Colour Correcting

Hi Toby.
I have recently graded a feature film on my 20" Apple, and had my 23" Apple as my workspace for the timeline etc.

As long as you set the monitor to your eye using the OS colour calibrator, and viewed the results on a monitor, i don't see how you should have a problem.

Also, make sure you have your gamma set to 1.8 in the colour calibrator, as final cut pro automatically adjusts video to 2.2 gamma, which is video monitor standard.

The Samsung TV isn't up to the task...you need a proper color correction monitor. One that allows you to adjust brightness, contrast, hue and saturation. And preferably has a BLUE ONLY option. Your samsung most likely doesn't have these, consumer sets don't. People don't use consumer sets to color correct...only as reference monitors.

If you have the Apple 23" LCD, then you can get the Matrox MXO and use that and the apple monitor to color correct. It corrects the gamma to match production monitors, and has software to control brightness, contrast, hue and saturation...AND get you a blue only signal. Great little box.

http://lfhd.blogspot.com/2007/03/matrox-mxo-part-2.html

Shane

You won't get very close to the right color just using the computer monitor. The gamma is completely different, and you can't balance the color bars. The final product will look very different on the TV than it does on your computer monitor.

REd will be red and blue will be blue, but the shading will be different.

Shane

The LCD TV is your best bet, really...the way you have it set up. Because you can't really set it up to bars (because it lacks the proper controls) it won't be spot on, but it will be better than your Apple display in DCP mode. Just always trust the scopes when it comes to crushed blacks and whites being hot.

And did you set up the monitor according to these guidelines:

http://www.greatdv.com/video/smptebars.htm
http://accad.osu.edu/~josterga/colorbars/

Most people use a consumer TV to judge picture. that is perfectly fine if you aren't editing content for broadcast TV.

Shane

What are people meant to do to utilize Color if they don't have a PVM or an MXO.

Color grading is a serious thing...and Color is a professional application. It is $25,000 piece of software that Apple has bundled into Final Cut Pro...free. But it is still professional by every meaning of the term. It rivals DaVinci in what it can do.

To use Color properly you need a capture card and a professional HD monitor (or SD monitor if you are working in SD)...period. Those are MUSTS. Not sure if Color will send a signal out via firewire (for DV footage) that you connect to a deck, then connect to a PROFESSIONAL monitor (not consumer TV)...if it does, you still need the professional monitor if you want to get anything like true color. Consumer sets are not recommended. Why? Go to Best Buy or Circuit City or Sears and look at the walls of TVs. Not one match...not one. And they aren't set up to get you the same color as the next brand. Professional monitors are built to a set of SMPTE standards so that if you balance them to bars, you'll get the same image every time...on all the monitors.

NOW...the flipside to this is that the image you get on your professional monitor is not one that will ever be seen again. Once it gets compressed for AIR and flies out over the satellite to peoples homes and hits their TVs (that rarely are set up properly) it will look very different.

But it is the responsibility of the editor to make sure the picture sent out is the best it can be...thus the professional monitors.

NOW...this is only for shows that go to air. I would recommend it if you are doing corporate and specialty DVDs and weddings and the like, but it isn't necessary. It isn't an affordable option to many. In that case a consumer TV is fine....just so you get an idea of what it is supposed to look like. But don't be surprised if people say "that dress was pink a the wedding, but in the video it is light purple." That can be a combination of coloring to your TVs specs, that don't match the specs of the clients TV.

It's a tough issue.

Shane

on the TV it looks like the whites are way to blown out and and to correct this i'm pulling the whites back but i'm pulling them back to about 80% and it's still blowing out on the TV somewhat but i never looks blown out on the apple screen so i know the footage is not overexposed when shot.

The TV obviously isn't showing a good image then. Trust the scopes more than that monitor. This is why consumer monitors aren't recommended.

Shane

Yup...that is a nice looking monitor.

Shane

Respect Shane, you're absolutely right.. We all need to buy HD pro monitors. But Final Cut Studio is aimed at people like me who will never invest all that cash into a HD pro monitor. Think of mountain of filmmaker equipment you could buy instead..! Why can't we calibrate our PRO mac displays to be colour perfect and emulate the gamma environment of a film projection house or a TV broadcast facility? After all if we are going to use Colour... we're are realistically going to have to do just that... The 30" screen allows you to monitor 2K. Redcine will require a field operator to do a "one light" colour correct - the 30" monitor would be perfect for this if we could get the thing into the same ballpark as an HD Pro CRT monitor...

rant rant... 🙂

...But Final Cut Studio is aimed at people like me who will never invest all that cash into a HD pro monitor.

true enough, you're in the target demographic for FSC2. but so are many professional users who already have a pro HD monitor, and many users who aspire to it and will budget for it. the bundle is a great deal and includes many great apps, but not necessarily apps we will all want and/or really need to use. for example, dvd burning isn't my thing and it wouldn't bother me if dvdsp went bye bye ... but thats just me. equally i've messed about with motion but am far from being the dogs bollocks with it ... i have talented motion graphics artists on hand who do that all day long to do that stuff for me. but if you are a one man band and you want to use al the sofware to its maximum potential then you have to pony up and get the hardware to compliment this excellent software.

all that said you sound like someone who may like to seriously consider the benefits of the Matrox MXO

hope it helps
Andy