 9 9 10 10 11 Color Documentation and Resources What Is Color? Using the Color Documentation Color Websites Apple Service and Support Website Chapter 1 13 13 16 22 24 27 Color Correction Basics What Is Color Correction? When Does Color Correction Happen? Color Correction in Color Image Encoding Standards Basic Color and Imaging Concepts Chapter 2 35 35 37 39 47 49 56 Color Correction Workflows An Overview of the Color Workflow Limitations in Color Video Finishing Workflows Using
82 82 83 84 88 89 89 4 Exporting EDLs Relinking QuickTime Media Importing Media Directly into The Timeline Compatible Media Formats Converting Cineon and DPX Image Sequences to QuickTime Importing Color Corrections Exporting JPEG Images Chapter 5 91 91 92 97 98 102 102 Setup The File Browser The Shots Browser Grades Bin Project Settings Tab Messages Tab User Preferences Tab Chapter 6 111 111 113 115 120 Monitoring The Scopes Window Monitoring Broadcast Video Output Using Display LUTs Monitoring the
183 189 201 204 206 Understanding Shadow, Midtone, and Highlight Adjustments Curves Controls Basic Tab Advanced Tab Auto Balance Chapter 10 209 209 211 212 219 221 228 229 234 Secondaries What Is the Secondaries Room Used For? Where to Start? Choosing a Region to Correct Using the HSL Qualifiers Previews Tab Isolating a Region Using the Vignette Controls Adjusting the Inside and Outside of the Selection Using the Secondary Curves Reset Controls Chapter 11 235 235 236 238 239 241 242 247 248 249 Color
274 281 Managing Grades in the Shots Browser Using the Primary, Secondary, and Color FX Rooms Together to Manage Each Shot’s Corrections Chapter 14 285 285 286 288 290 Keyframing Why Keyframe an Effect? How Keyframing Works in Different Rooms Working with Keyframes in the Timeline Keyframe Interpolation Chapter 15 293 293 294 298 306 Geometry Navigating Within the Image Preview The Pan & Scan Tab Shapes Tab Tracking Tab Chapter 16 315 315 317 317 318 318 319 Still Store Saving Images to the Sti
336 336 337 337 Shortcuts in the Shots Browser Shortcuts in the Geometry Room Still Store Shortcuts Render Queue Shortcuts Appendix C 339 339 344 346 351 Setting Up a Control Surface JLCooper MCS-3000, MCS-Spectrum, MCS-3400, and MCS-3800 Control Surfaces Tangent Devices CP100 Control Surface Tangent Devices CP200 Series Control Surface Customizing Control Surface Sensitivity Index 353 Contents 7
Preface Color Documentation and Resources Welcome to the world of professional video and film grading and manipulation using Color. What Is Color? Color has been designed from the ground up as a feature-rich color correction environment that complements a wide variety of post-production workflows, whether your project is standard definition, high definition, or a 2K digital intermediate.
Using the Color Documentation The documentation that accompanies Color consists of a printed setup Guide and an onscreen user manual. Color Setup Guide The Color Setup Guide provides excerpts from the onscreen user manual that are designed to show you how Color fits into each of a variety of post-production workflows, and help you to configure the project settings and user preferences in Color to best suit your needs.
Apple Service and Support Website The Apple Service and Support website provides software updates and answers to the most frequently asked questions for all Apple products, including Color. You’ll also have access to product specifications, reference documentation, and Apple product technical articles: Â http://www.apple.com/support For support information that’s specific to Color, go to: Â http://www.apple.
1 Color Correction Basics 1 To better learn how Color works, it’s important to understand the overall color correction process and how images work their way through post-production in SD, HD, and film workflows. If you’re new to color correction, the first part of this chapter provides a background in color correction workflows to help you better understand why Color works the way it does.
The Fundamentals Every program requires you to take, at the very least, the following steps. With practice, most of these can be accomplished using the primary color correction tools (for more information, see Chapter 9, “Primary In,” on page 163). Â Making sure that key elements in your program look the way they should: Every scene of your program has key elements that are the main focus of the viewer. In a narrative or documentary video, the focus is probably on the individuals within each shot.
 Creating contrast: Color correction can also be used to create contrast between two scenes for a more jarring effect. Imagine cutting from a lush, green jungle scene to a harsh desert landscape with many more reds and yellows. Using color correction, you can subtly accentuate these differences.  Achieving a “look”: The process of color correction is not simply one of making all the video in your piece match some objective model of exposure.
 Making digital lighting adjustments: Sometimes lighting setups that looked right during the shoot don’t work as well in post. Changes in the director’s vision, alterations to the tone of the scene as edited, or suggestions on the part of the director of photography (DoP) during post may necessitate alterations to the lighting within a scene beyond simple adjustments to the image’s overall contrast.
At other times, the director or producer may change his or her mind regarding how the finished piece should look. In these cases, color correction might be used to alter the overall look of the piece (for example, making footage that was shot to look cool look warmer, instead). While Color provides an exceptional degree of control over your footage, it’s still important to start out with clean, properly exposed footage.
 Projects of any length which are going through post-production as a digital intermediate are transferred with a color correction pass designed to retain the maximum amount of image data. Since a second (and final) digital color correction pass is intended to be performed at the end of the post-production process, it’s critical that the image data is high-quality, preserving as much highlight and shadow detail as possible.
Color Timing for Film Programs being finished and color corrected on film traditionally undergo a negative conform process prior to color timing. When editorial is complete, the original camera negative is conformed to match the workprint or video cut of the edited program using a cut list or pull list (if the program was edited using Final Cut Pro, this can be derived using Cinema Tools), which lists each shot used in the edited program, and shows how each shot fits together.
Note: Color includes printer points controls for colorists who are familiar with this method of color correction. For more information, see “Advanced Tab” on page 204. Tape-to-Tape Color Correction With projects shot on videotape (and those shot on film that can’t afford a second telecine pass), the color correction process fits into the traditional video offline/online workflow.
Using the cut list, the post-production supervisor pulls only the film negative that was actually used in the edit. Since this is usually a minority of the footage that was originally shot, the colorist now has more time (depending on the show’s budget, of course) to perform a more detailed color correction pass on the selected footage that will be assembled into the final video program during this final telecine pass.
Other Advantages to Telecine Transfers In addition to color correction, a colorist working with a telecine has many other options available, depending on what kinds of issues may have come up during the edit. Â Using a telecine to pull the image straight off the film negative, the colorist can reposition the image to include parts of the film image that fall outside the action safe area of video.
Finishing film or video programs digitally frees colorists from the limitations of film and tape transport mechanisms, speeding their work by letting them navigate through a project as quickly as in a nonlinear editing application. Furthermore, working with the digital image data provides a margin of safety, by eliminating the risk of scratching the negative or damaging the source tapes.
Image Encoding Standards The following section provides important information about the image encoding standards supported by Color. The image data you’ll be color correcting is typically encoded either using an RGB or Y´CBCR (sometimes referred to as YUV) format. Color is extremely flexible and capable of working with image data of either type.
Chroma Subsampling In Y´CBCR encoded video, the color channels are typically sampled at a lower ratio than the luma channel. Because the human eye is more sensitive to differences in brightness than in color, this has been used as a way of reducing the video bandwidth (or data rate) requirements without perceptible loss to the image. The sampling ratio between the Y´, CB, and CR channels is notated as a three value ratio.
Furthermore, it’s common to use chroma keying operations to isolate specific areas of the picture for correction. This is done using the HSB qualifiers in the Secondaries room. These keying operations will have smoother and less noisy edges when you’re working with 4:2:2 subsampled video. The chroma compression used by 4:1:1 and 4:2:0 subsampled video results in “blockiness” when you isolate the chroma, which affects the mattes that are created by the HSB qualifiers.
Most of the media you’ll receive falls into one of the following bit depths, all of which Color supports: Â 8-bit: Most standard and high definition consumer and professional digital video formats capture 8-bit image data, including DV and DVCPRO-25, DVCPRO 50, HDV, DVCPRO HD, HDCAM, and so on. Â 10-bit: Many video capture interfaces allow the uncompressed capture of analog and digital video at 10-bit resolution.
Contrast Contrast adjustments are the most fundamental, and generally the first, adjustments made. Contrast is a way of describing an image’s tonality. If you eliminate all color from an image, reducing it to a series of grayscale tones, the contrast of the picture is seen by the distribution of dark, medium, and light tones in the image. Controlling contrast involves adjustments to three aspects of an image’s tonality: Â The black point is the darkest pixel in the image.
An image’s contrast ratio is the difference between the darkest and brightest tonal values within that image. Typically, a higher contrast ratio, where the difference between the two is greater, is preferable to a lower one. Unless you’re specifically going for a low-contrast look, higher contrast ratios generally provide a clearer, crisper image.
What Is Setup Beginning colorists sometimes confuse the black level of digital video with setup. Setup refers to the black level of an analog video signal and is only an issue with analog video. If you are outputting to an analog tape format using a third-party analog video interface, you should check the documentation that came with that video interface to determine how to configure the video interface for the North American standard for setup (7.5 IRE) or the Japanese standard (0 IRE).
Gamma Gamma refers to two different concepts. In a video signal, gamma refers to the nonlinear representation of luminance in a picture displayed on a broadcast or computer monitor. Since the eye has a nonlinear response to light (mentioned in “The Y’CBCR Color Model” on page 24), applying a gamma adjustment while recording an image maximizes the perceptible recorded detail in video signals with limited bandwidth.
Saturation Saturation describes the intensity of that color, whether it’s a bright red or a pale red. An image that is completely desaturated has no color at all and is a grayscale image. Saturation is also measured on a color wheel, but as the distance from the center of the wheel to the edge. As you look at the color wheel, notice that it is a mix of the red, green, and blue primary colors that make up video.
Complementary Colors Two colors that appear 180 degrees opposite one another on the wheel are referred to as complementary colors. Adding two complementary colors of equal saturation to one another neutralizes the saturation, resulting in a grayscale tone. This can be seen in the two overlapping color wheels in the illustration below. Where red and cyan precisely overlap, both colors become neutralized.
The HSL color space model can be graphically illustrated as a three dimensional cone. Hue is represented by an angle around the base of the cone, as seen below, while saturation is represented by a color’s distance from the center of the cone to the edge, with the center being completely desaturated and the edge being saturated to maximum intensity. A color’s brightness, then, can be represented by its distance from the base to the peak of the cone.
2 Color Correction Workflows 2 Taking maximum advantage of Color requires careful workflow management. This chapter outlines where Color fits into your post-production workflow. Color has been designed to work hand in hand with editing applications like Final Cut Pro via XML and QuickTime media support, or with other editorial environments via EDL and image sequence support.
Each room gathers all the controls pertaining to that particular step of the colorcorrection process onto a single screen. The rooms are organized in the order of a typical color-correction workflow, so you can work your way across from the Primary controls, to the Secondary controls, Color FX, Primary Out, and finally Geometry as you work on each shot in your project. Â Setup: All projects begin in the Setup room. This is where you import and manage the shots in your program.
 Geometry: The Geometry room lets you pan and scan, rotate, flip, and flop shots as necessary. The Geometry room also provides tools for creating custom masks and for applying and managing motion tracking analyses. How Geometry is handled depends on your workflow:  For projects being round-tripped from Final Cut Pro, Geometry room transformations are not rendered by Color when outputting the corrected project media.
To accommodate editorial changes, reconforming tools are provided to synchronize an EDL or Final Cut Pro sequence with the version of that project being graded in Color. For more information, see “Reconforming Projects” on page 79. Â Filters: Final Cut Pro FXScript or FxPlug filters are neither previewed nor rendered by Color. However, their presence in your project is maintained, and they show up again once the project is sent back to Final Cut Pro.
Important: When you send frames of media to a compositing application, it’s vital that you maintain the frame number in the filenames of new image sequence media that you generate. Each image file’s frame number identifies its position in that program’s Timeline, so any effects being created as part of a 2K digital intermediate workflow require careful file management. Â Freeze Frame clips and Still image files: Still frames used in Final Cut Pro projects, including .tiff, .
Exactly how you conform your source media in Final Cut Pro depends on the type of media that’s used. A Tape-Based Workflow For a traditional offline/online tape-based workflow, the process is simple. The tapes are captured into Final Cut Pro, possibly at a lower quality offline resolution to ease the initial editing process by using media that takes less hard drive space, and is easier to work with using a wider range of computers.
Uncompressed video formats, or projects where there are many, many reels of source media, may benefit from being captured at a lower resolution or with a more highly compressed codec. This will save drive space and also enable you to edit using less expensive equipment. Later, you’ll have to recapture the media prior to color correction. Step 2: Edit the program in Final Cut Pro Edit your program in Final Cut Pro, as you would any other project.
Step 4: Pre-render any still images or effects you want to grade in Color Color can’t display or process still images, certain motion settings, FXScript or FxPlug filters, Final Cut Pro generators (including titles), Motion project files, or LiveType project files. If you want to grade clips using these effects in Color, you need to render those shots in Final Cut Pro as self-contained QuickTime .
Important: Some parameters in the Project Settings tab of the Setup room affect how the media rendered by Color is rendered. These settings include the Deinterlace Renders, QuickTime Export Codec, Broadcast Safe, and Handles settings. Be sure to verify these and other settings prior to rendering your final output. Step 9: Adjust transitions, superimpositions, and titles in Final Cut Pro To output your project, you need to import the XML project data back into Final Cut Pro.
Here’s a more detailed explanation of the offline-to-online portion of this workflow. Step 1: Shoot and back up all source media Shoot the project using whichever tapeless format you’ve chosen. As you shoot, make sure that you’re keeping backups of all your media, in case anything happens to your primary media storage device.
Reconforming Online Media in a Film-to-Tape Workflow If you’re working on a project that was shot on film, but will be mastered on video, it must be transferred from film to tape using a telecine (telecined) prior to being captured and edited in Final Cut Pro. At that point, the rest of the offline and online edit is identical to any other tape-based format.
 Some productions prefer to save money up front by doing an inexpensive “one-light” transfer of all the footage to an inexpensive offline video format for the initial offline edit (a one-light transfer refers to the process of using a single color-correction setting to transfer whole scenes of footage). This can save time and money up front, but may necessitate a second telecine session to retransfer only the footage used in the edit at a higher level of visual quality.
Important: Do not use the Media Manager to either rename or delete unused media in your project when working with offline media that refers to camera negative. If you do, you’ll lose the ability to create accurate pull lists in Cinema Tools. Step 6: Pre-render effects, send the sequence to Color, and grade At this point, the workflow is identical to step 7 in “A Tape-Based Workflow” on page 40.
Step 2: Capture media at online resolution You’ll need to recapture the sequence created when importing the EDL using the highest quality QuickTime format that you can accommodate on your computer (such as Apple ProRes 422 or Apple Uncompressed). Step 3: Pre-render effects, send the sequence to Color, and grade At this point, the workflow is identical to step 7 in “A Tape-Based Workflow” on page 40.
To properly “notch” the master media file, you need to be sure to turn on “Use as Cut List,” and then choose the master media file that you captured or were given. For more information, see “Importing EDLs” on page 80. Step 4: Grade your program in Color Use Color to grade your program.
A Tapeless DI Workflow Using Online/Offline Digital Duplicates The easiest digital intermediate workflow is one where you scan all footage necessary for the offline edit and then create a duplicate set of offline media to edit your project with. Upon completion of the offline edit, you then relink the program to the original 2K source frames in Color. Deriving the offline media from the original digital media keeps your workflow simple and eliminates the need to retransfer the source film later on.
The following steps break this process down more explicitly. Step 1: Shoot film Ideally, you should do some tests before principal photography to see how the film scanner to Color to film recorder pipeline works with your choice of film formats and stocks. It’s always best to consult with the film lab you’ll be working with in advance to get as much information as possible.
Step 5: Prepare your Final Cut Pro sequence To prepare your edited sequence for an efficient workflow in Color, follow the steps outlined in “Before You Export Your Final Cut Pro Project” on page 75. Step 6: Export an EDL When you’ve finished with the edit, you’ll need to generate an EDL in either the CMX 340, CMX 3600, or GVG 4 Plus formats. Important: You cannot use the “Send to Color” command to move 2K projects to Color.
Step 11: Use the Gather Rendered Media command to assemble the final image sequence for delivery Once every single shot in your program has been rendered, you’ll need to use the Gather Rendered Media command to consolidate all of the frames that have been rendered, eliminating handles, copying every frame used by the program to a single directory, and renumbering each frame as a contiguously numbered image sequence.
The following steps break this process down more explicitly. Step 1: Shoot the film Ideally, you should do some tests before principal photography to see how the film scanner to Color to film recorder pipeline works with your choice of film formats and stocks. It’s always best to consult with the film facility you’ll be working with in advance to get as much information as possible.
 The pull list specifies which shots were used in the final version of the edit (this is usually a subset of the total amount of footage that was originally shot). Ideally, you should export a pull list that also contains the timecode In and Out points corresponding to each clip in the edited project. This way, the timecode data can be written to each frame that’s scanned during the datacine transfer to facilitate conforming in Color.
Using EDLs, Timecode, and Frame Numbers to Conform Projects Using careful data management, you can track the relationship of the original camera negative to the video or digital transfers that have been made for offline editing using timecode. How Does Color Relink DPX/Cineon Frames to an EDL? The key to a successful conform in Color is to make sure that the timecode data in the EDL is mirrored in the scanned DPX or Cineon frames you’re relinking to.
Image Sequence File Naming for Conforming Digital Intermediates Here’s an example filename of the first image sequence file that corresponds to the EDL event shown above: my_file_name.0494794.dpx The first portion of the filename for each scanned frame (the alpha characters) is ignored, but the numeric extension listing that file’s frame number should equal the (non-dropframe) timecode conversion of that value appearing in the EDL.
3 Using the Color Interface 3 You can work in Color either by using a mouse with the onscreen interface, or more directly by using a dedicated control surface that’s been designed for professional color correction work. This chapter covers the general interface conventions used by Color. It describes the use of controls which are shared by multiple areas of the interface, as well as some of the specialized controls that are unique to color correction applications.
Setting Up a Control Surface Color was designed from the ground up to support control surfaces specifically designed for color correction from manufacturers such as Tangent and JL Cooper Designs.
Using the Mouse Color supports the use of a three-button mouse, which provides quick access to shortcut menus and various navigational shortcuts. Color also supports the middle scroll wheel or scroll ball of a three-button mouse, either for scrolling or as a button.
To modify the value of a numeric or percentage-based text field with a virtual slider: 1 Move the pointer to the field you want to adjust. 2 Middle-click and drag to the left to decrease its value, or to the right to increase its value. 3 Release the mouse button when you’re finished. To modify the value of a numeric or percentage-based text field with a scroll wheel: 1 Move the pointer to the field you want to adjust.
 When you enter timecode in a field, you don’t need to enter all of the separator characters (such as colons); they’re automatically added between each pair of digits.  You can type a period to represent a pair of zeros when entering longer durations. For example, type “3.” (3 and a period) to enter timecode 00:00:03:00. The period is automatically interpreted by Color as 00.  To enter 00:03:00:00, type “3..” (3 and two periods).
Organizational Browsers and Bins Color presents several browsers and bins for organizing shots, media, and grades which share some common controls. All these browsers and bins are used to manage files on your hard drive, rather then data that’s stored within the Color project file itself. As a result, their controls are used to navigate and organize the directory structure of your hard drive, much as you would in the Finder.
To hide the file browser: m Move the pointer to the file browser divider at the right-hand side of the file browser, and when it’s highlighted in blue, click once to collapse it. To uncollapse the file browser: m Move the pointer to the file browser divider at the left-hand side of the window, and when it’s highlighted in blue, click once to uncollapse it. For more information on the Setup room, see Chapter 5, “Setup,” on page 91.
In list view, you can sort all of the shots using different info fields. For more information on using the Shots browser, see “The Shots Browser” on page 92. The Grades Bin The Grades bin, in the Setup room, lets you save and organize grades combining primary, secondary, and Color FX corrections into a single unit. You can use this bin to apply saved grades to other shots in the Timeline. The contents of the Grades bin are available to all Color projects opened while logged into that user account.
Grades Versus Corrections There is a distinct difference between grades and corrections in Color. Corrections refer to adjustments made within a single room. You have the option to save individual corrections inside the Primary, Secondaries, and Color FX rooms and apply them to shots individually. A grade can include multiple corrections across several rooms, saving one or more primary, secondary, and Color FX corrections together.
 Go Up: Moves to and displays the contents of the parent directory.  Go Home: Navigates to the appropriate home directory for that browser or bin. This is not your Mac OS X user home directory:  File browser: The home button takes you to the currently specified Color media directory.  Primary In, Secondaries, Color FX, and Primary Out: Home takes you to the appropriate subdirectory within the /Users/username/Library/Application Support/ Color directory.
Individual corrections in each of the above directories are saved as a pair of files; a .lsi file which contains a thumbnail for visually identifying that grade, and the specific file for that type of correction which actually defines its settings. Unless you customized the name, both these files have the same name, followed by a dot, followed by the date (day month year hour.minute.secondTimeZone), followed by the file extension that identifies the type of saved correction it is. Â Â Â Â Grade_Name.date.
Moving Saved Corrections and Grades to Other Computers If you have saved corrections and grades that you want to move to Color installations on other computers, you can simply copy the folders described on page 68 to a portable storage device, and then copy their contents into the corresponding folders on the new system. The next time you open Color, the saved corrections and grades will appear as they did before.
4 Importing and Managing Projects and Media 4 Color provides powerful tools for managing projects and media as you work. As mentioned in Chapter 2, “Color Correction Workflows,” on page 35, there are three main ways you can import a project and its media. You can import (or send) XML project data from Final Cut Pro, you can import an EDL and reconnect its media, or you can place the media itself directly into the Timeline manually.
Creating and Opening Projects When you first run Color, you’re presented with a dialog with which you can open an existing project or create a new one. To create a new project when Color is first opened: 1 Open Color. 2 When the Projects window opens, choose a location for the project. By default, the Create Project dialog opens to the Default Project Directory you chose when you first launched Color. 3 Type a name for the project in the File field, and click Save.
To revert the project to the last saved state: m Choose File > Revert (Command-R). Saving and Opening Archives An archive is a compressed duplicate of the project that’s stored within the project bundle itself.
What Is a Color Project? The only shots that are in your project are those in the Timeline (which are also mirrored in the Shots browser). Color projects only contain a single sequence of shots. Furthermore, Color projects have no organizational notion of shots that aren’t actually in the Timeline, and so they contain no unused media. The Contents of Color Projects Color projects are actually bundles.
Moving Projects Between Final Cut Pro and Color One of the easiest ways of importing a project is to send a Final Cut Pro sequence to Color using one of two XML-based workflows. This section discusses how to prepare your projects in Final Cut Pro and how to send them using XML. For more general information on Final Cut Pro to Color round-trip workflows, see “Video Finishing Workflows Using Final Cut Pro” on page 39.
 Freeze Frames (created from a clip inside of Final Cut Pro)  Still Image files (such as .tiff, .jpg, or .bmp files) If you want to grade such clips in Color, you need to export them as self-contained QuickTime files, and reedit them into the Timeline of your Final Cut Pro sequence to replace the original effects prior to sending the sequence to Color.
To send a sequence from Final Cut Pro to Color: 1 Open the project in Final Cut Pro. 2 Select a sequence in the Browser to send the entire sequence. 3 Do one of the following: Â Choose File > Send To > Color. Â Control-click the selection, then choose Send To > Color in the shortcut menu. 4 Chose a name for the project to be created in Color, then click OK. A new Color project is automatically created in the default projects directory specified in User Preferences.
Sending Your Project Back to Final Cut Pro If you’re doing a Final Cut Pro to Color round-trip, you’ll need to render the colorcorrected media out of Color (covered in Chapter 17, “Render Queue,” on page 321), and then export the Color project back to Final Cut Pro. Important: Projects using Cineon or DPX image sequences can’t be sent back to Final Cut Pro.
4 Click OK. A new XML project file is created, and the clips within are automatically linked to the media directory specified in the project settings tab in the Setup room. Note: If you haven’t exported rendered media from your Color project yet, then the XML file is linked to the original project media.
Importing EDLs You can import an EDL directly into Color. There are two reasons to use EDLs instead of XML files: Â To color correct a video master file: You can approximate a tape-to-tape color correction workflow by importing an EDL, and using the Use As Cut List option to link it to a corresponding master media file (either a QuickTime .mov file or a DPX image sequence).
The EDL Import Settings dialog appears, defaulting to the default project directory specified in the User Prefs tab of the Setup room. 3 Choose the following project properties from the available lists and pop-up menus: Â EDL Format: The format of the EDL file you’re importing. Â Project Frame Rate: The frame rate of the Color project you’re about to create. In most cases, this should match the frame rate of the EDL you’re importing. Â EDL Frame Rate: Choose the frame rate of the EDL you’re importing.
5 When you’ve finished choosing all the necessary settings, click Import. A new project is created, and the EDL is converted into a sequence of shots in the Timeline. These shots should match the Timelines of the original project. Exporting EDLs You can export EDLs out of Color, which can be a good way of moving projects back to other editorial applications.
If you click Yes and proceed with relinking to a different file, then the original Source In and Source Out values for that shot will be overwritten with those of the new clip. To relink every shot in the Timeline: 1 Choose File > Reconnect Media. 2 Choose the directory where the project’s media is saved from the Choose Media Path dialog, and click Choose. If that directory contains all the media used by the project, then every shot in the Timeline is automatically relinked.
 Drag the shot directly into the Timeline.  Click the Import button below that shot’s preview to edit the shot into the Timeline at the position of the playhead. Once shots have been placed into the Timeline, save your project. Compatible Media Formats Color is compatible with a wide variety of QuickTime files and image sequences. Compatible QuickTime Codecs for Import The list of codecs that are supported by Color is limited to high-quality codecs suitable for media exchange and mastering.
Supported for import Supported as original format Supported as export codec DVCPRO HD 1080p30 Yes No DVCPRO HD 720p50 Yes No DVCPRO HD 720p60 Yes No DVCPRO HD 720p Yes No H.
Compatible QuickTime Codecs for Output The purpose of Color is to create high-quality color-corrected media that can be reimported into Final Cut Pro for output to tape, QuickTime conversion, or compression for use by DVD Studio Pro. For this reason, the list of codecs that are supported for rendering out of Color is limited to high-quality codecs suitable for media exchange and mastering. Â Apple ProRes 422: A low-bandwidth, high-quality compressed codec for capture and output.
What Codec Should You Use for Export? When choosing the codec you want to use for rendering the final output, there are three considerations: Â If you’ll be outputting to a high-bandwidth video format (such as Betacam SP, Digital Betacam, HDCAM, and HDCAM SR) and require the highest quality video data available, regardless of storage or system requirements, you should export your media using the Apple Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 codec.
 JPEG 2000 (import only): Developed as a high-quality compressed format for production and archival purposes, JPEG 2000 uses wavelet compression to allow compression of the image while avoiding visible artifacts. Advantages include higher compression ratios with better visible quality, options for either lossless or lossy compression methods, the ability to handle both 8- and 16-bit linear color encoding, error checking, and metadata header standardization for color space and other data.
∏ Tip: To quickly apply a single correction to every shot in the Timeline, grade a representative shot in the Primary In room, then click Copy to All. 5 Open the Render Queue, then click Add All. 6 Click Start Render. All of the shots are converted, and the rendered output is written to the currently specified render directory.
5 Setup 5 Before you start working on your project, take a moment to configure your Color working environment and project settings in the Setup room. The Setup room serves many purposes. It’s where you import media files, sort and manage saved grades, organize and search through the shots used in your program, choose your project’s render and broadcast safe settings, and adjust user preferences. This chapter covers the following: Â Â Â Â Â Â The File Browser (p. 91) The Shots Browser (p.
By default, it displays the contents of the default media directory when Color starts up. Â Up Directory button: Moves to the next directory up the current file path. Â Home Directory button: Moves to the currently specified default media directory. For more information on how to use the file browser, see “Importing Media Directly into The Timeline” on page 83. For more information on importing project data from other applications, see Chapter 4, “Importing and Managing Projects and Media,” on page 71.
The Current Shot and Selected Shots Icons or entries in the Shots browser are colored based on their selected state. Â Dark Gray: The shot is not currently being viewed, nor is it selected. Â Light Gray: The shot at the current position of the playhead is considered to be the current shot and is highlighted with gray in both the Timeline and the Shots browser timeline. The current shot is the one that’s viewed and that’s corrected when the controls in any room are adjusted.
To reveal all shots after a find operation: m Select all of the text in the Find field, and press Delete. All shots should reappear in the Shots browser. Column Headers When the Shots browser is in list view, up to nine columns of information are visible. Â Number: Lists a shot’s position in the edit. The first shot is 1, the second is 2, and so on. Â Shot Name: The name of that shot, based on its filename.
Customizing the Shots Browser The following procedures describe ways you can sort and modify the Shots browser. To sort the Shots browser by any column: m Click a column’s header to sort by that column. Shots are sorted in descending order only. Numbers take precedence over letters, and uppercase takes precedence over lowercase. To resize a column in the Shots browser: m Drag the right-hand border of the column you want to resize.
4 To save the note and close it, do one of the following: Â Press Command-S, and close the window. Â Close the window and click Save from the drop sheet. When you’ve added a note to a shot, a check appears in the Notes column. To remove a note from a shot: m Control-click or right-click on the Notes column of the Shots browser, and choose Delete File from the shortcut menu. Note: Notes are saved within the subdirectory for that particular shot, within the /shots/ subdirectory inside that project bundle.
m Click any shot, and then Shift-click a second shot to select a contiguous range of shots from the first selection to the second. Selected shots appear with a cyan overlay. To navigate to a specific shot in the Timeline using the Shots browser: m Double-click any shot. m Type a number into the Goto Shot field. The new current shot turns gray in the Shots browser, and the playhead jumps to the first frame of that shot in the Timeline. That shot is now ready to be corrected using any of the Color rooms.
Project Settings Tab The options in the Project Settings tab are individually saved on a per-project basis. They let you store additional information about that project, adjust how the project is displayed, and how the shots in that project will be rendered. Informational and Render Directory Settings These settings provide information about Color and about your project and let you set up what directory media generated by that project is written into. Â Project Name: The name of the project.
If the currently selected QuickTime Export codec allows custom frame sizes, the width and height fields below can be edited. Otherwise, they remain uneditable. If these fields are set to a user-specified frame size, the Resolution Presets pop-up menu displays “custom.” Â Â Â Â Â Width: The currently selected width of the frame size. Â Height: The currently selected height of the frame size.
 QuickTime Export Codecs pop-up menu: If QuickTime is selected in the Render File Type pop-up menu, this menu lets you choose the codec with which to render media out of your project. If this menu is set to Original Format, the export codec will automatically match the codec specified in the sequence settings of the originating Final Cut Pro sequence (this option is only available when using the “Send to Color” command, or when importing an exported Final Cut Pro XML file).
 Phase: Lets you adjust the phase of the chroma. If Amplitude is set to 0, no change is made.  Offset: Lets you adjust the offset of a chroma adjustment. If Amplitude is set to 0, no change is made.  Chroma Limit: Sets the maximum allowable saturation. The chroma of signals with saturation above this limit will be limited to match this maximum value.  Composite Limit: Sets the maximum allowable combination of luma and chroma. Signals exceeding this limit will be limited to match this maximum value.
Important: The broadcast-safe legalization employed by Color can only do so much to maintain detail in the image while preventing illegal levels. As in any color correction system, pushing adjustments past a certaIn point will result in uniformly crushed blacks, blown-out whites, and flat areas of color. It should be said, however, that this is often used for stylistic effect.
Media and Project Directories The Media and Project directories let you control where new files are saved by default. Â Default Project Dir.: The default directory where all new Color projects are saved. This is also the default directory that appears in the dialog boxes for the Import EDL and Import XML commands. Click the Browse button to choose a new directory. Â Default Media Dir.: The default directory for the file browser.
 Jog/Shuttle Sensitivity: This parameter controls the speed at which the playhead moves relative to the amount of rotation that’s applied to a control surface’s Jog/ Shuttle wheel.  Joyball Sensitivity: This parameter controls how quickly color controls are adjusted when using a control surface’s joyballs to adjust the Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights color controls in the Primary In, Secondary, and Primary Out rooms. The default setting is 1, which is extremely slow.
The following parameters use miniature color controls that operate identically to those described in “Using Color Balance Controls” on page 179. Â Grade Complete color control: The color that’s displayed in the Timeline render bar for rendered shots. The default color is green. Â Grade Cued color control: The color that’s displayed in the Timeline render bar for shots that have been added to the render queue, but that are not yet rendered. The default color is yellow.
 Grading Proxy: Lets you choose a proxy resolution to use while adjusting the controls in any of the rooms. This increases the interactivity of the user interface and the speed with which the image being worked on updates while you adjust different grading controls. When you finish making an adjustment, the image goes back to its full resolution.  Playback Proxy: Lets you choose a proxy resolution to use during playback, increasing your playback framerate by lowering the quality of the image.
Important: If Force RGB is turned on, super-white and out-of-gamut chroma values will not be displayed by your broadcast display, nor will they appear on external video scopes analyzing your broadcast video interface’s output. This limitation only affects monitoring; the internal image processing performed by Color retains this data.
 Turning this setting on causes in keyframed changes in hue to be animated radially, with the hue cycling through all hues on the color wheel in between the current and target hues. This results in visible color cycling if you’re animating a change from one hue to any other that’s not directly adjacent on the color wheel. This is the method that Final Cut Pro uses when animating color adjustments in the Color Corrector and Color Corrector 3-way filters.
∏ Tip: Depending on your system’s performance, you may find it advantageous to work at a lower bit depth in order to maximize real-time performance. Then, you can switch to the desired bit depth prior to rendering your final output to maximize image quality. How Do Bit Depth and Channel Data Correspond? The actual range of values used by each channel for every pixel at a given bit depth is calculated by taking 2 to the nth power, where n is the bit depth itself.
6 Monitoring 6 The equipment and methods with which you monitor your work are critical to producing an accurate result. The importance of proper monitoring for color correction cannot be overemphasized. This chapter covers the monitoring options available in Color, including the configuration of the Scopes window, options for broadcast video output, the generation and use of LUTs for calibration and simulation, and how the Still Store is output to video for monitoring and evaluation.
The Preview Display The preview display either shows you the frame at the current position of the playhead in the Timeline, as it appears with all the corrections you’ve applied in all rooms (unless you choose Grade > Disable Grade), or the currently enabled Still Store image. Whichever image is shown in the preview display is mirrored on the broadcast monitor that’s connected to the video output of your computer. The preview display is also affected by LUTs that you import into your Color project.
Monitoring Broadcast Video Output For the most accurate monitoring of broadcast programs, Color ouputs standard and high definition video using supported third-party video interfaces. The drivers installed for the interface you have determine what resolutions, bit depths, and frame rates are available for outputting to an external monitor. To turn on external video monitoring: m Choose an option from the Video Output pop-up menu, in the User Prefs tab of the Setup room.
Monitoring at high bit depths is processor intensive, however, and can reduce your realtime performance. For this reason, you also have the option of lowering the bit depth while you work and then raising it when you’re ready to render the project’s final output. For more information about the monitoring options available in the User Prefs tab, see “Playback, Processing, and Output Settings” on page 106.
 The ideal viewing distance for a given monitor is approximately five times the vertical height of its screen.  The color of the room within your working field of vision should be a neutral gray. These precautions will help to prevent eye fatigue and inadvertent color biasing while you work and will also maximize the image quality you’ll perceive on your display. Calibrate Your Monitor Regularly Finally, calibrate your monitor regularly.
What Is a LUT? Simply put, look up tables (LUTs) are precalculated sets of data that are used to adjust the color of an image being displayed with the gamut and chromaticity of device A to match how that image would look using the gamut and chromaticity of device B. The gamut of a particular device represents the total range of colors that can be displayed on that device. Some types of displays are capable of displaying a greater range of colors than others.
When extruded into 3D space, the gamut and chromaticity of different devices create different shapes. For example, the standard RGB color space can be represented with a simple cube (as seen in the ColorSync Utility application): Each corner of the cube represents a different mix of the R,G,B tristimulus values that represent each color. The black corner is (0,0,0), the opposing white corner is (1,1,1), the blue corner is (0,0,1), the red corner is (1,0,0), and so forth.
When Do You Need a LUT? The following examples illustrate situations where you should consider using LUTs: Â If you’re matching multiple displays in a facility: LUTs can be useful for calibrating multiple displays to match a common visual standard, ensuring that a program doesn’t look different when you move it to another room. Â If you’re displaying SD or HD video on a nonbroadcast monitor: You can use a LUT to emulate the Rec.
This process typically involves printing a test image to film at the lab and then analyzing the resulting image to generate a target LUT that, together with your display’s calibration LUT (derived using a monitor probe and software on your system), is used to generate a third LUT, which is the one that’s used by Color for monitoring your program as you work.
Note: By default, LUTs are saved to the /Users/username/Library/Application Support/ Color/LUTs directory. The LUT immediately takes effect, modifying the image as it appears on the preview and broadcast displays. LUTs that you load are saved in a project’s settings until you specifically clear the LUT from that project. To stop using a LUT: m Choose File > Clear Display LUT. To share a LUT with other Color users, you must provide them with a copy of the LUT file.
7 Timeline Playback, Navigation, and Editing 7 The Timeline provides you with an interface for navigating through your project, selecting shots to grade, and limited editing. The Timeline and the Shots browser (in the Setup room) both provide ways of viewing the shots in your project. However, while the Shots browser gives you a way to nonlinearly sort and organize your shots, the Timeline provides a sequential display of how all of the shots in your program are arranged in time.
Basic Timeline UI Elements The Timeline is divided into a number of tracks, containing the shots, grades, and keyframes used by your program. Â Render Bar: The render bars above the Timeline Ruler show whether or not a shot is unrendered (red), or has been rendered (green). Â Timeline Ruler: Shows a time scale for the Timeline. Dragging within the Timeline ruler lets you move the playhead, scrubbing through the program. Â Playhead: Shows the position of the currently displayed frame in the Timeline.
Each of the four grades may include one or more Primary, Secondary, Color FX, and Primary Out corrections. By default, each grade appears with a single primary grade bar, but additional correction bars appear at the bottom if you’ve made adjustments to any of the other rooms for that grade. Each correction bar has a different color. Â P(rimary) bar: Shows whether a primary correction has been applied. Â S(econdary) bar: Shows whether one or more secondary corrections have been applied.
There are additional options in the User Prefs tab of the Setup room that let you change how shots are shown in the Timeline. To customize the way shots are displayed in the Timeline: 1 Click the setup room tab, then click the User Prefs tab. 2 Turn the following settings on or off: Â Show Shot’s Name: Turning this on displays each shot’s name in the Timeline. Â Show Shot’s Number: Turning this on displays each shot’s number in the Timeline.
Working with Tracks This section describes different ways you can change the state of tracks in the Timeline as you work. To lock and unlock a track: m Control-click or right-click anywhere within a track, then choose one of the following: Â Lock Track: Locks all the shots so that they can’t be moved or edited. Â Unlock Track: Allows shots to be moved and edited. Note: The tracks of imported XML projects are automatically locked. For the best round-trip results, these tracks should not be unlocked.
Selecting the Current Shot Whichever shot you move the playhead to becomes the current shot. The current shot is the one that’s adjusted whenever you manipulate any of the controls in the Primary In, Secondary, Color FX, Primary Out, or Geometry rooms. There can only be one current shot at a time. It’s the only one that’s highlighted in light gray.
Important: When you start playback, you enter a mode in which you’re unable to work with the Color controls until you stop playback. To stop the program, do one of the following: m Press the spacebar while the program is playing. m Press Escape. m Press K. Color and JKL Color has a partial implementation of the JKL playback controls that are so well used in other editing applications. However, the finer points of JKL, such as slow-motion and frame-by-frame playback, are not implemented.
To customize the playback duration: 1 Move the playhead to the desired In point, then press I. 2 Move the playhead to the desired Out point, then press O. Loop Playback If Loop Playback is enabled, the playhead jumps back to the In point whenever it reaches the out point during playback. To enable loop playback: 1 Click the setup room tab, then click the User Prefs tab. 2 Click the Loop Playback button to turn it on.
When there are more tracks than can be displayed within the Timeline at once, small white arrows appear either at the top, the bottom, or both, to indicate that there are hidden tracks in the direction that’s indicated. When this happens, you can scroll vertically in the Timeline using the middle mouse button. To scroll around the Timeline horizontally or vertically without moving the playhead: m Middle-click and drag the Timeline to the left, right, up, or down.
To select a shot in the Timeline: m Click any shot. Selected shots appear with a cyan highlight in the Timeline. To select a contiguous number of shots: 1 Click the first of a range of shots you want to select. 2 Shift-click another shot at the end of the range of shots you’d like to select. All shots in between the first and second shots you selected are also selected. To select a discontiguous number of shots: m Control-click any number of shots in the Timeline.
Working with Grades in the Timeline Each shot in the Timeline can be switched among up to four different grades, shown in the grades track. These four grades let you store different looks for the same shot. For example, if you’ve created a satisfactory grade, but you or your client would like to try “one other thing,” you can experiment with up to three different looks, knowing that you can instantly recall the original, if that’s what’s ultimately preferred.
 Control-click or right-click on the grade you want to switch to, and choose Select Grade X from the shortcut menu, where X is the number of the grade you’re selecting. That shot in the Timeline is updated with the newly selected grade. To reset a grade in the Timeline: 1 Move the playhead to the shot you want to switch the grade of.
The Settings 2 Tab This second tab contains additional settings that let you modify the header data of DPX image files. Â Override Header Settings: Turning this setting on overrides the following settings in the DPX header for the current shot. Â Log: This setting lets you enable or disable the log to linear image conversion that Color automatically performs to 10-bit log DPX and Cineon files.
However, if you’re working on a project where these issues aren’t important, you can use the following tools and commands to edit shots in unlocked tracks in the Timeline. ∏ Tip: If you need to make an editorial change, you can always reedit the original sequence in Final Cut Pro, export a new XML file, and use the Reconform command to update the Color Timeline to match the changes you made. Select Tool The select tool is the default state of the pointer in Color.
Roll Tool The Roll tool lets you adjust the Out point and In point of two adjacent shots simultaneously. If you like where two shots are placed in the Timeline, but you want to change when the cut point happens, you can use the Roll tool. No shots move in the Timeline as a result; only the edit point between the two shots moves. This is a twosided edit, meaning that two shots’ edit points are affected simultaneously; the first shot’s Out point and the next shot’s In point are both adjusted by a roll edit.
A ripple edit is a one-sided edit, meaning that you can only use it to adjust the In or Out point of a single shot. All shots following the one you’ve adjusted are moved—to the left if you’ve shortened it, or to the right if you’ve lengthened it. This is a significant operation that can potentially affect the timing of your entire program.
To make a slip edit: 1 Move the playhead to the shot you want to adjust, in order to be able to view the change you’re making as you work. 2 Do one of the following to choose the Slip edit tool: Â Choose Timeline > Slip Tool. Â Press Control-Y. 3 Move the pointer to the shot you want to slip, and drag it either left or right to make the edit. Unlike Final Cut Pro, Color provides no visual feedback showing the frames of the new In and Out points you’re choosing with this tool.
Important: When you splice two shots that have different grades and corrections, the grades and corrections of the shot to the left overwrite those of the shot to the right. To splice two shots into one: 1 Do one of the following to choose the Splice tool: Â Choose Timeline > Splice Tool. Â Press Control-Z. 2 Move the pointer to the Timeline ruler, and when the splice overlay appears (a vertical white line intersecting the shots in the Timeline), drag it to the edit point you want to splice.
Important: When you splice two shots that have different grades and corrections, the grades and corrections of the shot to the left overwrite those of the shot to the right. Snapping When snapping is on, clips “snap to” the 00:00:00:00 time value in the Timeline. To toggle snapping: m Choose Timeline > Snapping to turn snapping on and off.
8 Video Scopes 8 In addition to a well-calibrated broadcast display, video scopes are a fast and accurate way to quantitatively evaluate and compare images. Color provides most of the video scope displays that you’d find in other online video and color correction suites, and includes a few that are unique to software-based image analysis.
 Vectorscope  Histogram with the following options:  RGB presented simultaneously  Red, Green, or Blue channel in isolation  Luma only  3D color analysis with the following color space options:  RGB  HSL  Y´CBCR  IPT The location where the video scopes appear depends on whether Color is configured to single or double display mode:  In Single Display mode: Two video scopes are displayed underneath the video preview in the Scopes window, which is positioned to the left of the Color interface window
 In Double Display mode: Up to three video scopes are displayed in the Scopes window, in addition to the video preview. Video Scopes Accuracy To create a real-time analysis of the video signal (even during adjustment and playback), Color downsamples the current image to a resolution of 384 x 192. The downsampled image is then analyzed, and the resulting data displayed by the currently selected scopes. This same downsampled resolution is used regardless of the original resolution of the source media.
Video Scope Options You have the following ways of modifying the display and behavior of the video scopes. To enable real-time video scope updates: 1 Open the User Preferences tab located inside the Setup room. 2 Select Update UI During Playback. 3 To set the video scopes to update during playback, select Update Secondary Display. ∏ Tip: You can turn off Update Primary Display to improve playback performance. Some scopes have the option to be switched among different modes.
To reset any scope to its original scale and orientation: m Control-click or right-click within any scope, and choose Reset from the shortcut menu. Some scopes have the option to be displayed in color. To toggle video scope color on and off: 1 Open the User Preferences tab, located inside the Setup room. 2 Click Monochrome Scopes to turn scope color off or on.
To produce the overall analysis of the image, the individual graphs for each line of the image are superimposed over one another. Because the waveform’s values are plotted in the same horizontal position as the portion of the image that’s analyzed, the waveform mirrors the image to a certain extent. This can be seen if a subject moves from left to right in an image while the Waveform is playing in real time.
Note: To better illustrate the Parade scope’s analysis, the examples in this section are shown with Broadcast Safe disabled so that image values above 100 percent and below 0 percent won’t be clipped. The Parade scope makes it easy to spot color casts in the highlights and shadows of an image, by comparing the contours of the top and the bottom of each waveform.
The Parade scope is also useful for comparing the relative levels of reds, greens, and blues between two shots. If one shot has more red than another, the difference shows up as an elevated red waveform in the one and a depressed red waveform in the other, relative to the other channels. In the first screenshot, the overall image contains quite a bit of red. By comparison, the second shot has substantially less red and far higher levels of green, which can be seen immediately in the Parade scope.
Overlay The Overlay scope presents information that’s identical to that in the Parade scope, except that the waveforms representing the red, green, and blue channels are superimposed directly over one another. This can make it easier to spot the relative differences or similarities in overlapping areas of the three color channels that are supposed to be identical, such as neutral whites, grays, or blacks.
Luma The Luma scope shows you the relative levels of brightness within the image. Spikes or drops in the displayed waveform make it easy to see hot spots or dark areas in your picture. The difference between the highest peak and the lowest dip of the Luma scope’s graticule shows you the total contrast ratio of the shot, and the average thickness of the waveform shows its average exposure.
Chroma This scope shows the combined CB and CR color-difference components of the image. It’s useful for checking whether or not the overall chroma is too high, and also whether it’s being limited too much, as it lets you see the result of the Chroma Limit setting being imposed when Broadcast Safe is enabled.
Vectorscope The Vectorscope shows you the overall distribution of color in your image against a circular scale. The video image is represented by a graph consisting of a series of connected points that all fall about the center of this scale. For each point within the analyzed graph, its angle around the scale indicates its hue (which can be compared to the color targets provided) while its distance from the center of the scale represents the saturation of the color being displayed.
The Vectorscope is useful for seeing, at a glance, the hue and intensity of the various colors in your image. Once you learn to identify the colors in your shots on the graph in the Vectorscope, you will be better able to match two images closely because you can see where they vary. For example, if one image is more saturated than another, it’s graph in the Vectorscope will be larger.
How the color targets in the Vectorscope relate to the saturation of the Vectorscope graph depends on the scale the Vectorscope is set to: Â If the Vectorscope scale is set to 75 percent, then 75 percent color bars will hit the targets. Â If the Vectorscope scale is set to 100 percent, then 100 percent color bars will hit the targets. Note: All color is converted by Color to RGB using the Rec. 709 standard prior to analysis.
The Q Bar The Q bar shows the proper angle at which the hue of the purple box in the color bars test pattern should appear. This purple box, which is located at the right of the 100percent white reference square, is referred to as the +Quadrature signal, or Q for short.
For example, images with a red color cast either have a significantly stronger red histogram, or conversely will have weaker green and blue histograms. In the following example, the red cast in the highlights can be seen clearly. R, G, and B The R, G, and B histograms are simply isolated versions of each channel’s histogram graph. Luma The Luma histogram shows you the relative strength of all luminance values in the video frame, from black to super-white.
The Luma histogram can be very useful for quickly comparing the luma of two shots so you can adjust their shadows, midtones, and highlights to match more closely. For example, if you were matching a cutaway shot to the one shown above, you can tell just by looking that the image below is underexposed, but the Histogram gives you a reference for spotting how far. The shape of the histogram is also good for determining the amount of contrast in an image.
In this way, every color that can be represented in Color can be assigned a point in three dimensions using hue, saturation, and lightness to define each axis of space. The sides of the cube represent color of 100-percent saturation, while the center diagonal from the black to white corners represents 0-percent saturation. Darker colors fall closer to the black corner of the cube, while lighter colors fall closer to the diagonally opposing white corner of the cube.
In this way, darker colors lie at the bottom of the interior, while lighter colors lie at the top. More saturated colors lie closer to the outer sides of the shape, while less saturated colors fall closer to the center of the interior. Y’CBCR The Y´CBCR color space is similar to the HSL color space, except that the outer boundary of saturation is represented with a specifically shaped six-sided construct that shows the general boundaries of color in broadcast video.
IPT The IPT color space is a perceptually weighted color space, the purpose of which is to more accurately represent the hues in an image distributed on a scale that appears uniformly linear to your eye. While the RGB, HSL, and Y´CBCR color spaces present three-dimensional analyses of the image that are mathematically accurate, and allow you to see how the colors of an image are transformed from one gamut to another, they don’t necessarily show the distribution of colors as your eyes perceive them.
Sampling Color The 3D video scope also provides controls for sampling and analyzing the color of the currently displayed image. Three swatches at the bottom of the video scope let you sample three different colors for analysis. Note: These controls are visible only when the 3D scope is occupying an area of the Scopes window. To sample and analyze a color: 1 Click one of the three color swatch buttons at the bottom of the 3D scope.
 Crosshairs identify that value’s location within the three-dimensional representation of color in the 3D scope itself. Each color target is numbered to identify its corresponding color swatch.
9 Primary In 9 The Primary In room provides your main interface for color correcting each shot. For every shot, this is where you begin, and in many cases this may be all you need. Simply speaking, primary corrections are color corrections that affect the entire image at once. The Primary In room provides a variety of controls that will be familiar to anyone who’s worked with other image editing and color correction plug-ins and applications.
 To adjust color in the highlights and midtones to correct for unwanted color casts due to a video camera’s incorrect white balance settings, or lighting that was inappropriate for the type of film stock that was used.  To make changes to the overall color and contrast of an image in order to change the apparent time of day. For example, you might need to alter a shot that was photographed in the late afternoon to look as if it were shot at high noon.
Step 1: Adjust the contrast of the image Most colorists always begin by correcting the contrast of an image, before moving on to adjusting its color. This adjustment can be made using the primary contrast controls, the Luma curve control, and the Master Lift, Master Gain, and Master Gamma controls in the Basic tab. Step 2: Adjust the color balance of the image Once the black and white points of the image have been determined, the color balance is tackled.
Step 4: Make more specific adjustments If you still feel that there are specific aspects of the image that need further adjustment after steps one through three, you can turn to the curves controls, which let you make targeted adjustments to the color and contrast of the image within specifically defined zones of tonality. Past a certain point, however, it may also be easier to move on to the Secondaries room, covered in Chapter 10, “Secondaries,” on page 209.
Contrast Ratio One of the most important adjustments you can make to an image is to change its contrast ratio. The contrast ratio of an image is the difference between the darkest pixel in the shadows (the black point) and the lightest pixel in the highlights (the white point). The contrast ratio of an image is easy to quantify by looking at the Waveform monitor or Histogram set to Luma. High-contrast images have a wide distribution of values from the black point to the white point.
When using a control surface, the Encoder Sensitivity parameter in the User Prefs tab of the Setup room let you customize the speed with which these controls make adjustments. For more information, see “Control Surface Settings” on page 103. Adjusting Contrast in the Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights The primary contrast sliders consist of three vertical sliders, which are used to adjust the black point, the distribution of midtones, and the white point of the image. Shadow Output: 0.00h 0.00s 0.
 If Limit Shadow Adjustments is turned off: Contrast adjustments with the shadows slider are performed as a simple lift operation. The resulting correction uniformly lightens or darkens the entire image, altering the shadows, midtones, and highlights by the same amount. This can be seen most clearly when adjusting the black point of a linear black-to-white gradient, which appears in the Waveform Monitor as a straight diagonal slope.
You’ll probably leave the Limit Shadow Adjustments control turned on for most of your projects, since this provides the most control over image contrast (and color, as you’ll see later) in your programs. You’ll find that contrast adjustments to the shadows are one of the most frequent operations you’ll perform.
Adjusting the Midtones The Midtone contrast slider lets you make a nonlinear adjustment to the distribution of midtones in the image (sometimes referred to generically as a gamma adjustment). What this means is that you can adjust the middle tones of the image without changing the darkness of the shadows or the lightness of the highlights. Here are two examples of using the Midtone contrast slider. The midtones have been lowered in the following image.
Next, the Midtone slider is raised. The image has clearly lightened, and much more of the picture is in the highlights; yet the deepest shadows remain rich and dark, and the detail in the highlights isn’t being lost since the highlights are staying at their original level. Again, the top and bottom of the gradient’s slope in the Waveform Monitor remain more or less in place, but this time the slope curves upward.
If the image is too dark and the highlights seem lackluster, you can raise the Highlight slider to brighten the highlights, while leaving the shadows at their current levels. Notice that the black point of the gradient’s slope in the Waveform Monitor remains at 0 percent after the adjustment. Note: In this example, Broadcast Safe has been disabled, and you can see the white level of the gradient clipping at the maximum of 109 percent.
Overly bright highlights are often the case with images shot on video, where superwhite levels above the broadcast-legal limit of 100 percent frequently appear in the source media (as seen in the previous example). If left uncorrected, highlights above 100 percent will be clipped by the Broadcast Safe settings when they’re enabled, resulting in a loss of highlight detail when all pixels above 100 percent are set to be 100 percent.
While modest adjustments made with the Highlight slider won’t affect the black point, they will have an effect on the midtones that is proportional to the amount of your adjustment. The influence of the Highlight slider falls off toward the shadows, but it’s fair to say that adjustments made with the highlight slider have a gradually decreasing affect on approximately the brightest 80 percent of the image.
Most images don’t start out with the highest contrast ratio they could have. For example, even in well-exposed shots, videocameras often don’t record black at 0 percent, instead recording black levels at around 3–4 percent. For this reason alone, small adjustments to lower the black point often impress without the need to do much more.
Important: When you expand the contrast of underexposed shots, or make other extreme contrast adjustments, you may accentuate film grain and video noise in the image. This is particularly problematic when correcting programs that use video formats with low chroma subsampling ratios. for more information, see “Chroma Subsampling” on page 25. Of course, you also have the option to lower the contrast ratio of an image.
What Exactly Is Image Detail? Image detail is discussed frequently in this and other chapters, mainly within the context of operations that enhance perceived detail, and those that result in the loss of image detail. Simply put, image detail refers to the natural variation in tone, color, and contrast between adjacent pixels.
If, afterward, you adjust the Shadow or Midtone contrast sliders to lower the shadows, you’ll find more of the image becoming affected by the same color correction, despite the fact that you’ve made no further changes to that color control. This is not to say that you shouldn’t readjust contrast after making other color corrections, but you should keep these interactions in mind when you do so.
The Color Balance controls (which are sometimes referred to as Hue Wheels) work as virtual trackballs on the screen; however, they consist of three separate controls.
In the previous example, the image has a red color cast in the highlights, which can be confirmed by the height of the top of the red channel in the Parade scope. To correct this, you need to simultaneously lower the red channel and raise the blue channel, which you can do by dragging the highlight color balance control. The easy way to remember how to make a correction of this nature is to drag the color balance control handle toward the secondary of the color that’s too strong.
There are three color balance controls in the Primary In, Secondaries, and Primary Out rooms. Each one lets you make adjustments to specific tonal regions of the image. When Is a Color Cast a Creative Look? It’s important to bear in mind that color casts aren’t always bad things. In particular, if the Director of Photography is being creative with the lighting, there may in fact be color casts throughout the tonal range of the image.
Understanding Shadow, Midtone, and Highlight Adjustments Like many other color correction environments, Color provides a set of three color balance controls for the specific adjustment of color that falls within each of three overlapping zones of image tonality. These tonal zones are the shadows, midtones, and highlights of the image, which were covered in the previous section on contrast.
To prevent obvious banding or other artifacts, adjustments to the three tonal zones overlap broadly, with each color balance control’s influence over the image diminishing gradually at the edges of each zone. This overlap is shown in the following graph. Shadow control influence Midtone influence Highlight control influence The ways in which these zones overlap are based on the OpenCDL standard, and their behavior is described below.
 If Limit Shadow Adjustments is turned off: Color adjustments made using the shadows control are performed as a simple add operation (the color that’s selected in the Shadow color control is simply added to that of every pixel in the image). The resulting correction affects the entire image (and can be seen clearly within the gradient at the bottom of the image), producing an effect similar to a tint.
Note: To better illustrate the effect of the Shadow color control, the previous examples were shown with Broadcast Safe disabled so that image values below 0 percent wouldn’t be clipped. Midtones Color Adjustments Adjustments made with the Midtones color balance control apply the correction using a Power operation (the new pixel value = old pixel value ^ adjustment).
Highlights Color Adjustments Adjustments made using the Highlight color balance control apply a multiply operation to the image (the color that’s selected in the Highlight color control is simply multiplied with that of every pixel in the image). By definition, multiply color correction operations fall off in the darker portions of an image and have no effect whatsoever in regions of 0 percent black.
 Adjustments made to the midtones affect the broadest area of the image, but don’t affect the lowest percentages of the shadows or the highest percentages of the highlights.  Adjustments made to the highlights affect the midtones as well, but not the lowest percentages of the shadows.
The result is that the highlights correction that had been affecting the midtones has been neutralized in the lower portion of the midtones. Although making opposing adjustments to multiple color balance controls may seem contradictory, it’s a powerful technique. With practice, you’ll find yourself instinctively making adjustments like this all the time to limit the effect of corrections on neighboring zones of tonality.
Color balance controls are usually faster to use when making broad adjustments to the shadows, midtones, and highlights of the image. Curves, on the other hand, often take more time to adjust, but they allow extremely precise adjustments within narrow tonal zones of the image, which can border on the kinds of operations typically performed using secondary color correction.
If part of a curve is raised by one or more control points, then the tonal area of the image that corresponds to the source values within the curve are being adjusted to a higher value. In other words, that part of the image is lightened. Effect of raising midtones using the Luma curve If part of a curve is lowered with one or more control points, then the tonal area of the image that corresponds to the source values within the curve are being adjusted to a lower value.
Curves in Color are edited using B-Splines, which use control points that aren’t actually attached to the curve control to “pull” the curve into different shapes, like a strong magnet pulling thin wire. For example, here’s a curve with a single control point that’s raising the highlights disproportionately to the midtones: The control point hovering above the curve is pulling the entire curve upward, while the ends of the curve are pinned in place.
To remove control points from a curve: m Drag a point up or down until it’s outside the curve control area. To remove all control points from a curve: m Click the reset button (at the upper left-hand side of each curve graph) for the curve you want to clear control points from. Using Curves to Adjust Contrast One of the most easily understood ways of using curves is to adjust contrast with the Luma curve.
These two control points roughly correspond to the shadow and highlight contrast controls. If you add a third control point to the luma curve somewhere in the center, you can adjust the distribution of midtones that fall between the black and white points. This adjustment is similar to that using the Midtones contrast control. Moving this middle control point up raises the distribution of midtones, lightening the image while leaving the white and black points pinned in place.
An Example of the Luma Curve in Use The following example illustrates how to make very specific changes to the contrast of an image using the Luma curve. Looking at the waveform in the following image, you can see that the sky is significantly brighter then the rest of the image. In order to bring viewer attention more immediately to the subject sitting at the desk, you would want to darken the sky outside the window, without affecting the brightness of the rest of the image.
∏ Tip: When adding multiple control points to a curve, you can use the grid to identify where to position parts of a curve you want to be at the original, neutral state of the image. At its uncorrected state, each curve passes through the diagonal intersections of the background grid. 2 To make the actual adjustment, drag the white point at the upper-right corner down to darken the sky.
3 Add a control point below the first control point you created, and drag it up until the man’s face lightens. The man’s face is now brighter, but the shadows are now a bit washed out. 4 Add one last control point underneath the last control point you created, and drag it down just a little bit to deepen the shadows, without affecting the brighter portions of the image. As you can see, the Luma curve is a powerful tool for making extremely specific changes.
An Example of Color Curves in Use In the following example, you’ll see how to make a targeted correction to eliminate a color cast from the lower midtones, shadows, and extreme highlights of an image, while actually strengthening the same color cast in the lower highlights. The following image has a distinct red color cast from the shadows through the highlights, as you can see by the elevated red waveform in the Parade scope.
This operation certainly neutralizes the red in the shadows; unfortunately, because this one control point is influencing the entire curve, this correction also removes much of the original red from the midtones as well.
Since the key light for this shot is the sun coming in through the window, this is probably inappropriate and should be corrected. 3 Drag the control point for the white point in the red curve control down until the red in the brightest highlights of the face is neutralized, but not so far that the lighting begins to turn cyan. At this point, the correction is finished.
What Is Color Contrast? Contrast in this document usually describes the differences between light and dark tones in the image. There is another way to describe contrast, however, and that is the contrast between different colors in an image. Color contrast is a complex topic, touching upon hue, color temperature, lightness, and saturation. To greatly simplify this diverse topic, color contrast can pragmatically refer to the difference in color that exists in different regions of the image.
 Saturation: This parameter controls the saturation of the entire image. The default value of 1 makes no change to image saturation. Reducing this value lowers the intensity of the color of every pixel in the image; at 0 the image becomes a grayscale monochrome image showing only the luma. Raising the saturation increases the intensity of the color, up to a maximum value of 4.
 Highlight Sat.: This parameter controls the saturation in the highlights of your image. You can selectively desaturate the highlights of your image, which can help legalize problem clips, as well as restore some white to the brightest highlights in an image.
 Shadow Sat.: This parameter controls the saturation in the shadows of your image. You can selectively desaturate the shadows on your image to create deeper looking blacks and to eliminate inappropriate color in the shadows of your images for a more cinematic look. Original image Shadow saturation turned all the way down Master Contrast Controls Three additional parameters also affect image contrast. For more information on contrast adjustments, see “Using the Primary Contrast Controls” on page 166.
RGB Controls These parameters provide per-channel control over contrast and color. These are not numerical representations of any of the other controls in the Primary In room. Like the parameters in the Basic tab, they’re available as an additional set of controls. Typically, these parameters are adjusted when the Auto Balance button is used to automatically adjust a shot (for more information, see “Auto Balance” on page 206). However, you can use them as you see fit.
Also unique is the way in which adjustments are made. To emulate the nature of the filters employed by these kinds of machines, raising a parameter such as the Printer Points Red parameter doesn’t actually boost the red; instead, it removes red, causing the image to shift to cyan (the secondary of green and blue). To increase red, you actually need to decrease the Printer Points Red parameter.
To use the Auto Balance button: 1 Move the playhead in the Timeline to a representative frame of the shot you want to automatically color balance. 2 Click Auto Balance. Once the analysis has been performed, the Red, Green, and Blue Lift and Gain parameters in the Advanced tab of the Primary In room are automatically set to contain the results of these adjustments. The result should render whites, grays, and blacks in the image completely neutral.
10 Secondaries 10 Secondary color correction controls let you isolate a portion of an image and selectively adjust it without affecting the rest of the picture. Once you’ve made your initial corrections using the Primary In room, the next step in adjusting any shot is to move on to the Secondaries room to make more targeted adjustments. This chapter covers the following: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â What Is the Secondaries Room Used For? (p. 209) Where to Start? (p.
 Isolating areas for targeted corrections: This is the primary reason for the Secondaries room’s existence. Using a variety of techniques, you can perform functions such as isolating the highlights in an image to change the quality of light, target the color of an overly bright sweater to desaturate it without affecting the rest of the image, or select an actor’s face to create a post-production sunburn. Once you master the ability to selectively adjust portions of the image, the possibilities are endless.
 Digitally relighting areas of the image: The same feature can be used in a different way, drawing custom shapes to isolate regions of the image and add beams or pools of light where previously there were none. This can come in handy in situations where the lighting is a bit flat, and you want to add some interest to a feature in the scene.
Step 2: Make color balance, contrast, and saturation adjustments After you’ve qualified an area for correction, you can use the same color balance controls, primary contrast sliders, saturation and Lift/Gain/Gamma parameters in the Basic tab, as well as the RGB parameters in the Advanced tab that are available in the Primary In room. For more information about these controls, see Chapter 9, “Primary In,” on page 163.
The HSL controls work as a chroma keyer. By selecting ranges of hue, saturation, and lightness, you create a matte that is then used to define the region to which corrections are applied. Everything outside the matte remains unaffected (although you can also specify which portion of the matte you want to adjust, the inside or the outside). Original image Matte HSL qualifier settings Corrected image The HSL Qualifier controls always sample image data from the original, uncorrected image.
To use the eyedropper to pull a secondary key: 1 Click the eyedropper. The eyedropper becomes highlighted, and crosshairs appear superimposed over the image in the Preview and Broadcast monitors. You use these crosshairs to sample the HSL values from pixels in the image. 2 Move the mouse to position the crosshairs on a pixel with the color you want to key on, and click once to sample color from a single pixel.
In addition to sampling individual color values, you can also use the eyedropper to sample an entire range of values. To use the eyedropper to sample a range of values: m Click the eyedropper, then drag over the range of pixels you want to sample with the crosshairs. The HSL controls expand to include the entire range of hues, saturation, and lightness in the pixels you sampled. As a result, the keyed matte in the Previews tab is much more inclusive.
Each qualifier has three sets of handles, which correspond to three knobs on compatible control surfaces. These handles can also be manipulated directly onscreen using the mouse. They are: Center Range Tolerance  Center: A single handle defines the middle of the selected range of values.  Range: An inner pair of handles to the left and right of the center handle define the initial range of values that contribute to the keyed matte. These are the solid white pixels seen in the matte.
To make a symmetric adjustment to the Range handles: m Drag the Range handles directly, or drag anywhere between the Range and Tolerance handles (if the tolerance is wide enough) to widen or narrow the Range. To make an asymmetric adjustment to the Range handles: m Hold the Shift key down and drag the handle you want to adjust, while the opposing handle remains fixed in place. When you make an asymmetric adjustment, the center point also readjusts to match the new range.
Each Qualifier Explained  H (hue): Defines the range of colors that contribute to the key. Using Hue by itself to define a keyed matte can yield similar results to using the Hue, Sat, and Lum secondary curves. Because the visible spectrum is represented by a wrap-around gradient, the H handles are the only ones that wrap around the ends of this control, allowing you to select a complete range of blue to green, when necessary.  S (saturation): Defines the range of saturation that contributes to the key.
Note: You can manually set the key blur to even higher values by typing them directly into the Key Blur field. No key blur With key blur One of the nice things about keying for color correction is that, unlike when keying to create visual effects, you don’t always have to create keyed mattes with perfect edges or completely solid interiors. Oftentimes an otherwise mediocre key will work perfectly well, especially when the adjustment is subtle, so long as the effect doesn’t call attention to itself.
Note: The Matte Preview Mode and Vignette Outline only appear in the Preview display of the Scopes window when the Previews tab in the Secondaries room is selected. Matte Preview Mode buttons Vignette outline Vignette preview HSL Qualifier Matte preview  Vignette previews: The left-hand image shows you the position and size of the currently selected vignette shape, when enabled.
 Matte Only: Shows the actual matte being used to limit the effect. This is similar to the image displayed in the HSL qualifier preview display, except that it shows the sum of the vignette mask and the HSL mask, as well as the results of the mask as it’s modified by the Key Blur parameter. Final image Desaturated preview Matte only  Vignette outline: When the Vignette button is turned on, this button lets you toggle the vignette outline that’s displayed in the Preview window on and off.
Vignettes can also be used to select large regions of the frame for brightening or darkening. One common example of this is to use a shape to surround a region of the image you want to draw the viewer’s attention to, switch the control pop-up menu to Outside, and darken the background outside of this shape using the contrast sliders to make the subject “pop out” more, visually.
Note: If you have a compatible control surface, you can also use its controls to customize the vignette. Â Vignette button: This button turns the vignette on or off for that tab. Â Use Tracker: If you’ve analyzed one or more motion trackers in the current project, you can specify which tracker, by number, to use to automatically animate the position of the vignette. To disassociate a vignette from the tracker’s influence, set this value to 0.
Using the Onscreen Controls to Adjust Vignette Shapes The X Center, Y Center, Softness, Size, and Aspect parameters can all be adjusted via onscreen controls in the left-hand image of the Preview tab. Note: Although you can also view the outlines that correspond to these onscreen controls in the Preview display of the Scopes window when you turn the Vignette Outline button on, this outline has no onscreen controls that you can manipulate. You can only use make these adjustments in the Previews tab.
To adjust the softness of the vignette: m Middle-click and drag to blur the edges of the vignette. This adjusts the Softness parameter. The degree of softness is visualized in the Previews tab with a pair of concentric circles. The inner circle shows where the edge blurring begins, and the outer circle shows where the edge blurring ends, along with the shape.
3 Click in the Geometry preview area to add control points outlining the feature you want to isolate, then click on the first control point you created to close the shape and finish adding points. The shapes you draw in the Geometry room default to B-spline shapes, which use control points that are unattached to the shape they create to push and pull the shape into place (similarly to the B-splines used by the curve controls in the Primary In and Out rooms).
5 To feather the edge of the shape, increase the value of the Softness parameter. Two additional editable shapes appear to the inside and the outside of the shape you drew. The inner shape shows where the feathering begins, while the outer shape shows the very edge of the feathered shape. If necessary, each border can be independently adjusted. 6 As an optional organizational step, you can type an identifying name into the Shape Name field, and press Enter to accept the change.
You’ll see the shape you created within the vignette area of the Previews tab. At this point, the matte that’s created by the shape can be used to limit the corrections you make, as with any other secondary matte. When you use a User Shape, the Vignette controls in the secondary tab to which it’s assigned become disabled. If at any point you need to edit the shape, you must do so in the Geometry room; the secondary corrections that use that shape will automatically update to reflect your changes.
 Inside: The default setting. When set to Inside, all adjustments you make affect the interior of the secondary matte (the area in white, when looking at the mask itself ). Before inside adjustment After  Outside: When set to Outside, all adjustments you make in that tab affect the exterior of the secondary matte (the area in black). Making a darkening adjustment to the outside of a softly feathered circle matte that surrounds the entire frame is one way of creating a traditional vignette effect.
Important: Curves cannot be animated with keyframes, although just about every other parameter in the Secondaries room can be. These curves work much differently than the curves controls of the Primary In room. Each of the secondary curve controls defaults to a flat horizontal line running halfway through the graph area. The visible spectrum is represented along the surface of the curve by a wrap-around gradient, the ends of which wrap around to the other side of the curve.
For example, if you add four control points to the Saturation curve to lower the greenthrough-blue range of the curve, you can smoothly desaturate everything that’s blue and green throughout the frame, while leaving all other colors intact. Before After Sat curve adjustment One of the nicest aspects of these controls is that they allow for extremely specific adjustments to narrow or wide areas of color, with exceptionally smooth transitions from the corrected to the uncorrected areas of the image.
The secondary curves use B-Splines, just like the primary curve controls. In fact, you add and edit control points on the secondary curves in exactly the same way. For more information, see “Editing Control Points and B-Splines” on page 191. Important: The adjustments that are made using the secondary curves always affect the keyframed hues throughout the entire frame, and are not limited with the Vignette or HSL controls.
Sat Curve Tab Raising the saturation curve increases the saturation in that portion of the spectrum, while lowering it decreases the saturation. This is a powerful tool for creating stylized looks which enhance or subdue specific colors throughout the frame.
Lum Curve Tab Raising the luminance curve lightens the colors in that portion of the spectrum, while lowering it darkens them. This is a good tool to use when you need to make contrast adjustments to specific regions of color. Before After Lum curve adjustment Reset Controls The Secondaries room has two reset buttons. Â Reset Secondary button: Resets only the currently open secondary tab. Â Reset All Secondaries button: Resets every secondary tab in the Secondaries room. Use this button with care.
11 Color FX 11 When the primary and secondary color correction controls aren’t enough to achieve the look you need, Color FX lets you create sophisticated effects using a node-based interface. The Color FX room is a node-based effects environment. It’s been designed as an openended toolkit that you can use to create your own custom looks by processing an image with combinations of operations that take the form of nodes.
 Node View: The Node View, at the center of the Color FX room, is the area where nodes that you create appear and are connected together and arranged into the node trees that create the effect.  Parameters tab: When you select a node in the Node View, its parameters appear in this tab so that you can adjust and customize them.  Color FX Bin: This bin works similarly to the correction and Grades bins, giving you a way of saving effects that you create for future use.
You can think of a node tree as a waterfall of image processing data. Image processing operations begin at the top, and cascade down, from node to node. Each node exerts its effect on the image that’s output from the node above it, until the bottom is reached, at which point the image is at its final state. The very last node in any node tree must be the Output node. This is the node that sends the image that’s been processed by the Color FX room back into the Color image processing pipeline.
Any node’s output, on the other hand, can be connected to multiple nodes in order to feed duplicate versions of the image as it appears at that point in the tree to multiple operations. Creating and Connecting Nodes In this section, you’ll learn the methods used to add, delete, and arrange nodes to a tree, to create any effect. To add a node to the Node View, do one of the following: m Double-click any node in the node list. m Select a node from the node list, then click Add.
Note: When you position the pointer over any node’s input, a small tooltip appears to show you its name. If you want to eliminate the effect a node is having, you can toggle its Bypass button, at the top of the Parameters tab. To disconnect a node from the one above it: m Drag a noodle from the input of the node you want to disconnect to any empty area of the Node View. When you’re working on large node trees, it pays to keep them organized so that their operation is clear.
Selected nodes appear highlighted in cyan, and if that node has any parameters, they’ll appear to the right, ready for editing. You can edit node parameters the same way you edit parameters in any other room. You can also choose the point in a node tree at which you want to view the image. To show the image being processed at any node in the Node View: m Double-click the node you want to view.
As you fine-tune this effect, you’ll want to adjust the amount the black and white image contributes to the final effect by adjusting the Curve node, but you need to view the output of the Multiply node in order to see how far to make the adjustment. In this case, you’ll double-click the Multiply node so that it becomes the viewed node (highlighted in yellow). Then, you’ll click the Curve node once to load its parameters into the Parameters tab (the node becomes highlighted in cyan).
Bypassed nodes are outlined with an orange dotted line. If you want to suspend the effect of an entire node tree without deleting it or individually turning on each node’s Bypass button, you must disconnect the Output node entirely. Creating Effects in the Color FX Room This section outlines some of the most common operations you’ll perform in the Color FX room. Using Single Input Nodes The simplest use of this room is to apply one or two single-input nodes to create a stylized effect.
In the following example, a Bleach Bypass node (which alters the saturation and contrast of an image to simulate a chemical film process) is followed by a Curve node (to further alter image contrast), which is followed by the Output node that must be added to the end of all node trees. Using Layering Nodes A more sophisticated use of nodes is to use multi-input nodes to combine two or more separately processed versions of the image for a combined effect.
This multiplies the color with the corrected image (remember, disconnected inputs always link to the corrected image data). Because of the way image multiplication works, this tints the lightest areas of the image, while progressively darker areas are less tinted, and the black areas stay black.
Math Layering Nodes Explained The layering nodes shown in the previous example use simple math to combine two differently modified versions of the image together. These mathematical operations rely on the following numerical method of representing tonality in each of the three color channels of an image: Â Black = 0 (so black for RGB = 0, 0, 0) Â Midtone values in each channel are fractional, from .00001 through .
Isolating Portions of an Image Another common method of creating a layered effect is to use a grayscale matte to control where in an image two inputs are added together. The Alpha Blend node has three inputs that work together to create exactly this effect. This node blends the Source 2 input to the Source 1 input in all the areas where the Source 3 Alpha input image is white. Where the Alpha input image is black, only the Source 1 input is shown.
This matte is connected to the Alpha input of the Alpha Blend node (the third input). A blur node is then connected to the Source 2 input. The Blur node blurs the corrected image, but the matte image that’s connected to the alpha input limits its effect to the areas of the image that don’t include the image detail around the edges that were isolated using the Edge Detector node.
When you’re finished with the effect, you need to reassemble the fields into frames using the Interlace node, connecting the Even branch of the node tree to the Even input on the left and the Odd branch of the node tree to the Odd input on the right. The Output node is attached to the Interlace node, and you’re finished. If you don’t process each field separately, you may encounter unexpected image artifacts, especially when using filtering and transform nodes such as Blur, Sharpen, Stretch, and Translate.
The effect is saved with a thumbnail taken from the shot it was saved from. Entering a custom name is optional, but recommended, to help you keep track of all your corrections. If you don’t enter a name, then saved corrections (and grades) are automatically named using the following method. To apply a saved effect or grade to a single shot: 1 Move the playhead to the shot you want to apply the effect to. 2 Do one of the following: Â Double-click the effect you want to apply.
The order in which the inputs are connected does not matter. Add has two parameters. Â Source 1 Bias: Controls how much of the Source 1 image is added to create the final result by multiplying the value in each channel by the specified value. Defaults to 0.5. Â Source 2 Bias: Controls how much of the Source 2 image is added to create the final result by multiplying the value in each channel by the specified value. Defaults to 0.5.
When multiplying two images, the darkest parts of the images remain unaffected, while the lightest parts of the image are the most affected. This is useful for tinting operations, as seen previously, as well as for operations where you want to combine the darkest portions of two images. RGB Merge The three inputs are used to insert individual channels into the red, green, and blue color channels.
Duotone Desaturates the image, mapping the black and white points of the image to two user customizable colors to create tinted images with dual tints from white to black. Duotone has two parameters: Â Light Color: The color that the white point is mapped to. Â Dark Color: The color that the black point is mapped to. Edge Detector A convolution filter that boosts image contrast in such a way as to reduce the image to the darkest outlines that appear throughout.
Film Look An “all-in-one” film look node. Combines the Film Grain operation described above with an “s-curve” exposure adjustment that slightly crushes the shadows and boosts the highlights. Contrast in the midtones is stretched, but the distribution of the midtones remains centered, so there’s no overall lightening or darkening.
 Green Gamma: Adjusts the green channel only, enabling color correction based on a gamma adjustment for that channel.  Blue Gamma: Adjusts the blue channel only, enabling color correction based on a gamma adjustment for that channel. Grain Reduction Reduces grain and noise in an image by averaging adjacent pixels in that frame according to the values specified in the Master, Red, Green, and Blue Scale parameters.
Lift Lift uniformly lightens or darkens the entire image, altering the shadows, midtones, and highlights by the same amount. This node has four parameters: Â Lift: Adjusts the red, green, and blue channels simultaneously, for an overall change to image brightness. Â Red Lift: Adjusts the red channel only, enabling color correction based on a lift adjustment for that channel. Â Green Lift: Adjusts the green channel only, enabling color correction based on a lift adjustment for that channel.
Scale RGB Expands or contracts the overall contrast ratio of a shot, from the black point to the white point, centering the midpoint of this operation at a percentage of image tonality that you specify. This node has two parameters: Â Scale: The amount by which to expand or contract the overall contrast ratio in the shot. This is a multiplicative operation, so a value of 1 produces no change, while larger values increase the contrast ratio, and smaller values decrease the contrast ratio.
 Horizontal Scale: How much to stretch the image, horizontally. Higher values stretch the image outward, while lower values squeeze the image inward. The default value at which the image is unchanged is 1.  Vertical Scale: How much to stretch the image, vertically. Higher values stretch the image outward, while lower values squeeze the image inward. The default value at which the image is unchanged is 1. Translate Offsets the image relative to the upper-right corner.
Output This must be the last node in any node tree. It outputs the effect created within the Color FX room to the main Color image processing pipeline for rendering. If an Output node is not connected to the node tree, that effect will not be rendered by the Render Queue. RGB Split Outputs the red, green, and blue color channels individually, depending on which button you click.
12 Primary Out 12 The Primary Out room provides an additional set of controls for overall color correction, but it can also be used as a tool to trim the grades applied to a selected group of shots. This chapter covers the different uses of the Primary Out room, which shares the same controls as the Primary In room. For more information about Primary color correction controls, see Chapter 9, “Primary In,” on page 163. This chapter covers the following: Â Â Â Â Using the Primary Out Room (p.
Making Extra Corrections Using the Primary In Room The Color interface was designed for flexibility. The functionality of each of the correction rooms overlaps broadly, and although each room has been arranged to optimize certain types of operations, you can choose to perform corrections using whichever controls you prefer. In many cases, colorists like to split up different steps of the color correction process they follow among different rooms.
As the processed image makes its way from the Primary In to the Secondaries to the Color FX rooms, the corrections in each room are applied to the image that’s handed off from the previous room. Since the Color FX room is the last correction room in every grade, it processes the image that’s output from the Color FX room. You can take advantage of this to apply overall corrections to the post-processed image.
13 Managing Corrections and Grades 13 Color provides many tools for managing the corrections and grades that you’ve applied. You can work even faster by saving, copying, and applying corrections and grades you’ve already created to multiple shots at once.
Corrections are adjustments that are made within a single room. You have the option to save individual corrections into the bins available in the Primary In and Out, Secondaries, and Color FX rooms. Once saved, corrections can be applied to one or more shots in your project without changing the settings of any other rooms.
3 Click Save. The correction is saved into the current room’s bin with a thumbnail of the shot it was saved from. Entering a custom name is optional, but recommended, to help you keep track of all your corrections. If you don’t enter a name, saved corrections (and grades) are automatically named using the following method: CorrectionType.Day Month Year Hour.Minute.Second TimeZone.extension The date and time used correspond to the exact second the correction is saved.
3 Make the grade you want to save the currently selected grade for that shot. 4 Type a name for the saved correction into the File field underneath the corrections bin (this step is optional). 5 Click the Save button (in the bottom right-hand corner of the Grades bin). The grade is saved to the Grades bin. The grade is saved with a thumbnail from the shot it was saved from.
Organizing Saved Corrections and Grades with Folders in Color Saved corrections are available to every project you open. For this reason, you may find it useful to save your corrections into folders within each room’s bin. There are a number of different ways you can use folders to organize your saved corrections: Â You can create a folder for each new project you work on, saving all the corrections that are specific to a particular project within the corresponding folder.
To save a correction or grade into a folder: 1 Move the playhead to the shot with a correction or grade you want to save. 2 Double-click a folder in the correction or Grades bin to open it. The Directory pop-up menu updates to display the directory path in the Finder of the currently open folder. 3 Type a name for the saved correction or grade in the File field underneath the correction bin (this step is optional). 4 Click Save. The correction or grade is saved within that folder.
Managing Grades in the Timeline Each shot may have up to four alternate grades, shown with different colors in the grade tracks that are located underneath the video track. The currently selected grade for each shot is blue, while unselected grades are gray. The bars that show the individual corrections of rooms that have been adjusted for the currently selected grade are shown in other colors, underneath each shot’s grade bars.
To change the selected grade: 1 Move the playhead to the shot you want to change the grade of. 2 Do one of the following: Â Click the grade you want to switch to. Â Press Control-1 through 4. Â Control-click or right-click on a grade, and choose Select Grade X from the shortcut menu, where X is the number of the grade you’re selecting. The shot is updated to use the newly selected grade. Resetting Grades in the Timeline If necessary, you can reset any of a shot’s four grades.
Note: When you copy individual corrections, secondary corrections overwrite other secondary corrections of the same number. To copy a grade from one shot to another: m Drag a shot’s grade bar in the grade track of the Timeline to a second shot you want to copy it to. The shot you’re dragging the correction onto becomes highlighted, and after you’ve dropped it, every correction in the current grade for that shot is overwritten with those of the grade you copied.
Using the “Copy to” Buttons in the Primary Rooms The “Copy to Selected” and “Copy to All” buttons in the Primary In and Primary Out rooms are powerful tools for applying Primary In room or Primary Out room corrections to other shots in your project. To copy a primary correction to all currently selected shots in the Timeline: 1 Move the playhead to a shot with a grade you want to copy to other shots in your program. 2 Set the grade used by that shot to the one you want to copy.
To copy a primary correction to every single shot in the Timeline: 1 Move the playhead to a shot with a grade you want to copy to other shots in your program. 2 Set the grade used by that shot to the one you want to copy. 3 Click “Copy to All.” The grade at the current position of the playhead is copied to every shot in your program. Note: The Secondaries and Color FX rooms don’t have “Copy to Selected” or “Copy to All” buttons.
Setting a Beauty Grade in the Timeline When you’ve set up a project with multiple grades for each shot, it may become difficult to keep track of the grade you like best for any given shot. Marking a particular grade as the beauty grade lets you keep track of the currently preferred grade for each shot. The beauty grade setting is only a visual marker, intended for reference purposes only. The beauty grade does not have to be the currently selected grade.
You can also use the icon view as an organizational tool to rearrange the shots in your program into groups based not on their position in the program, but on the angle of coverage they’re from or the type of grade you’ll be applying, to give but two examples. For more information, see “The Shots Browser” on page 92. Selecting Shots and Navigating in the Shots Browser in Icon View When in icon view, you can select one or more shots in the Timeline just as you can when in list view.
To zoom in or out of the Shots browser when in icon view, do one of the following: m Press the Control key and drag with the left mouse button. m Click with the right mouse button and drag up to zoom out, or down to zoom in. To scroll around the Shots browser when in icon view: m Middle-click anywhere within the Shots browser, and drag in the direction you want to scroll. You can rearrange shots freely when the Shots browser is in icon view.
To select the grade used by a shot: m Double-click the grade you want to select. The selected grade turns blue, while the unselected grades remain dark gray. Note: Grades that have been rendered are colored green. Grouping and Ungrouping Shots A group is an organizational construct that’s only available in the Shots browser when it’s in icon view. The purpose of groups is very simple; they provide targets with which you can copy a grade to multiple shots at once.
3 Rearrange the shots you want to group within the Shots browser area (this step is optional). Even though this step is not strictly necessary, it can be helpful visually for you to see which shots you’re grouping together as a spatially arranged set of icons. 4 Select all the shots you want to group by Command-clicking their name bars. 5 Press G. A group is created, and a group node appears with blue connection lines showing all the shots that belong to that group.
To add a shot to an already existing group: m Right-click anywhere on a shot’s name bar, and drag a connection line to the node of the group you want to add it to. Once a group has been created, you can ungroup it at any time. To ungroup a collection of grouped clips: m Select the group node you want to delete, and press Delete or Forward Delete. The node and its connection lines disappear, leaving the shots ungrouped.
To collapse or expand a group: m Double-click any group’s node. When a group is collapsed, the shots that are connected to that group are hidden. Double-clicking a collapsed group makes all the hidden shots visible again. Once you’ve created a group, copying a correction or grade to the group is easy. To copy a grade to a group: m Drag a grade bar from the Timeline onto any group node. The grade you dragged overwrites the currently selected grade of every shot in that group.
To copy an individual correction to a group: m Drag the correction bar of the room you want to copy from the Timeline onto any group node. The correction you dragged overwrites the settings in the same room of every shot in that group. Important: You can only copy corrections and grades from the Timeline to groups in the Shots browser.
This is especially true for projects where the Director of Photography and the crew worked to achieve the desired look during the shoot, leaving you with the tasks of balancing the shots in each scene and making whatever adjustments are necessary to simply expand and perfect the contrast and color that you’ve been provided. Grading Across Multiple Rooms On the other hand, there’s no reason you can’t distribute the steps outlined above among multiple rooms.
Step 4: Make modifications due to client feedback Once your client has had the opportunity to screen the nearly finished grade of the program, you’ll no doubt be given additional notes and feedback on your work. You can use the Primary Out room, which up until now has remained unused, to easily apply these final touches.
14 Keyframing 14 You can create animated grades and other effects using keyframes in the Timeline. The keyframing mechanism in Color is simple, but effective. It’s designed to let you quickly animate color corrections, vignettes, Color FX nodes, Pan & Scan effects, and user shapes with a minimum number of steps. This chapter covers the following: Â Â Â Â Why Keyframe an Effect? (p. 285) How Keyframing Works in Different Rooms (p. 286) Working with Keyframes in the Timeline (p.
How Keyframing Works in Different Rooms You can keyframe effects in the Primary In, Secondaries, Color FX, Primary Out and Geometry rooms. Each room has its own separate set of keyframes, stored in individual tracks of the keyframe graph of the Timeline. These tracks are hidden until you start adding keyframes within a particular room, which makes that room’s keyframe track visible.
In addition to the color and contrast controls, the following secondary controls can also be animated using keyframes:  The enable button that turns the secondary corrections off and on  The qualifiers for the secondary keyer  The Vignette button that turns vignetting off and on  All vignette shape parameters Note: Secondary curves cannot be animated with keyframes. The ability to keyframe all of these controls means you can automate secondary color correction operations in extremely powerful ways.
Working with Keyframes in the Timeline It takes a minimum of two keyframes to animate an effect of any kind. Each keyframe you create stores the state of the room you’re in at that frame. When you’ve added two keyframes with two different corrections to a room, Color automatically animates the correction that’s applied to the image from the correction at the first keyframe to the correction at the last.
To delete a single keyframe: 1 Move the playhead to the frame with the keyframe you want to delete. 2 Choose Timeline > Remove Keyframe (Control-0). You can also delete every keyframe applied to a shot in a particular room all at once. To delete every keyframe in a single room: 1 Click the tab of the room with the keyframes you want to remove. 2 Move the playhead to a frame where the correction or effect in that room is at a state you want applied to the entire shot.
Keyframe Interpolation The interpolation method that a keyframe is set to determines how settings are animated from one keyframe to the next. There are three possible types of interpolation: Â Smooth: Smooth keyframes begin the transition to the next keyframed state slowly, reaching full speed in the middle of the transition and then slowing down to a stop at the next keyframe.
By default, all new keyframes that you create are smooth, although you can change a keyframe’s interpolation at any time. Changing a keyframe’s interpolation only affects the way values are animated between it and the next keyframe to the right. To change a keyframe’s interpolation: 1 Move the playhead to the keyframe you want to change. 2 Choose Timeline > Change Keyframe (Control-0).
15 Geometry 15 The Geometry Room provides a way to zoom into shots, create pan and scan effects, draw custom mattes for vignetted secondary operations, and track moving subjects to automate the animation of vignettes and shapes. The Geometry room is divided into an image preview (which contains the onscreen controls for all of the functions in this room), and three tabs to the right. Each tab has different tools to perform specific functions.
The Pan & Scan Tab The Pan & Scan tab lets you apply basic transformations to the shots in your projects. You can use these transformations to blow images up, reposition them to crop out unwanted areas of the frame, and rotate shots to create canted angles. You can also keyframe these effects to create animated pan and scan effects when you’re downconverting a high-resolution widescreen project to a standard definition 4:3 frame.
Working with the Pan & Scan Tab You can transform shots in your program using two sets of controls. To the left, onscreen controls appear within the image preview area, while to the right, numeric parameters mirror these adjustments. Using the Onscreen Controls The onscreen controls for the Pan & Scan tab consist of an outer bounding box that represents the scaled output with four handles at each corner, and a pair of action and title safe indicators within.
The onscreen controls are designed to work in conjunction with the image that’s displayed by the Preview and Broadcast displays. In other words, you use the onscreen controls to isolate the portion of the image you want to output, and you view the actual transformation on the Preview and Broadcast displays. To resize a shot: m Drag any of the four corners of the onscreen control to resize the shot relative to its center.
To reposition a shot: m Drag anywhere within the red bounding box. The onscreen control moves to select a different portion of the shot, and the Preview and Broadcast displays show the result. Note: There are no onscreen controls for the Aspect Ratio, Flip, and Flop controls. Using the Pan & Scan Parameters Each of the adjustments you make using the onscreen controls is mirrored and recorded numerically by the parameters in the Pan & Scan tab to the right.
 Using a tracker: You can also use motion tracking to automatically animate a Pan & Scan effect, for example, to move to follow a character who is walking across the screen. Once you create a tracker and analyze the shot (in the Tracking tab), you simply specify the number of the tracker you want to use in the Use Tracker field, and the Position X and Y parameters are automatically animated. If Use Tracker is set to 0, no trackers are applied. For more information, see “Tracking Tab” on page 306.
Controls in the Shapes Tab The Shapes tab has the following controls: Â Current Secondary: Lists which of the eight available tabs in the Secondaries room is the currently selected secondary operation. When you click the Attach button, this is the secondary tab that the currently selected shape will be attached to.
 B-spline/polygon buttons: Toggles the currently selected shape between B-spline mode, which allows for curved shapes, and polygon mode, in which shapes only have angled corners.  Main/Inner/Outer buttons: These buttons let you choose which points you want to select when dragging a selection box in the Image Preview, without locking any of the other control points. You can always edit any control point, no matter what this control is set to.
B-splines use control points that aren’t actually attached to the shape’s surface to “pull” the shape into different directions, like a strong magnet pulling thin wire. For example, here’s a curve with a single control point: The control point hovering above the shape is pulling the entire shape toward itself, while the surrounding control points help to keep other parts of the shape in place. The complexity of a shape is defined by how many control points are exerting influence on that shape.
4 When you’re ready to finish, close the shape by clicking on the first control point you created. 5 Enter a name into the Shape Name field, and press Enter (this step is optional). 6 Click the Attach button to use the shape in the secondary tab. A duplicate of that shape appears in the list, which shows the number of the grade and the secondary tab to which it’s attached (the original shape you drew remains in the list above, ready to be recycled at a future time).
Selected control points turn green. You don’t have to select every control point in the shape. You can choose to make a partial selection to only resize a portion of the overall shape. The center of all selected control points displays a small green + that shows the position of the selected control points relative to the center handle. 3 Do one of the following: Â Drag any of the four corners of the selection box to resize the shape relative to the opposite corner, which remains locked in position.
To feather the edge of a shape: 1 Increase its Softness value. The Softness parameter applies a uniform feathering around the entire shape. This also reveals a pair of inside and outside shapes that represent the inner and outer boundaries of the feathering effect that’s applied to the shape. 2 If necessary, adjust the shape’s inner and outer shape to create the most appropriate feathering outline around the perimeter of the shape.
To add control points to a previously existing shape: 1 Select a shape to edit in the Shapes list. 2 Click Open Shape. 3 Click within the Image Preview area to add control points to the end of the selected shape. 4 Click the first control point of the shape when you’ve finished adding more control points. Animating Shapes with Keyframes and Trackers If necessary, you can animate shapes in one of two ways: Â Using keyframes: You can keyframe shapes.
Tracking Tab Motion tracking is the process of automatically analyzing a shot in order to follow the motion of a specific feature in the image to create a motion path. Once you’ve done this, you can use these motion tracked camera paths to animate vignettes, Pan & Scan operations, user shapes, and even some Color FX nodes to follow these motion paths. This way, the corrections you make appear to follow moving subjects, or the motion of the camera. Note: Color can only use one-point motion tracking.
Using Motion Tracking After you’ve processed a tracker, you can use that tracker’s analysis to animate a Vignette, User Shape, or Pan & Scan setting. When applied to a Vignette or a User Shape, the animation of the motion tracker is added to your original positioning of the shape.
 Manual Tracker: Click to enter manual tracking mode, where you use the pointer to click on a feature in the preview area that you want to track. Each click positions the onscreen tracker control manually to create a tracking keyframe, and then advances the playhead one frame, until you reach the end of the shot. Using this feature, you can rapidly hand-track features in shots that automatic tracking can’t resolve.
4 While the playhead is at this initial frame, drag within the center box of the onscreen control to move it so that the crosshairs are centered on the feature you want to track, and adjust the handles of the inner box (the reference pattern box) to fit around this feature. 5 Adjust the outer box to include as much of the surrounding shot as you judge necessary to analyze the shot.
In many cases, this will be the last frame of the shot. However, if the feature you’re tracking becomes obscured, you’ll want to set the out point to the last frame where the feature is visible. 7 Click Process. Color starts to analyze the shot, starting at the In point, and a green progress bar moves from the In point to the Out point to show how much of the clip has been analyzed.
4 Click Manual Tracker to enter manual tracking mode. When you enable manual tracking, the tracker onscreen control disappears. 5 Click a feature in the preview area that you want to track. For example, if you were tracking someone’s face for vignetting later on, you might click the nose. Each click positions the onscreen tracker control manually, and then advances the playhead one frame.
Sometimes a motion track is successful, but the resulting motion path is too rough to use in its original state. Oftentimes, irregular motion will expose an animated effect that you’re trying to keep invisible. These may be seen as jagged motion paths. In these cases, you can use the Tracking Curve Smoothness slider to smooth out the motion path that’s created by the tracker. To smooth a track: 1 Select a tracker in the Tracker List.
Using Trackers in the Secondary, Color FX, and Geometry Rooms Any adjustment in any room that can be animated by a tracker has a Use Tracker field. Once you’ve processed a tracker, you can enter its ID number into this field to automatically animate that adjustment based on the tracker’s motion path. Setting a Use Tracker field to 0 resets that adjustment so that no tracker is used.
16 Still Store 16 The Still Store provides an interface with which to compare shots to one another while you do scene-to-scene color correction. Using the Still Store interface, you can save images from different shots in a project to use as reference stills for comparison to shots you’re correcting to match.
2 If the Still Store is currently enabled, turn it off to make sure you don’t accidentally save a still of the currently displayed split screen. 3 Optionally, if you want to save the still with a custom name, you can click the Still Store tab and type a name in the File field below the Still Store bin. If you don’t enter a custom name, each still image you save will be automatically named in the following manner: Still.Day_Month_Year_Hour_Minute_SecondTimezone.
Important: Still Store images aren’t updated if the shot they originated from is regraded. This means that if you save a Still Store image from a shot, and then later regrade that shot to have a different look, the saved Still Store image will no longer be representative of that shot and should be removed. If there is any question whether or not a still image correctly reflects a shot’s current grade, the date and time the still image was saved might provide a hint.
To remove an image from the Still Store: 1 Click the Still Store tab. 2 Select the still image you want to remove. 3 Press the Delete or Forward Delete key. 4 Click Yes in the warning dialog that appears, to confirm that you really do want to delete the selected still image. You cannot undo the deletion of a still from the Still Store. Recalling Images from the Still Store Once an image has been added to the Still Store, it can be recalled at any time.
Each still image has its own settings for how that image will appear when it’s recalled. These settings can be found on the right-hand side of the Still Store room. Â Enable: Makes the currently loaded Still Store image visible in the preview and video output monitors. Identical to Still Store > Enable (Control-U). Â Transition: This parameter determines how much of the loaded still is visible onscreen. When set to 0, the loaded still is not visible at all.
 List View: In list view, all still images and directories are represented by two columns; the still-image file’s name appears to the left, and the date of its creation appears to the right. All stills are organized according to the date and time they were saved, with the oldest appearing at the top and the newest at the bottom.  Icon Size slider: When the Still Store bin is in icon view, this slider lets you increase and decrease the size of the thumbnails that are displayed for each still.
17 Render Queue 17 Once you’ve finished color-correcting your program, the controls in the Render Queue let you render the appropriate set of media files for the final output of your program, either to Final Cut Pro, or for delivery to other compatible systems. This chapter covers the following: Â Â Â Â Â Â About Rendering in Color (p. 321) Which Effects Does Color Render? (p. 322) The Render Queue Interface (p. 323) How to Render Shots in Your Project (p.
On the other hand, you may need to render the entire program after all, such as when you need to generate another set of media in a different format, or if the project is short enough that there’s no need to break up the rendering. The Graphics Card You’re Using Affects the Rendered Output Color uses the GPU of the graphics card that’s installed in your computer to render the color correction and geometry adjustments that you’ve applied to the shots in your program.
When you’ve finished grading your program in Color and you render that project as a series of QuickTime movies in preparation for returning to Final Cut Pro, any of the previously mentioned effects which have been invisibly preserved are not rendered. Instead, when you send the finished Color project back to Final Cut Pro, such effects reappear in the resulting Final Cut Pro sequence.
Render Queue Controls The following buttons beneath the Render Queue list let you add shots to the queue, remove them, and initiate rendering. Â Add Selected: Adds all currently selected shots to the Render Queue. Â Add All: Adds every shot in the Timeline to the Render Queue. Shots that have already been rendered are also placed in the queue, and will be rerendered unless they’re first removed. Shots that are rerendered overwrite the previously rendered media.
Once you add shots to the Render Queue list, the status of each of the shots that you add changes to Queued in the Shots browser. In the Timeline, each of the shots that you added appears with a yellow status bar over the currently used grade for each queued shot, to show you which of the available grades is being rendered. Note: You can add a shot to the Render Queue with one grade enabled, then choose another grade for that shot and add it to the Render Queue again to render both grades for that shot.
At the same time, the render bar appearing above the Timeline ruler for the shot being rendered in the Timeline updates to reflect the progress bar in the Render Queue. Once the first shot in the Render Queue has finished rendering, the next one begins, and rendering continues from the top to the bottom of the list until the last shot is rendered. All rendered shots in the Timeline appear with a green render bar above the Timeline ruler, and a green status bar over the grade that was rendered.
You also have the ability to render each of a shot’s grades individually, or together. This way, whenever there’s a scene where the client might approve one of four different looks, you can hedge your bets by rendering all versions. Color keeps track of which grade is currently selected when you send that project back to Final Cut Pro, or when you use the Gather Rendered Media command, and makes sure that the appropriate render file is used. Each rendered grade is numbered.
Gather Rendered Media The Gather Rendered Media command can only be used when you’ve rendered image sequence media for a project that was imported via EDL. This command used to organize your rendered image sequence media in preparation for delivery to the film printer. It organizes your rendered image sequences in two ways: Â It places every frame of media for your project within a single directory.
Calibrating Your Monitor A Appendix A When using analog devices, make sure they are calibrated for accurate brightness and color so you can color correct your video accurately. About Color Bars Color bars are an electronically generated video signal that meet very strict specifications. Because the luma and chroma levels are standardized, you can use color bars passing through different components of a video system to see how each device is affecting the signal.
Calibrating Your Broadcast Monitor Monitors are calibrated using SMPTE standard color bars. Brightness and contrast are adjusted by eye, using the color bars onscreen. Adjusting chroma and phase involves using the “blue only” button found on professional video monitors. This calibration should be done to all monitors in use, whether they’re in the field or in the editing room.
The point where this bar is barely visible is the correct contrast setting for your monitor. (The example shown below is exaggerated to demonstrate.) When monitor brightness and contrast is properly adjusted, this strip should barely be visible above black. When adjusting the contrast, also watch the white square in the lower left. If the contrast is too high, the white square appears to “spill” into the surrounding squares.
Note: The step in the second bullet also applies to the monitoring of composite signals, but you really, really shouldn't be monitoring a composite signal if you're doing color correction. Once your monitor is correctly calibrated, all the gray bars will be evenly gray and all the black bars evenly black. When the phase (similar to hue) of the monitor is correctly adjusted, you should see alternating bars of gray and black, as shown.
Keyboard Shortcuts B Appendix B Keyboard Shortcuts in Color The following tables show the various keyboard shortcuts that are available while working in Color. Project Shortcuts The following keyboard shortcuts are common to many applications, and allow you to manage your Color projects.
Switching Rooms and Windows The following keyboard shortcuts let you navigate the Color interface, moving from room to room and window to window.
Grade Shortcuts The following keyboard shortcuts let you create, switch, copy, and paste grades for shots at the position of the playhead.
Command Description Control-Y Choose Slip tool Control-X Choose Split tool Control-Z Choose Splice tool Control-V Create an edit at the position of the playhead Control-B Merge an edit at the position of the playhead Keyframing Shortcuts The following shortcuts are for keyframing effects in every room.
Still Store Shortcuts The following keyboard shortcuts let you save and enable still frames without having the Still Store open. Command Description Control-U Enable currently loaded still Control-I Save frame at the current position of the playhead to the still store Render Queue Shortcuts The following keyboard shortcuts let you add shots to the render queue, and begin rendering, without having the Render Queue open.
C Setting Up a Control Surface Appendix C Color is compatible with control surfaces from JLCooper and Tangent Devices. A control surface lets you make simultaneous adjustments to multiple parameters while you work. Not only is this faster, but it allows you to interactively make complex color adjustments to different areas of the image at once.
To use compatible JLCooper MCS Control Surfaces with Color, you need the following:  MCS-3000, MCS-3400, or MCS-3800 with an MCS-Spectrum  Have your Controller configured with an Ethernet board supplied in Slot #1  Multiport hub, router, or switch  Cat-5 Ethernet cables The Ethernet Connection for the MCS-Spectrum is bridged to the MCS-3000 using an Expander Cable. The MCS-3000 then connects to your computer via Ethernet.
d Enter a port number, then press ENTER to accept and continue. For example, you might enter: 49153 Note: To be safe, use one of the range of values set aside as “dynamic and/or private ports” from 49152 through 65535. 4 Turn off both the MCS-3000 and the MCS-Spectrum. Now that your control surface is configured, you need to set it up within Color. To use the MCS-3000 and MCS-Spectrum with Color: 1 Turn on the MCS-Spectrum first, then turn on the MCS-3000. 2 Open Color.
Controls for the MCS-3000 and MCS-Spectrum Many of the controls in the MCS-3000 and MCS-Spectrum are identified by the text displays running along the top of each panel. The following sections detail the less obvious controls and functions.
 Bank3: Switch/Copy/Paste Grade Bank 3  Bank4: Switch/Copy/Paste Grade Bank 4  Assign: Toggle Switch/Copy/Paste grade. (LCD Display would indicate which state you are in). Using the Navigational Controls There are two different ways to navigate in the Timeline using the keypad on the MCS-3000. To toggle between timecode and shot number navigation: 1 Press Mode Locate or Set Locate on the MCS-3000. 2 Hold down Shift (the blue button under the F-buttons), then press Mode Locate.
            R1: Reset Shadow contrast slider B1: Reset Shadow color control Left joyball: Shadow color control adjustment Left wheel: Shadow contrast slider adjustment (black point) R2: Reset Midtone contrast slider B2: Reset Midtone color control Center joyball: Midtone color control adjustment Center wheel: Midtone contrast slider adjustment (gamma) R3: Reset HIghlight contrast slider B3: Reset Highlight color control Right joyball: HIghlight color control adjustment Right wheel: HIghlight co
If you’re opening Color for the first time, you’ll be presented with the Control Surface Startup dialog. If you’ve already opened Color and have disabled the option for making this dialog appear, you’ll need to click the Show Control Surface Dialog button in the User Prefs tab of the Setup room. 4 When the Control Surface Startup dialog appears: a Choose “Tangent Devices - CP100” from the Control Surface pop-up menu.
 >: Play forward  Button next to jog/shuttle: Toggle x10 speed control When Left Alt is held down:  |<: Previous key frame  >| - Next key frame  <: Step backwards one frame  >: Step forward one frame F-Keys  F1: Toggle key frame interpolation  F2: Create key frame  F3: Delete key frame Tangent Devices CP200 Series Control Surface The Tangent Devices CP200 is a modular series of controllers all designed to work together.
Configuring the CP200 Series Control Surfaces The following procedures describe how to configure and use these control surfaces with Color. To set up the CP200 series controllers for use with Color: 1 Connect each of the CP200 devices to the router, hub, or switch that’s connected to your computer. 2 Before you open Color, turn on each of the CP200 devices you have, and write down the two to three character ID numbers that appear on the display of each.
Note: The first three period-delimited sets of numbers in the IP address must match the first three sets of numbers that are used on your particular network. If you’re not sure what values to use, you can check to see what IP address is used by your computer, and base the MCS-3000 IP address on that, making sure you change the last three numbers so that this address is unique. 6 Click Yes. After you click Yes, Color connects with the control surfaces on the network.
 F3: Delete key frame  F4: Alternate panel encoders In the Secondaries room:  F1: Toggle key frame Interpolation  F2: Add key frame  F3: Delete key frame  F4: Alternate panel encoders  F5: Toggle secondary  F6: Toggle secondary In/Out control  F7: Toggle secondary vignette  F8: Previous secondary  F9: Next secondary Note: In secondaries, when switching to preview mode, Vignette controls will override.
          Out: Set play marker out Mem: Toggle show still Grade: Toggle show grade Delete: Return grade to Identity or base-mem |<: Previous event >| - Next event <: Play reverse []- Stop playback >: Play forward Button next to jog/shuttle: Toggle x10 speed control When Left Alt is held down,  |<: Previous key frame  >| - Next key frame  <: Step backward one frame  >: Step forward one frame CP200-K (Knob Panel)  RGB channel controls Note: When you open the Previews tab in the Secondaries r
Customizing Control Surface Sensitivity You can customize the sensitivity of the joyballs, knobs, contrast wheels, and the angle at which the joyballs adjust color, using settings located in the User Prefs tab of the Setup room. For more information, see “Control Surface Settings” on page 103.
.lsi file 74 .
March 26, 2007 Ceiling IRE 100 Channel data and bit depth 109 Chroma (Chrominance) 31 Chroma levels 330 Chroma Limit 101 Chroma scope 151 Chroma subsampling 25 film vs.
March 26, 2007 color wheels 63 directory navigation 67 display 67 file 68 in browsers and bins 67 scroll wheel 62 shortcut menus 62 text fields 61 timecode fields 62 using the mouse 61 virtual sliders 61 Control surfaces and color balance controls 182 and contrast sliders 167 configuring sensitivity 351 settings 103 setting up 60, 339–351 Converting Cineon to QuickTime 88 DPX to QuickTime 88 Copy buttons 272 Copying grades 273 Pan & Scan settings 298 Copying corrections to shots 272–273 Correction bin updat
March 26, 2007 E Edge Detector node 252 Editing B-Splines 191 control points 191 limitations 37 Editing controls and procedures 133 Editing shortcuts 335 Edits creating 138 merging 138 EDL files 23 EDL formats 80 EDLs exporting 82 importing 47, 80 import settings 81 parsing 56 Effects keyframing 285 saving favorites in COlor FX bin 248 Enable clipping 101 Error messages 102 Evaluation monitor 112 Exporting codec tips 87 EDLs 82 JPEG files 89 projects 23 self-contained QuickTime files 75 which codecs to use
March 26, 2007 how they are different from corrections 263 in the Timeline 131 managing 263–283 managing in the Shots browser 274 managing in the Timeline 269 moving to other computers 70 organizing into folders 267 reorganizing in the Finder 69, 268 resetting 132 resetting in the Timeline 270 saving and using 264 saving into the Grades bin 265 selecting current 131 shortcuts 335 trimming in Primary Out room 260 versus corrections 67 where they are saved 68 Grades bin 66, 97 Grades track 122 Grading 18 Grai
March 26, 2007 deleting 289 interpolation 290–291 navigating 288 Keyframing 285–291 in Color FX 287 in different rooms 286 in the Timeline 288 pan and scan effects 287 shortcuts 336 user shapes 287 L Layering nodes 243 Lift node 255 Lighten node 250 Limit shadow adjustments 169, 185 Linear keyframe interpolation 290 List view 65, 67 LiveType exporting as self-contained QuickTime files 75 Lock icon 122 Locking tracks 125 Look up tables (see LUTs) 115 Looping playback 104, 128 Luma 30 example curve 195 luma
March 26, 2007 Node types Add 245, 249 Alpha Blend 250 B&W 251 Bleach Bypass 251 Blend 250 Blur 251 Clamp 251 Color 257 Curve 251 Darken 250 Deinterlace 257 Difference 245, 250 Duotone 252 Edge Detector 252 Exposure 252 Film Grain 252 Film Look 253 Gain 253 Gamma 253 Grain Reduction 254 HSL Key 257 Hue 254 Interlace 250 Invert 254 Lift 255 Lighten 250 Maximum 255 Minimum 255 Multiply 245, 250 Output 258 Printer Lights 255 RGB Merge 251 RGB Split 258 Saturation 255 Scale RGB 256 Sharpen 256 Smooth Step 256 S
March 26, 2007 general process 165 saturation 165 Primary In room 36, 163–207 Primary Out room 36, 259–261 trimming grades in 260 Printer Lights node 255 Printer points 19 defined 205 making adjustments with 205 Printer points controls 204, 205 Printing density 99 Processing settings 106 Program master capturing 48 Programs mixing and matching resolutions 113 Project resolution 81 Projects conforming 56 contents of 74 creating 72 described 74 dividing into reels 75 exporting 23 frame rate 81 how to render s
March 26, 2007 Roll tool 135 Rooms about 35 Geometry 293 Rotating shots 296 Round trip 47 Ruler 122 units 123 S Sampling color (in 3D Color Space scope) 161 Sat Curve tab 233 Saturation 32, 165 controls 201 Saturation node 255 Saved effects applying 249 Saving archives 72 automatically 73 corrections and grades 264 grades and corrections 68 projects 72 shapes favorites 300 Scale RGB node 256 Scene-to-scene color correction 14 Scopes accuracy of 143 available types 141 options 144 Scopes window 111 Scrollin
March 26, 2007 directory 74 grouping and ungrouping 277 how to render 324 removing from groups 279 removing notes 96 repositioning 297 repositioning in Timeline 134 resizing in Pan & Scan tab 296 revealing after finding 94 rotating 296 searching for 93 selected 93 selecting contiguous 130 selecting current 126 selecting in the Shots browser 96, 275 selecting in the Timeline 129 settings 132 splicing 138 splitting 137 Shots browser 65, 92 column headings 94 customizing 95 managing grades 274 navigating the T
March 26, 2007 working with grades 131 zooming 128 Tolerance 216 Tolerance handles adjusting 217 Tracker area 123 Trackers animating Pan & Scan settings 297 animating shapes with 305 Tracking 307–313 manually 310 smoothing a track 312 Tracking tab 306 controls 307 working with 308 Tracks adding 125 locking and unlocking 125 removing 125 resize handles 122 resizing 124 showing and hiding 125 working with 125 Training program 10 Transitions limitations 38 Translate node 257 Tutorials 10 Two monitors 70 U Ung
March 26, 2007 364 Y Z Y’CbCr (in 3D Color Space scope) 159 Y’CbCr color model 24 Y’CbCr scope 151 Zooming in the image preview 293 in the Shots browser 276 in the Timeline 128 in video scopes 144 Index
