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718 Part IX Effects and Color Correction
Note: When using the Auto-Balance eyedropper, it’s important to recognize that the
color temperature of the light illuminating the white area you select will affect the hue
of the compensation that is made. For example, if the picture is lit with a combination
of daylight and tungsten sources, selecting a part of the picture illuminated by daylight
will result in compensating the overall color temperature of the image by adding more
reds, whereas selecting a part of the picture illuminated by tungsten will result in
adding more blues. In such a case, you need to simply pick the best possible
compromise that looks right to you.
In general, using the Auto-Balance eyedropper will get you close to where you need to
be quickly and easily. However, to achieve the look you really want, you need to make
further adjustments to the Balance control by hand.
9 Click anywhere in the Balance control and drag to move the color balance indicator
relative to its previous position.
Because you already used the Auto-Balance eyedropper to add more reds to compensate
for the blues that you didn’t want, this will be your starting point as you work to achieve
the particular effect you want for this scene. For example, you could drag the color
balance indicator farther into the direction of magenta in order to make the image look a
bit warmer and more inviting while preserving the corrected color balance.
Because you’re not worrying about matching this image to any other shots right now,
you can select whatever look you want. Whether you go warmer, cooler, or even into
other more surreal balances of color is purely a creative choice at this point. If you’re
going for a realistic look, however, it’s important to restrain yourself and stick to making
subtle changes.
Once you’ve achieved the color balance you want, it’s time to adjust the saturation of
your clip to complete the look of the shot.
10 Drag the Saturation slider to increase or decrease the saturation.
Be careful when you do this. A common mistake beginners make is to automatically
oversaturate shots to make them look “better.” While a highly saturated look is sometimes
appropriate, less saturation may actually improve the look of your footage. This is
especially true if you have a camcorder with artificially vivid color. In this case, it may be
appropriate to desaturate the image somewhat to keep it from looking too “hot.”
Note: As always, be careful to make adjustments to saturation only while looking at a
properly calibrated broadcast monitor. It can be very tempting to oversaturate the
colors of your clip based on the way video looks on a computer display.