Color Correction

Color correction is a fine art, and like many things in editing, countless tomes have been written on the subject. Final Cut Studio has many tools to do color correction including the standalone application Color. One of the things that is important for color correction is understanding the scopes (A properly calibrated monitor is also a good thing.) If you open the scopes (all in the movie) you will see the four scopes, which are shown on the left of each of the following images.

I often used the RGB Parade scope, which is the one on the lower left with the three bands of Red, Green and Blue. It shows how much RGB is in the video. The very top is white and the bottom is blacks. In the wave shot all the RGB is around the middle, with nothing getting blown out and nothing too dark. Note that often is a part of the video looks soft/drab/blah it could be that there is not enough range of the RGB covering from the Whites to the Blacks and adjusting that balance can help improve the video without touching the color. In fact it is a good idea to set the black level, then the white level, prior to adjusting the color. (Will explain that in a second a bit more.)

If you take a look at the second shot you will see that the Red in the image is really towards black, while the Green is in the middle, with the Blue more towards upper middle/highlight in the scope and and to your eye when looking at the fish and water.

Time for the Color Corrector

In the Filters you will see a 3 Way Color Corrector (if you watch the movie you will see it being accessed and applied.) The three way color corrector has three wheels. From left to right - Blacks, Mids and Whites. Underneath each wheel is a slider. Dragging the slider to the left makes the Blacks, Mids or Whites decrease/darken, while moving them to the right of center increases/lightens. In other words if any of the RGB in the Parade is over the White Line, you would take the slider under the White Wheel and drag it towards the left until nothing is over the White Line. A couple of other important pieces here. To the lower left of each wheel is a picker that you can use to select the Black, Mid or White Point, and to the lower right a reset button which will clear the Black, Mid or White settings as applicable. Press and holding the shift key then clicking on the Mid reset will reset all the weels and sliders.

No color correction

Color Correction, just adjusting Black/Mids/Whites

Looking at the scope shows that the Reds are all still very low with none in the mids or highlights. You can adjust the wheels, but a quick way is to select the picker underneath the White Wheel then mouse over the Canvas - you will see an eye dropper. Click on a section for what should be white/gray.

And after clicking, note the RGB Parade and also note where the White Dot/Bubble moved on the White Color Wheel - it moved from the center to Red. You can make adjustments by dragging the Dot/Bubble.