Apple Color 1.0 - Manual (Page 16)

16 Chapter 1 Color Correction Basics
 Making digital lighting adjustments: Sometimes lighting setups that looked right
during the shoot don’t work as well in post. Changes in the director’s vision,
alterations to the tone of the scene as edited, or suggestions on the part of the
director of photography (DoP) during post may necessitate alterations to the lighting
within a scene beyond simple adjustments to the image’s overall contrast. Color
provides powerful controls for user-definable masking which, in combination with
secondary color correction controls, allow you to isolate multiple regions within an
image and fine-tune the lighting. This is sometimes referred to as digital relighting.
For more information, see Chapter 10, “
Secondaries ,” on page 209, and “ Shapes Tab ”
on page 298.
 Creating special effects: Sometimes a scene requires more extreme effects, such as
manipulating colors and exposure intensively to achieve a day-for-night look,
creating an altered state for a flashback or hallucination sequence, or just creating
something bizarre for a music video. In the Color FX room, Color provides you with
an extensible node-based toolset for creating such in-depth composites efficiently, in
conjunction with the other primary and secondary tools at your disposal. For more
information, see Chapter 11, “
Color FX ,” on page 235.
If that sounds like a lot to do, it is. Fortunately, the Color interface helps you to keep
these tasks organized.
When Does Color Correction Happen?
A program’s color fidelity shouldn’t be neglected until the color correction stage of the
post-production process. Ideally, every project is begun with a philosophy of color
management that’s applied during the shoot, is maintained through the various
transfer and editing passes that occur during post-production, and concludes with the
final color correction pass conducted in Color. This section elaborates on how film and
video images have traditionally made their way through the post-production process.
Color Management Starts During the Shoot
Whether a program is shot using film, video, or high-resolution digital imaging of
another means, it’s important to remember that the process of determining a
program’s overall look begins when each scene is lit and shot during production. To
obtain the maximum amount of control and flexibility over shots in post-production,
you ideally should start out with footage that has been exposed with the end goals in
mind right from the beginning. Color correction in post-production is no substitute for
good lighting.
Optimistically, the process of color correction can be seen as extending and enhancing
the vision of the producer, director, and director of photography (DoP) as it was
originally conceived. Often, the DoP gets personally involved during the color
correction process to ensure that the look he or she was trying to achieve is perfected.