1.5

Stage 5: 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. Color, like sound, is a property that, when
subtly mixed, can result in an additional level of dramatic control over your program.
With color correction, you can control whether your video has rich, saturated colors or a
more muted look. You can make your shots look warmer by pushing their tones into the
reds, or make them look cooler by bringing them into the blues. You can pull details out
of the shadows, or crush them, increasing the picture’s contrast for a starker look. Such
subtle modifications alter the audience’s perception of the scene being played, changing
a program’s mood. Once you pick a look for your piece, or even for an individual scene,
you can use color correction to make sure that all the shots in the appropriate scenes
match the same look, so that they cut together smoothly.
Stage 6: Adhering to Guidelines for Broadcast Legality
If a program is destined for television broadcast, you are usually provided with a set of
quality control (QC) guidelines that specify the “legal” limits for minimum black levels,
maximum white levels, and minimum and maximum chroma saturation and composite
RGB limits. Adherence to these guidelines is important to ensure that the program is
accepted for broadcast, as “illegal” values may cause problems when the program is
encoded for transmission. QC standards vary, so it’s important to check what these
guidelines are in advance. Color has built-in broadcast safe settings (sometimes referred
to as a legalizer) that automatically prevent video levels from exceeding the specified
limits. For more information, see The Project Settings Tab.
Stage 7: Adjusting Specific Elements Separately
It’s sometimes necessary to selectively target a narrow range of colors to alter or replace
only those color values. A common example of this might be to turn a red car blue or to
mute the excessive colors of an article of clothing. These sorts of tasks are accomplished
with what’s referred to as secondary color correction, and Color provides you with numerous
tools with which to achieve such effects. For more information, see The Secondaries
Room.
Stage 8: Making Digital Lighting Adjustments
Sometimes lighting setups that looked right during the shoot don’t work as well in
post-production. 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. Color provides powerful controls for user-definable masking
which, in combination with secondary color correction controls, allow you to isolate
multiple regions within an image and fine-tune the lighting. This is sometimes referred
to as digital relighting. For more information, see The Secondaries Room and Controls in
the Shapes Tab.
15Chapter 1 Color Correction Basics