Monday, November 17, 2008

Color Correction Video Tutorial

fix it in Color Finesse - or adapt it to Color

This week I balance and fix a dark image in Synthetic Aperture’s Color Finesse color correction application, but if you are using Apple Color, you can adapt this easily to Color by using the Master Gain, Gamma and Pedestal and the Advanced Tabs Red, Green and Blue gain, gamma and pedestal controls. You could also do this correction using Curves and guide your corrections using eyedroppering instead of using an RGB Parade waveform monitor if you wanted.

The image that I used in the example is on the CD from my first color correction book, co-authored with Jaime Fowler, “Color Correction for Digital Video.” That book is about to be released in an almost completely re-written revised edition called “Color Correction for Video.” This image is also on the DVD for that book.

Next week we’ll get into some more advanced techniques in Color, so make sure to subscribe to the RSS feed for this series.

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Thursday, November 13, 2008

Meeting the challenges of today’s weak economy

Bringing home the production bacon

Last year was my best year ever. Huge projects and lots of them. Plenty of work to pass out to the great freelancers that I knew. This year… not so much. Actually this year is my worst year. From feast to famine.

So what am I doing about it? Losing sleep? Yes. But this is an inspirational and motivational column to convince you to wear out some shoe leather and burn up the phone lines.

There’s still work out there. Someone is doing it. So how do you get a piece of the pie?

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Monday, November 10, 2008

Avid Gems 8

Gems in the Bins - How many do YOU know?

Get your bin tips! Step right up, folks! Get your bin tips here!

Once again:  maybe not sexy, but useful. One of these tips isn’t even in the manual and one of them was new to me until I re-read the manual.  Which ones will be new to you? You never know what little gem has slipped past you on the way to becoming the experienced editor you are.

Post Production • (2) Comments • Most recent comments by: dwstudio, Ra-ey Saleh, • Permalink

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Color Correction Video Tutorial

Using color contrast to improve an image

This video tutorial on color correction shows how color contrast can be used to really transform an image. A large part of color correction is improving and manipulating the tonal contrast - the difference between the brightest and darkest parts of the image. But color contrast can be even more important in creating an interesting and arresting image. Contrasting warm tones with cool tones or playing colors against each other to create interest is something that sets the truly great colorists apart from the rest. The example in this video tutorial uses footage from Evan Nicholas’ short film, “Susannah,” which was shot with a RED camera, to show how tonal and color contrast can be used to improve the impact of a shot.

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Sunday, November 02, 2008

Avid Gems #7

Advanced Tips and Techniques for Avid editors

I wasn’t sure if anyone was reading these, so I stopped for a few weeks. Then I got a very nice comment from Ra-ey Saleh who has been reading and learning from the tips, despite being an experienced Avid editor. He also asked if he could suggest a tip, so I’ll start this week with a great tip. Essentially, it’s nothing more than a common button, but it does perform hidden wonders, which is the whole point of some of these gems.

Post Production • (4) Comments • Most recent comments by: Ra-ey Saleh, portablemind2, Sproketz, Jim Hines, • Permalink

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Scarlet Killers - Attack of the HD DSLRs!

HD capability in new crop of DSLRs deserves a look

Nikon is claiming its recent release of the D-90 is the first HD DSLR camera. Plus there’s the news of Canon’s entry into the HD DSLR race, the EOS 5D Mark II as well as the Sony DSLR-A900. The combined pressure of these seemed to sink the much anticipated release of the Scarlet.
 
So why are these SLR form-factor camera’s making a scene? Well, lately it’s been about the release of Vincent Laforet’s HD film “Reverie” on the Canon website. The images are stunning and the entire project was shot on a 72 hour deadline with a budget of $5,000. So many people downloaded the movie that it shut down Canon’s video webserver.

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Color Correction - Secondaries Video Tutorial

Another example of how to use Secondary Color correction in Apple’s Color

Here is a video tutorial - one of a series based on my book “Color Correction for Video,” out in December from Focal Press - showing how to do secondary color correction on a typical image. This footage is from Artbeats. In it, I “qualify” (another term for “select") the color of the baseball jerseys in the shot AND the color of the grass in the infield and change it without affecting the other colors in the footage.

If you find these tutorials valuable, subscribe to the RSS feed!

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Monday, October 20, 2008

Color Correction Video Tutorial

Sampling colors in Apple’s Color

Another in a series of color correction tutorials from the upcoming revised edition of “Color Correction for Video” coming out in December from Focal Press.

In this installment, I show you how to sample colors on the screen in Apple Color to get numeric readouts of specific pixels in your image. (These same methods can be used with Avid or FCP or Color Finesse in Premiere or After Effects.) Using these numeric readouts can assist you in making corrections, especially if you can sample something that should be white, black or some other neutral gray tone. Any neutral tone should have the same numeric readout across all three color channels. (They can be off by a little.)

The samples in Color will continuously update as you color correct, which is very helpful. So, for example, is you sample a black pixel from your image and it says that the red channel is .085, the green channel is .088 and the blue channel is .025, then that means that your blacks have either a deficiency of blue or too much yellow (the combination of even amounts of red and green). So you probably need to raise the set-up/pedestal/black level of your blue channel to remove the yellow cast in the blacks. This will actually help balance the overall level somewhat, especially if you can balance the whites/highlights/gain using the same method. Grays will either fall into place, or you can adjust your gammas/midtones “to taste” by eye.

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