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646Final Cut Pro User Guide
Step 1: Color correction starts during your shoot
The process of determining the overall look of your video begins when your scenes are
lit and shot during production. To have the maximum amount of control over your clips in
post-production, you need to start out with footage that has been exposed with your end
goals in mind right from the beginning. Color correction in post-production is no substitute
for good lighting.
Tip: In many productions, a color chip chart is placed next to the slate at the beginning
of every shot. This chart can be used during post-production to provide a good neutral
starting point for color correction. For example, you can use the white chip in the chart to
quickly white-balance your clips. This technique is especially valuable for matching color in
multicamera shoots.
Step 2: Pick a reference shot from a scene to use as the basis
for color correction
If you’re color correcting a scene consisting of a single shot, your job is pretty easy. All you
need to do is find the settings that work best for that one shot. Most scenes, however, cut
between a variety of different shots, such as close-ups, medium shots, and wide shots. In
every scene, there is usually a single wide shot that encompasses the entire scene. You
can use that shot as a reference shot, and then make the colors of the other shots match
those of the reference shot.
Step 3: Add a color correction effect and perform
primary color correction
To make any manual color correction adjustments to a clip, you must first add one of the
color correction effects available in Final Cut Pro (Color Board, Color Wheels, Color Curves,
or Hue/Saturation Curves). See Add color corrections in Final Cut Pro.
Primary color correction refers to two basic steps that you take using one of the color
correction effects:
• Adjust the blacks and whites to maximize the contrast of your clip: Essentially, you’re
mapping the blackest black in your clip to a value of 0 and the whitest white to a value
of 100. By doing this first, you widen the range that an underexposed image covers, or
bring down overly bright (or super-white) areas of overexposed video into the range
considered to be broadcast-safe.
• Adjust the balance of reds, greens, and blues in your shot: As you make these
adjustments, it’s helpful to view your clip on a broadcast video monitor as well as check
the clip’s luma and chroma levels in the video scopes to make more informed changes.
See
Intro to measuring video in Final Cut Pro.