As a Shake user, I learned to love the explicit image processing organization that node-based compositing afforded. Never mind trying to figure out which precomp corresponded to what part of the composite; one look at a well-organized node tree and you can see exactly what’s going on.
Furthermore, once you get the hang of using nodes, you can begin to work out your order of corrections in advance in a classic programmer’s tactic; flowchart your way through a complicated series of operations in order to think them through, except in this case, the flowchart is also the result!
I’ve been discussing node based operations with my friend and colleague Robbie Carman, who’s another DaVinci Resolve beta user, and in the process thought that it might be interesting to share some of my favorite operational aspects of Resolve’s method of node-based correction organization.
#0—A Quick Orientation
Similarly to the node-based Color FX room of Apple Color, node-based corrections in Resolve aren’t for the actual compositing of multiple images with one another. They’re for organizing and combining the different corrections you want to make to your image. Before I dive in, here’s a quick overview of how Resolve uses nodes.
Every clip has a corresponding set of [...]
Continue reading Three Things I Love About Node Organization in Resolve
Writing. Writing. Sleeping. More writing. The periodic grading gig interruption.
Yes, it’s “the last month of writing my book,” and just like every other book’s last month, it’s a round-the-clock marathon of typing, research, setting up example projects that look good and explain the topic at hand, screenshot-taking, and illustration making; all amidst a vague feeling that I should be getting more sleep.
And the periodic beer.
However, amidst all the toil, there are still magic moments, and today was the culmination of a plan I’ve long had to more fully examine and portray the possibilities of human skin tone (one of the chapters of the book I’ve put particular emphasis on). After I identified the list of complexions I wanted to document, photographer Sasha Nialla assembled a terrific roster of models, and with me playing client shot all of them under controlled lighting conditions, allowing me to show an apples to apples comparison within the book of the basic categories of complexion, for analysis and consideration.
Photographer Sasha Nialla shoots our redhead sample subject. It's the sexiest science you're going to see…
My personal criteria for how good a technical book I’m writing [...]
Continue reading Digging in the Word Mine…
When Stu Maschwitz started beating the drum for Colorista II, I had mixed feelings. I’m always happy about shiny new tools that threaten to make my life easier, but to be honest I wasn’t a particular fan of the original Colorista. However, software evolves, and a new version deserves a new look, so I downloaded the demo for Final Cut Pro, and gave it a whirl on a short scene from an old project.
Before I dive into the details of my first look, let me just give you my resulting impressions right up front. I feel that Colorista II is a worthwhile addition to the NLE colorists’s toolkit, and will live alongside the other plugins you’ve been using very nicely. Its ample feature set may even replace some plugins you’ve been using with a better mousetrap.
However, as well-thought out as it is overall, I do find some of the controls to be a bit unwieldy. Also, through no fault of its own, Colorista II is chained to the performance, effects interface, shot comparison mechanisms, and grade management capabilities, not to mention control surface compatibility, of your [...]
Continue reading Taking a Quick Look At Colorista II
A paper look-up-table
I let myself get pulled into responding to a thread at Creative Cow’s DaVinci forum on 3D LUT calibration, but felt that the subject might benefit from a bit more elaboration. I’ve been researching LUT calibration of prosumer display devices in greater detail for a small section of my upcoming book, which I hope will cast some more light on an admittedly arcane subject about which there’s a bit of confusion. However, LUTs are an example of high-end tools and methodologies that are increasingly within the reach of smaller facilities who aren’t afraid of a bit of research, and 3D LUT calibration, once the domain of high-end film facilities, is worth knowing more about if you require color critical monitoring.
To massively oversimplify, a 3D LUT is a three-dimensional look-up-table for taking incoming image data and converting it to another set of image data—in other words it’s a color and contrast transformation. 1D LUTs are suitable for calibrating a monitor’s gamma response, but a 3D LUT is required for changing the gamut, or range of color that a display shows.
LUTs can be used for many [...]
Continue reading An Orbital Overview of Monitor LUT Calibration
I had some back and forth with friend and colleague Patrick Inhofer (Colorist and owner of FINI), about what the “official” peak luma setting should be for a monitor he’s evaluating. The long and short of my response was that SMPTE Recommended Practice document RP 166-1995 (now archived, but there’s no replacement just yet) calls for 35 footlamberts (ft-L) of light output for a calibrated CRT display, which when converted to cd/m2 is 119.92 nits (round up to 120). In other words, a 100 IRE white field, when measured, should be outputting 35 ft-L or 120 nits. This was decided in the CRT days, which are waning, but so far as I know it’s the only official peak luma standard in place for color critical monitoring on a self-illuminated display (the projection standard is 14 ft-L).
However, there are all sorts of posts where folks claim all sorts of peak luma values that they prefer to use for their own monitoring situation. When I’m asked to explain why, it’s always difficult to do so without either taking sides or wondering if one or another emerging monitor technologies really does merit revisiting the previous standard. [...]
Continue reading Monitoring Peak Luma Funnies
The south hall NAB show floor (where all the postproduction was) on Wednesday was packed.
Upon my return to New York and my first full night’s sleep in a week, I thought it would be good to follow up upon my last post and share some experiences from the rest of the show before they faded from memory. Overall, I had a great time visiting the different vendors of color correction hardware and software and comparing what they can do. Interestingly, the south hall (where most of the postproduction hardware/software vendors were located) was packed, much moreso then what I saw of the north and center halls, where all the production and distribution gear was located. With the abundance of tools now available to enable talented people to do increasingly incredible things, it’s a good time to be involved with post.
I got a fuller demo of the workflow involved with moving Avid and FCP projects to and from Baselight. Baselight has a clean, if packed, user interface, and as far as I can tell has pretty much every software tool ever devised for making [...]
Continue reading Notes From NAB, Part Deux
Another year's pilgrimage to NAB, in Vegas…
Well this year’s NAB is shaping up to be a doozy. Having spent the day chatting with representatives from various vendors of color correction software, color critical broadcast monitors, and accelerated storage systems, all of which I take a professional interest in, I thought I’d share some end of day thoughts.
Of course, the biggest news is Blackmagic/Davinci’s announcement of a $995 Mac OS X compatible, software-only license of their flagship color correction application, Resolve. Spending $30K gets you the overwhelmingly designed control surfaces (USB connected, by the way), while $50K gets you the control surface and a Linux license (and then you need to buy the appropriate CPU/multi-GPU configuration to run it).
A terrible picture of a terrific color correction system, Resolve for Mac OS X
Interestingly, on Mac OS X, you’ll end up installing two NVidia GPUs into your Mac Pro, one in the default slot that’s used to run the UI, and a second one to do the image processing. Coupled with an additional Blackmagic card for video I/O (they say they’ll introduce compatibility with [...]
Continue reading Notes From NAB
It would appear that Apple has released an update to Color 1.5, putting the application at 1.5.2. Hooray for bug fixes.
Although these days I use Color solely as a working colorist (and I’m busily moving my suite over to Twitch postproduction here in NYC), I did write the manual for versions 1 and 1.5. I guess old habits die hard, because with the new update I couldn’t help taking a look at the Apple Support knowledge base to see if there were any new and interesting tech notes, and then making a list.
I’m glad I did, searching for “Color 1.5″ in the title revealed the following issues that I hadn’t known about:
Color 1.5.2: Video Output of REDCODE material clips at 97 IRE
Color 1.5: Projects created in previous versions of Color may not send to Final Cut Pro as expected
Color 1.5: Rendering PAL material to ProRes 4444 introduces a gamma shift
Color 1.5: Motion Tab adjustments on Freeze Frames in a Final Cut Pro sequence are not carried over to Color
Color 1.5: Trimmed and speed changed clips render to DPX/CIN (Cineon) with extra frame at beginning and end
Color 1.5: Avoid mixing RED 4K media and regular NTSC [...]
Continue reading A Color Update, and Support Articles
Over at ProLost, Stu Maschwitz presents a nicely illustrated overview of the topic of memory colors. Go and give it a read. This is a fascinating subject that I myself stumbled upon three years ago while researching the IPT color space (long story), and there’s a whole body of academic research in the imaging science world on memory colors going back sixty years if you’re interested in digging deeper.
It’s also a topic I’ve been researching for my next book on color correction, in which I’m planning on citing the sources covered in this blog entry to try and provide a more data-driven framework for discussing why we colorists make the kinds of adjustments we do. Until then, here’s a super-quick overview of articles to provide some food for thought. My apologies for the lack of imagery, I’ve not had the time to get illustration permissions from all the papers I’m citing here (that’ll have to wait for the book).
An excellent starting point is a great article from 2004 that was presented at the IS&T/SID Twelfth Color Imaging Conference (coauthored by Clotilde Boust and too many others to list here) titled “Does an Expert Use Memory Colors to Adjust Images” (the paper [...]
Continue reading Even More On Memory Colors
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You’ve Found Me Congratulations on being intrepid enough to track down my small corner of the web. I'll likely be rattling on about my latest writing project, color correction observations, or production that's underway (which at the moment is my web serial, Starship Detritus). Whatever the topic, you're welcome to browse through and comment—I'm glad to hear from you.
Books and Videos 
Coming this fall. I'm currently working on this platform-agnostic book covering all aspects of professional color correction, in theory and practice. This book pulls together information ranging from room setup, detailed color and contrast theory, practical correction techniques, QC adherence, scene balancing, image ideals, all the way to a wealth of creative techniques—this book has something for colorists at all levels. Available for pre-order from Amazon.com.
On behalf of Ripple Training, I've created a one-hour set of instructional videos covering every new feature in Color 1.5. If you already know Color, and just want to get up to speed with what's new, these will give you a focused tour of the new features and workflows available in this upgrade to Final Cut Studio 3. Best of all, these are available for immediate download in iTunes! New Features in Color 1.5.
I used to write an ongoing series on grading in Color in the digital newsletter Edit Well. Many of my articles from the series, and others from experts in Final Cut Studio applications, have been collected into the verbosely named book Edit Well: Final Cut Studio Techniques from the Pros.
My own book, the Encyclopedia of Color Correction, is a focused compilation of color correction methods and information I've found valuable while working with my own clients. Combining color correction techniques with technical information relevant to colorists and finishing editors alike, it's an invaluable resource to post production pros who are using Final Cut Studio. Available now from Amazon.com.
If you're a fan of video tutorials, I recorded a series of 13 video lessons that provides over four hours of training spanning every room in Color. Buy it now from Magnet Media.
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