Color Correction for Digital Video
After reading the John Jackman lighting book from CMPBooks, I decided I would try another in their DV Expert Series and see how well it stood up. I spent last week reading through Color Correction for Digital Video by Steve Hullfish and Jaime Fowler, and once again, I’m not disappointed.
Ever since Final Cut Pro added easy yet powerful color correction effects to its NLE system, it seems every single editor wants to take a crack at color correcting their next project. The problem is, too many editors don’t know diddly about how to proceed. That’s where Color Correction for Digital Video comes in.[an error occurred while processing this directive]
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They also spend several chapters explaining how to use Waveform and Vectorscope monitors. While I have spent a great deal of time working with and using these monitors when setting up and running a television studio, and feel fairly comfortable with the basics of how these monitors work, Hullfish and Fowler go even further giving you much more information than you’ll ever need. I would venture so far as to say the section of the book devoted to these scopes are probably better than any manual that comes with your units.
In addition to talking about the hardware versions of these scopes, the book also delves into using the NLE built in version of these scopes. This even includes discussion on the Histogram and how you can analyze your video using the software based monitors.
With the theory completely out of the way, there is just enough space left in the book to include some tutorials. Unlike other tutorials that tell you step by step how to perform a task, Color Correction for Digital Video takes a look at some common (and later advanced) color correction tasks and walks you through how you would correct the problems. The nice thing about this book is the authors remain pretty much system and program agnostic. The theories and methods they talk about to perform color correction can be done on pretty much any system on the market today.
What didn’t I like about the book? I would have liked to have seen even more tutorials and samples on the included CD so readers can practice their techniques again and again. Unfortunately, that probably would have pushed the page count well beyond what CMP is going for in this series.
It’s pretty obvious that I like the book. While it is not as fast a read as the other DV Expert Series book I reviewed last time, the information presented is fantastic. The fact that the book is in color pushes the value of the book up even more. (It would be kind of difficult to talk about color correction in a black and white book).
If you are someone who is beginning to explore color correction as an added skill to your non-linear editing experience, then you should spend some time reading (and then re-reading) this book to make sure the information sinks in so your corrected video looks great.
When not working deep in the labs of the DMN Central Division testing the latest and greatest software/hardware products Stephen Schleicher can be found at the local university teaching a few courses on video and web production. He can be reached at schleicher@mindspring.com. You can also visit him on the web at www.mindspring.com/~schleicher
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