Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

It's an article at least, a class at best. Just fixed a program destined for a national cable network edited on a FCP system and outputted through an AJA to a digibeta. The QC of the show was rejected completely with h blanking out of spec, peds crushed, highlights as high as 108, aliasing, audio level problems, etc. the point is, there is far more to outputting a show than to just laying it off to tape.
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

[quote author=Walter_Graff link=board=news;num=1101396947;start=15#20 date=12/12/04 at 17:25:24]It's an article at least, a class at best. Just fixed a program destined for a national cable network edited on a FCP system and outputted through an AJA to a digibeta. The QC of the show was rejected completely with h blanking out of spec, peds crushed, highlights as high as 108, aliasing, audio level problems, etc. the point is, there is far more to outputting a show than to just laying it off to tape. [/quote]

Yeah this is the real sticking point in indie production, people forget that the standards required to get it on the air are pretty strict and well defined. Here's a really, really basic overview (this one pertains more to infomercials but most of the info should still be applicable):

http://www.videouniversity.com/broadre.pdf
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

Walter speaks the truth.

I worked as a QC engineer for a huge international cable conglomerate, and I regularly rejected programming from well known studios for exactly the reasons he states. Vertical blanking, horizontal blanking, chroma, luma, pedestal, audio peak levels. All items that were caused by sloppy work in posting the show. (This is not even including dropouts, audio track issues, titles, etc.)

Excepting sloppy work, my two regular and consistent failures were in out of range luminance and chroma in animation and in titles. Watch your titles folks!

You should note though that every network has a slightly different set of standards as far as what fails and what is noted and passed. The programming I reviewed was all under the wing of the international division, and the domestic division had a slightly different set of numbers for standards. Because of this, there would occasionally be shows that would pass one division and not the other.

Either way, being very conservative will help your programming in being adopted widely.
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

I'm going to be assisting a director do some color correction on a film and he lent me DigitalFilm Tree's Color Correction for Final Cut Pro DVD.  It's an excellent tutorial that is not too FCP-specific, so I'd recommend it to anyone using an advanced NLE with scopes and good color correction tools (like Vegas).    It's 2 hours long and does a good job of walking you through the full process of color correction (including making your material conform to broadcast standards).

http://digitalfilmtree.com/images/training/dvd_cc.html
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

I second Barry's suggestion. The dvd is straight forward. Watch the entire DVD first, then use the practice files that are attached. I actually watched the dvd 3 times to really get it down. Reading and understanding your scopes was a big plus.
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

Just make sure that when color correcting you are doing so on a properly calibrated monitor in a controlled environment.

I also like to differentiate between color correction (proper and legal levels for broadcast, fillm out, etc,) versus color enhancement which deals with the artistic side of the look anbd feel of the image.

Michael
 
Re: Color correction tips/guides/tutorial

This might help a little. Watch the making of the Cohen Brothers, Oh Brother Where Art Thou? They use a daVinci 2k in it to correct, it's interesting to see the work they do. The daVinci has power windows so it can isolate and do excellent enhancement work, that's why it's the defactor std for pro level work. ;)

For us mortals, I'd start with a Spyder for Monitor calibration and then work this book through and see where it takes you.

good luck.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1578202019/102-0908280-7640904?v=glance
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top