Video Color Correction for Non-Linear Editors: A Step-by-Step Guide

209 Pages·2002·2.75 MB·English

by  Stuart Blake Jones

Video Color Correction for
Nonlinear Editors
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
Video Color
Correction for
Nonlinear Editors
(cid:2)
A Step-by-Step Guide
Stuart Blake Jones
An imprint of Elsevier Science
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jones, Stuart Blake, 1961–
Video color correction for nonlinear editors : a step-by-step guide /
Stuart Blake Jones.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-240-80515-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Motion pictures—Editing—Data processing. 2. Video tapes—
Editing—Data processing. 3. Color. I. Title.
TR899 .J667 2002
778.5¢35—dc21
2002035226
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Contents
(cid:2)
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
1 Getting Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Basics of Color Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Colorist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Setting Up Your Color-Correction Environment . . . . . 5
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 The Video Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Reading the Scopes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Waveform Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Vectorscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Parade Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Histogram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Video Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
NTSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
PAL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
HDTV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Video Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Component Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Composite Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Analog Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Digital Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3 Videotape Recording Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Analog Recording Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1-Inch Type C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
vi Video Color Correction for Nonlinear Editors
8mm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Betacam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Betacam SP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Betamax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Hi-8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
S-VHS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
U-Matic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
VHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Digital Recording Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Betacam SX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
D-1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
D-2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
D-3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
D-5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
D-6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
D-7 (DVCPRO). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
DCT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Digital Betacam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Digital S (D-9). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
DV/DVC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
DVCAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
DVCPRO 50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Digital 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
HDCAM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4 The Color-Correction Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Adobe Systems, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Adobe After Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Adobe Premiere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Apple Computer, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Final Cut Pro 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Avid Technology, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Avid|DS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Avid Symphony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Plug-In Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3Prong. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Digital Film Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Contents vii
In-Sync Corporation: ViXen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Synthetic Aperture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5 Types of Color Correction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Basic Video Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
The Hue Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
The Saturation Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
The Lift Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
The Gain Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Primary Color Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Secondary Color Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Adjustable Curves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The Knee Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Area Isolation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6 Seven Sample Scenarios and Operational Tips. . . . . 75
Seven Sample Scenarios. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
A Beer Commercial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
An Airline Commercial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
A Supermarket Commercial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
A Car Commercial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
A Scandinavian Floor Commercial . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
A Documentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
A Music Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Hints and Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Selective Color-Correction Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
A Difficult Color Isolation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Color Isolations from Compressed Video
Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Matching Colors from a Product Provided
by the Client. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Matching Colors Based on a Reference Tape . . . . . 86
Information Backups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Setting Up Your Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
The Client. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Working with Multiple Clients. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
When to Use Which Type of Color Correction . . . . . 90
Lighting Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
viii Video Color Correction for Nonlinear Editors
Frequent “Traps” Colorists Find Themselves In . . . . . 92
Color Correcting with an Uncalibrated
Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Overuse of the Secondary Color Corrector . . . . . . 93
Color Adaptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Tips for Scene-by-Scene Color Matching . . . . . . . . . 93
7 Tutorials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Primary Color Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Selective Color Correction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Creating a Color Gradation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Creating a Knee Correction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
A Defocused Halo Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Creating a Night Scope Color Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Using Adjustable Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Creating a Secondary Color Correction. . . . . . . . . . 112
Adjusting Image Levels Using the Histogram. . . . . . 115
Changing Color Using the Eye Dropper . . . . . . . . . 118
Creating a Dual-Tone Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Instantly Creating a Warm or Cool Look . . . . . . . . 122
Creating a Black and White Image with One
Color Remaining. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Color Correcting Only the Image Highlights. . . . . . 126
Creating a Sepia Tone Color Correction . . . . . . . . . 129
Creating a Color Vignette Around an Image . . . . . . 131
Making Multiple Color Gradations. . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Appendix A: Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Appendix B: World Television Standards . . . . . . . . 141
Appendix C: Color Temperature Chart . . . . . . . . . 144
Appendix D: Video Recording Format Chart. . . . . 145
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Preface ix
Preface
During the time in which I have worked as a colorist, I have been constantly
confronted with new challenges. Whether it was to change a gloomy afternoon
scene into a sunny day or to simply create a particular color effect, each pro-
vided a new and exciting learning experience. Being familiar with the techniques
and processes of color correction is vital for not only the operator but also the
client. If the client is unfamiliar with the process, he or she is likely to come
into the session with expectations that may be difficult to fulfill.
Keeping these ideas in mind, we have compiled this book as a comprehensive
how-to guide for taking full advantage of the color-correction tools contained
within each of the software applications we mention. We also give the reader a
basic knowledge of the techniques of color correction. This book is quite unique
in that, along with the sample scenarios and tutorials, there are also Quick-
TimeTM movies and Web page examples contained on the accompanying CD-
ROM. These examples visually show the reader exactly how the effect or color
correction was created.
The book is divided into seven chapters. In Chapter One we cover the basics
of color correction along with a small history of the process. Following this,
we cover the role of the colorist along with how to create the ideal color-
correcting environment. Chapter Two provides an understanding of the video
signal and covers everything from what a waveform monitor or vectorscope is
to descriptions of the individual video systems and standards. Chapter Three
then describes the various recording formats that the operator may run across.
Chapter Four covers the various color-correction tools contained in the soft-
ware applications. Chapter Five takes us through the various forms of color cor-
rection. Chapter Six describes seven sample color-correction scenarios, along
with hints and tips for color correction, followed by suggestions for the appro-
priate applications for various types of color correction. Chapter Seven is a series
of tutorials that take us through the processes in a step-by-step fashion, with
illustrations. Additionally, many of the tutorials contained in this chapter are
accompanied by either Web page examples or QuickTime movies on the com-
panion CD-ROM. Finally, we end with appendices that contain additional
useful information, along with a comprehensive glossary.