Color correcting: still or moving?

Beat Takeshi

Beat Takeshi

Two-Hip Shakur
Hi everyone,
When color correcting, which image should I go by in the monitor? When the play head is stopped the footage looks brighter than when the play head is playing the video.
Thanks
 
You should be going by the one that is playing on your calibrated NTSC client monitor.

The computer monitor has two states; one that is at pause which is the graphics cards itself, then there is the one that is moving which is the overlay. Both of these states have different gamma settings. One the non moving one can really be properly calibrated using software and hardware. The overlay has very little control for calibration and I would never trust it.

When doing this type of work, a well calibrated NTSC (or PAL) monitor is essential.

Michael
 
However we've all been in situations where we have to get the job done and we just don't have the essential hardware. In that case you can adjust your overlay settings to be identical to the "stopped" image. Go to the Xpress Pro forums on www.avid.com and search for "overlay" you'll get several posts that will give you the exact values that work for Xpress Pro.

But, if you have a calibrated monitor, or can get one, that's definitely the way to go.

Chris
 
My point is that adjusting the overlay to match the "Stopped" version is still not exactly the same, and you don't have any idea whether the stopped version is correct or not if that the monitor itself is not calibrated.

I use Monaco Systems to calibrate the computer monitor so I know that the "stopped" version is at least close and fine for streaming versions. But any final color correction is done on the client monitor.

Michael
 
Thanks MP.
Im not using a monitor because Im doing it at work and they took it for something else. Its sort of a side project also so I havnt been able to just go grab it back. But at least i know now.
 
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