Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

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Electronic Color Correction

The color correction process in video was probably born to fix footage that had been incorrectly shot. For instance, when the camera wasn’t properly white balanced or when the wrong color temperature filter was used. It was also frequently used to match the color characteristics of footage coming from multiple-camera shoots. But artistic types soon realized that the color corrector could also be used creatively in the post process.

AE's Curves can be used for color correction or the creation of wild effects..
As film scanners became more sophisticated and the ability to convert film to video straight from the negative was made possible, the color corrector became and essential tool to recreate the color timing process used by film labs. Skilled professionals called colorists started applying color correction to each shot not only to achieve the correct color balance but also to add to the mood of a scene.

In order to make video footage look more like film, we’ll apply color correction to each scene in a similar way that a colorist does. The first goal is to completely do away with perfectly white balanced shots because they are a dead giveaway that the footage came from a video camera. Since lights are seldom perfectly white on film, we must avoid that on video. The second goal is to play with the overall mood of the scene by the use of an overall color tint. Basically keep in mind that utilizing warm colors such as yellow, red and orange will give you a sense of warmth while using cool colors such as blue and green will give you a sense of coldness. Reading a book about the psychological characteristics of colors definitely helps if you wish to master the art of using colors to obtain specific moods.
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AE's Hue/Saturation effect with Colorize turned on..
Color correction may be applied directly within an editing application or it may be applied in a compositing program. The choice is basically yours and it depends mostly on how complex you want your color correction to be and how deep into the film-look simulation process you want to get. If you intend on going all the way and adjust the gamma, convert the speed to 24 fps and apply grain, than you should probably do it in a compositing program. Same if you want ultimate control over the color manipulation process or if you wish to take advantage of the many plug-ins designed specifically for this task. On the other hand, if you are going to ultimately transfer your movie to film, that color correcting inside your editing application may be all you need. The advantage of using some editing programs for color correction is that it can be done in real time, without rendering. This is the case with more expensive systems as well as less expensive ones. The upcoming version 3.0 of Final Cut Pro, for instance, will support real time color correction.

Each editing application has its own commands and features and because there are so many of them, I can’t be specific to all. I’ll use Final Cut Pro for our editing program color balancing routine, but you can use your favorite program’s equivalent tools.

Start by selecting the scene that you want to process. If the scene involves several cuts, apply the same setting to all of them unless you must make individual adjustments to better match multiple takes. Open the Effects window in Final Cut Pro and select the Image Control folder. There you’ll find three tools that you can use for color correction: Color Balance, Proc Amp and Tint. Color Balance lets you adjust the individual color tonality for the highlights, midtones and shadows by means of RGB sliders. I does a very good job at altering the overall color tonality of a shot, specially if you must control elements such as shadows separately from the highlights.


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