Color Balance in FCPx - Colorboard / Color Wheels

Question

Color Balance in FCPx - Colorboard / Color Wheels

What do you guys use to get the balance right ?

I am now grading my stuff in FCPx and coming from Photoshop and Lightroom this is a bit of a change.

I get different results using the color wheels as opposed to using the Color Board. I kind of find the Color Board more accurate while the Color Wheels are more intuitive but I am uncertain. In Lightroom and adobe camera RAW I basically adjust the Temperature and Tint sliders and I'm good to go but in FCPx I am not being that lucky.

I am getting a little help from these guys. First allows me to sample a pixel and check its color which is nice for monitoring grays and whites. The second one is allowing me to see the image in a false color mode so that I know when I hit white on the balance.

https://apps.apple.com/de/app/xscope-4/id889428659?l=en&mt=12

https://apps.apple.com/de/app/pro-color-monitor/id1495383011?l=en&mt=12

I have not been able to find any plugs doing better than Color Board and Color Wheels in FCPx so I guess it goes down to either of those. Anyway, I'd be thankful if some of you could point me in a good directions also perhaps with links to plugs doing stuff like that

Thanks

Posted on Jan 21, 2020 11:03 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 22, 2020 11:17 AM in response to fox_m

But grading from a flat image like that is easily done with color boards. Also the impact is grander just by adding a bit of contrast given the fact that the RAW was flat and ugly. Thought I'd test on Color Boards so I grabbed a quick screenshot from your site and spent 10 secs with the color boards and got this. With the actual RAW image and 3 minutes it would look perfect.

I've spent 1 24 hours now with the color boards and once understanding how they work - they're quite good.

BTW - what camera did you get that RAW off of ?? The guys face is all oinky-pink. Hadn't thought that any camera shooting RAW would provide such an image.

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Answer 2

Jan 21, 2020 12:09 PM in response to Studio Engineer

The two tools are designed to produce the same results and leave to user preference the choice of which to use

Video files are not raw as processed by photo editing apps so there is less room for correction

The color wheels do have temperature and tint though the correction range is more limited so are closer to the tools you use

The things you are doing with those apps can be done with scopes for Luma and RGB although that will not tell you if there is a cast. To see that compared to skin tones you need to use the vector scope.

All of those are avaialble in the color correction work space

Regarding the tools you link I am confused as false colour is to monitor exposure in IRE across the frame is unrelated to colours. I find rather amusing that an app knows if there is a cast or not usually this is your eye that determines it as even the white balance can be incorrect in part of the frame being an average

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Answer 3

Jan 21, 2020 12:35 PM in response to Interceptor121

Thanks for clearing that up. I thought those controls would be the same just with diff. UI but I wasn't sure.

Thanks again.

In regards to the monitor tools. It doesn't know or tell me if there is a color cast. My eyes do -) But given the fact that they display it in false color it makes it much more accessible to identify

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Answer 4

Jan 21, 2020 12:55 PM in response to Studio Engineer

OK to go back to your question I am user of light room and I intensively use the s curve the white balance as well as the hues

The idea of final cut is that white balance is a tool per se with an eye dropper and temperature is in the color wheels and to an extent also indirectly in the color boards

The wheels are a combo of white balance and s curve and to some extent have a control not available in light room as you can tweak saturation in the various tones instead of acting globally or on hue

So there is a step change you need to make coming from lightroom photoshop or any photo editor for that matter to final cut pro. I have found that some controls in final cut are more sophisticated but do not really bear great results maybe because I do not understand them

I would recommend you do some training on color correction to align on the tool set I have done the Ripple Advanced color correction and still i do not master all the tools but I can get by for what I need to do

Before I did the training I was using color boards like you do after the training I have moved to color wheels that are indeed extremely powerful and really I do not need more for correction. Look effects etc is a different story

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Answer 5

Jan 21, 2020 1:09 PM in response to Interceptor121

I love the controls in FCP. Its just that coming from Lightroom and RAW grading here is very diff. Just need to get used to it.

I just finished watching pro color monitor's tutorials on youtube. They color balance with FCP in one example using both wheels and boards. Magnificent results.

I'll be spending the night with this monitor and FCP Wheels and Boards.

Thanks for Chiming Man...

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Answer 6

Jan 21, 2020 6:08 PM in response to Interceptor121

Well, I've found at least one difference between the color board and the color wheels. On the RGB Parade, when you use the board master control you can make R high with G and B very low, and the same for G and B. With the wheels master control you can do that only with G. I can't find a way to get R or B high with the other two very low. Am I missing something?

Using FCP 10.4.6 on macOS 10.13.6.

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