Crushing Colors into blacks?

[Daniel Tan]

Hi all,

 

I'm currently learning doing some color corrections using FCP, taking this chance to understand the scopes and histograms that are essential to this process and of course training my eye at the same time :). One of the scopes that I'm learning to see is the parade scope. The question that I have is whether is it a really bad thing to have any of the RGB colors crushing into the blacks or is it just a matter of artisitc choice judging from the calibrated monitor.

 

Here's an example: There's a scene where I want to have a warmer look. So after adjusting the constrast and then moving forward to create that warmer look by working primarily with the mids, I saw that the Blue in parade scope is slightly crushing into the blacks. And when I look at the image on a calibrated monitor, it does not look bad at all. So shall I attempt to ensure that the blue are not crushing?

 

Last question....obviously I cannot compare Final Cut Pro Color correction tools to another multi-thousands dollars machine. But how good is the color correcting tools in FCP? I heard about people talking about bits in Color correction software. How many bits is the one in FCP? Does this issue have anything to do with the 4:2:2 color space in Digibeta?

 

I just finished a Super16 short film and is preparing to master onto Digibeta after a flat grade telecine. Since most of the scenes are good to go except for minor adjustments such as contrast, warm or cool etc, so I've decided to do the color correction on MAC in 10bit uncompressed data using final cut Pro. The tools are there...G5, digibeta deck, raids, monitor etc. The film is destined to go to festivals. Shall I be thinking about another route?

 

Thanks.

 

Regards,

Daniel

[Stuart Brereton]

Last question....obviously I cannot compare Final Cut Pro Color correction tools to another multi-thousands dollars machine. But how good is the color correcting tools in FCP?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

A TK colorist that I know thinks very highly of the 3 way color corrector in FCP. Given he's used to working with a Da Vinci 2K, that's a pretty good recommendation.

[Gordon Highland]

If your monitor is properly calibrated and you think the image looks good, then it IS good. :)

 

I think the color correction in FCP is pretty darn good; I especially like the Limit feature. You might check your Sequence menu Settings to see if "high-precision YUV" video processing is enabled if your digitized material is 10-bit. You can trash your Video Render Files folder and re-render afterwards. There's a brief explanation of this in the app.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

The thing to understand about this is that it's all mathematics and there's no inherently "better" answer to a sum. What you get with the incredibly expensive solutions is pretty controls and speed. After Effects will do more, better, than a Da Vinci, just slower.

 

Phil