10.2 won't allow copy paste attributes for "Color" - only color corrections - big difference. You can no longer apply Color Balance to a clip and then paste that exact balance to other clips.
Work around?
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)
You can apply Color Balance to any clip, or many clips at once, by selecting the target clips and pressing Command-Option-B. Since there are no settings to tweak in this command, I fail to see what you mean by "that exact balance".
Thanks Luis. Lets say you have four clips of a studio session fro music video. Since each clip has the performer in a different position against the background, the color balance will vary from clip to clip. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. You could always start each clip with a close up of a white card I suppose and use that frame to balance I suppose but it would be a hassle. The old version allowed you to copy the color balance performed on one clip to all the others.
I admit that I'm quite ignorant in terms of color, but it appears to me that what you really want is color correction, not color balance. AFAIK color balance depends on an analysis of the clip, so it will naturally difer from one clip to another. If you want to create a certain "look", that is color correction, isn't it?
You seem to imply that color balance would depend on a given frame, but what I see is that FCP X seems to analyze the whole clip, not a specific frame where the skimmer may be. At the very least, I see that a long clip takes longer analyze.
There is absolutely no point in pasting color balance. It's applied on a clip by clip basis. You can't copy the color balance of one clip to another clip. To apply color balance to multiple clips, simply select the clips and turn it on. If you mean match color, that's a different story.
You may be right about analyzing the whole clip. My point is that we've lost something in the new version. I found that using the color balance (which used to show in the inspector before you enabled it from Modify up top) was a quick way of getting the look I wanted. Color correction is a wild card - not the same as Photoshop for example which allows you to use an eye dropper tool and select a white or grey part of the image you want to set as the white point. Maybe Divinci or Color Finale allow that. I need to investigate. Here's what happens when you select all the clips and color balance all at once (same result if you balance them one by one). The subject's relative size in the frame, or addition of the guitar results in a different color balance. In some clips you will see the grey background get much cooler. Unacceptable.
I don't have to color balance in post since I use the custom WB in the camera with my light source - but again,, the feature is gone. Paste Attributes used to list Color - now it's only Color Correction - which is still needed for other changes like exposure.
Thanks Tom. Match color might work. But it's not the same as the last FCPX version which allowed both color correction and "Color" to be pasted. I'll see if Match gives me the consistent result I'm looking for. I'll color balance one clip and then try matching to the others. If I have to do it clip by clip that's a pain...
Nope. Match *****. In this example I color balanced the second clip (0:10) and then selected all clips and matched them to a frame in the second clip. Not only is the color inconsistent, look what it does to the exposure on some of the other clips(0:45):
bobwoolcock wrote:
Thanks Luis. Lets say you have four clips of a studio session fro music video. Since each clip has the performer in a different position against the background, the color balance will vary from clip to clip. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. You could always start each clip with a close up of a white card I suppose and use that frame to balance I suppose but it would be a hassle. The old version allowed you to copy the color balance performed on one clip to all the others.
Color balance is subjective, easily changed to whatever the designer/director/colorist wants. Just grab hold of the handles and start playing around.
White balance is a completely objective camera setting that should be performed with every major set and lighting changes since dimming and reflectance can change the color temperature or color cast of the scene. Sometimes that can be corrected with color balance controls in post.
You can apply the color correction effect, open the color board and, using the scopes, create any look or color compensation you want (within the limits of the filter) and you can easily copy'n'aste those setting onto any other clip.
In the olden days, we shot 5 seconds of a Kodak Shirley, over some other color standard card, at the beginning of every film scene. After our one-light dailies were reviewed and culled, the film printing lab required the gray card or Macbeth chips to perform their magic.
Regretably, I share our digital age's prevailing laziness and tendencies to believe I can fix any stupid exposure mistake in post. I succeed only about 70% of the time.
Onice again there is no point in copying and pasting color balance. Don't bother copying. Select the clips you want to color balance and apply color balance from the menu or the keyboard shortcut. Done.
Tom, if the two YT links I pasted are viewable, you will see the issue. Match color fails miserably:
Color balancing each clip separately or together fails:
Thanks David. That's interesting about the Kodak Shirley. I know I see Color Timer listed in the credits of older movies. What a task that must have been - using filters on the negatives and positives I guess and re-adjusting exposures? They did it well.
Even though I manually set the white balance to the light source (in this case 5500k photo fluorescent) by pointing the camera at the soft box and setting it, there are times I like to change things - as you astutely say, it's subjective Added to that is that I have a consumer video camera that has to have the exposure EV adjusted to your eye every time you power it up - as opposed to a proper pro camera with f stops, etc where you can repeat the exact exposure.
The trouble with sliding handles around is, for me, it's too wild. I need something to ground me first and take it from there. The Color Balance tool, with my set up, produces interesting, totally different yet still valid skin tones. Maybe there's a way to express the result numerically - if there is I could copy those numbers over. Then I change the whole scheme with something like Combat 🙂 But you must have everything equalized first.
I was spoiled by the old version of FCPX - whatever color balance, color correction, exposure you did to that clip - All of it would transfer across to the other clip(s) with one click. Now you have to grade one clip as you explain - then copy that over. I guess I expect new versions to add things and not take away. "Color" is no longer in the Paste Attributes list. Only Color Correction. I'm repeating myself 🙂
I may need a plug in to accomplish what I want.
Clarification: "Since each clip has the performer in a different position against the background, the color balance will vary from clip to clip..." Make that Color Balance as performed in post with FCPX.
White balancing off the softbox only normalizes to the light source, not to the scene. Get a good white card and place it where your talent will be standing.
Someday you'll have a better camera. They're not expensive, relatively speaking, of course.
I use White Balancer from CineFlare, part of FxFactory. It's $50 but FxFactory is free. There are dozens of independent filter and effects coders making inexpensive plugins for FCP, AE, Motion, and Premiere using FxF.
the filter itself leaves much to be desired when it comes to automatic white balancing but the settings be copied and applied to a range of clips.
Good info. Basically I just like what balance color does sometimes - one more effect to use in the arsenal. But now you can't paste from one clip to another like the old FCPX version allowed. It's a wild card since even slight movement of the subject will produce different results - the addition of the guitar for instance - that's why when you find a clip that gives complimentary skin tones with balance color you need to copy that exact balance to the remaining clips. Oh well - not that important - I assume any plug ins I add will allow me to work with one clip and then paste those changes exactly to the other clips.
Here's what I'm looking for in a color grading plug in.
This is an extreme example that, in a studio setting you could avoid by consistent lighting – but this illustrates how well Photoshop gets you close to where you want to be. In this demo I selected reflected light but you can also select the source itself depending on brightness. In this extreme example the camera auto WB is averaging two distinctly different color temperatures and CRI ratings. Balancing the camera to the light is essential but inevitably WB balancing in post is useful.
10.2 Paste Attributes Color Ommission
