1.5

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
• You can also distribute the different color correction steps outlined above among
multiple rooms. This technique lets you focus your efforts during each stage of the
color correction process and also provides a way of discretely organizing the adjustments
you make, making each change easier to adjust later. For more detailed information,
see Grading a Shot Using Multiple Rooms.
Grading a Shot Using Multiple Rooms
One common color correction strategy is to break up the various stages of correction you
apply to a shot among several rooms in Color, instead of trying to do everything within
the Primary In room. This can focus your efforts during each step of the color correction
process, and it also provides a way of discretely organizing the adjustments you make,
making them easier to adjust later once the client has notes.
This section suggests but one out of countless ways in which the different rooms in Color
can be used to perform the steps necessary to grade your projects.
Stage 1: Optimizing the Exposure and Color of Each Shot
You might start by optimizing each shot's exposure and color in the Primary In room. As
a way of prepping the project in advance of working with the client in a supervised
session, you might restrict your adjustments to simply making each shot look as good as
possible on its own by optimizing its exposure and balancing the color, regardless of the
later steps you'll perform.
Stage 2: Balancing Every Shot in a Scene to Have Similar Contrast and Color Balance
After optimizing each clip, you can balance the contrast and color of each shot to match
the others in that scene using the first tab in the Secondaries room. If you select the
Enable button of the Secondaries room without restricting the default settings of the HSL
qualifiers, the adjustments you make are identical to those made in one of the Primary
rooms.
Important: If you're using a secondary tab to affect the entire image, make sure the
Previews tab is not the selected tab while you work. If the Previews tab is selected, the
monitored image is modified by the selected Matte Preview Mode and may exhibit a
subtle color shift as a result while the Secondaries tab is selected. Clicking the Hue, Sat,
or Lum Curve tabs, even though you're not using them, lets you monitor the image
correctly.
344 Chapter 13 Managing Corrections and Grades