I have a basic understanding of color correction for video from FCP’s “Encyclopedia of Color Correction,” and other recourses.
I will be purchasing a DSLR, and I’m having a hard time understanding how the still photo folks do color correction. I have Photoshop CS4, and I think I’ve watched most of the color correction videos from lynda.com tutorials for Adobe Camera RAW and Lightroom. I like the extra touches like the “vibrance” control and the HSL sliders.
But, for the most part, it’s difficult to understand exactly what the all the sliders are doing. There is no vectorscope in any of these programs, so I have no idea how far I can custom grade a clip without getting the skin tones wrong. I don’t know how the sliders compare to basic 3-Way Color Corrector controls (e.g. “Exposure,” “Fill Light,” “Brightness,” “Blacks,” etc.). I also don’t get exactly how color casts are removed (or introduced) simply by a combination of the 2 sliders – (color) “Temperature” and (green to magenta) “Tint.” (Seems like a single color wheel does what the combination of the Temperature and Tent sliders, but in an intuitive fashion).
Are there books that explain these controls in detail? Maybe a book on how to get correct skin tones (without a vectorscope, and without shooting a gray card or MacBeth Color Checker)? Any books that are for people coming to Lightroom/Adobe Camera Raw from video color correction?
As usual, please pardon my typos.
Thanks.
Edit: BTW, I opened up one of my (professionally shot) wedding photos in FCP. Masking off everything but a face, I saw the skin tone exactly on the skin tone line on the vectorscope. But the shot was just an hour or two before dusk. Apparently the photographer had shot a gray card, then unknowingly "corrected" out the warm light. Seems like this kind of mistake would be easy to make if you did not know exactly how much you could warm up a photo without going more than 10 degrees (or whatever) off the flesh tone line of a vectorscope.
I will be purchasing a DSLR, and I’m having a hard time understanding how the still photo folks do color correction. I have Photoshop CS4, and I think I’ve watched most of the color correction videos from lynda.com tutorials for Adobe Camera RAW and Lightroom. I like the extra touches like the “vibrance” control and the HSL sliders.
But, for the most part, it’s difficult to understand exactly what the all the sliders are doing. There is no vectorscope in any of these programs, so I have no idea how far I can custom grade a clip without getting the skin tones wrong. I don’t know how the sliders compare to basic 3-Way Color Corrector controls (e.g. “Exposure,” “Fill Light,” “Brightness,” “Blacks,” etc.). I also don’t get exactly how color casts are removed (or introduced) simply by a combination of the 2 sliders – (color) “Temperature” and (green to magenta) “Tint.” (Seems like a single color wheel does what the combination of the Temperature and Tent sliders, but in an intuitive fashion).
Are there books that explain these controls in detail? Maybe a book on how to get correct skin tones (without a vectorscope, and without shooting a gray card or MacBeth Color Checker)? Any books that are for people coming to Lightroom/Adobe Camera Raw from video color correction?
As usual, please pardon my typos.
Thanks.
Edit: BTW, I opened up one of my (professionally shot) wedding photos in FCP. Masking off everything but a face, I saw the skin tone exactly on the skin tone line on the vectorscope. But the shot was just an hour or two before dusk. Apparently the photographer had shot a gray card, then unknowingly "corrected" out the warm light. Seems like this kind of mistake would be easy to make if you did not know exactly how much you could warm up a photo without going more than 10 degrees (or whatever) off the flesh tone line of a vectorscope.
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