1.0
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
Chapter 1 Color Correction Basics 29
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.
The following two images, with their accompanying histograms which show a graph of
the distribution of shadows, midtone, and highlights from left to right, illustrate this.
Furthermore, maximizing the contrast ratio of an image aids further color correction
operations by more evenly distributing that image’s color throughout the three tonal
zones that are adjusted with the three color balance controls in the Primary In,
Secondaries, and Primary Out rooms. This makes it easier to perform individual
corrections to the shadows, midtones, and highlights.
For more information about adjusting image contrast, see “Using the Primary Contrast
Controls” on page 166.