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Table Of Contents
- Color User Manual
- Contents
- Color Documentation and Resources
- Color Correction Basics
- Color Correction Workflows
- Using the Color Interface
- Importing and Managing Projects and Media
- Creating and Opening Projects
- Saving Projects and Archives
- Moving Projects Between FinalCutPro and Color
- Reconforming Projects
- Importing EDLs
- 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
- Setup
- Monitoring
- Timeline Playback, Navigation, and Editing
- Video Scopes
- Primary In
- Secondaries
- Color FX
- Primary Out
- Managing Corrections and Grades
- The Difference Between Corrections and Grades
- Saving and Using Corrections and Grades
- Applying Saved Corrections and Grades to Shots
- Managing Grades in the Timeline
- Using the “Copy to” Buttons in the Primary Rooms
- Using the Copy Grade and Paste Grade Memory Banks
- Setting a Beauty Grade in the Timeline
- Disabling All Grades
- Managing Grades in the Shots Browser
- Using the Primary, Secondary, and Color FX Rooms Together to Manage Each Shot’s Corrections
- Keyframing
- Geometry
- Still Store
- Render Queue
- Calibrating Your Monitor
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- Setting Up a Control Surface
- Index
190 Chapter 9 Primary In
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.
Important: While the power of curves can be seductive, be wary of spending too much
time finessing your shots using the curves controls, especially in client sessions where
time is money. It’s easy to get lost in the minutiae of a single shot while the clock is
ticking, and such detail work may be faster to accomplish with other tools.
How Curves Affect the Image
Curves work by remapping the original color and luma values to new values that you
choose, simply by changing the height of the curve. The X axis of the graph represents
the source values that fall along the entire tonal range of the original image, from black
(left) to white (right). The Y axis of the graph represents the tonal range available for
adjustment, from black (bottom) to white (top).
Without any adjustments made, each curve control is a flat diagonal line; in other
words, each source value equals its adjustment value, so no change is made.
Source Value
Adjustment Value