Customer Reviews

Apple Pro Training Series: Color

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Aside from the frustrations of the "one-star-reviewer", one must consider that the purpose of this book is to teach how to use the software. Apple is making professional tools available to the "general public", and is offering a training series of which this book is a part.

One assumes that if you're an industry professional, you're well on your way, without the need for "training wheels". But if you're like me, more or less still exploring the richness and the depth of Final Cut Studio 2, then this book is a must for you.

I was a bit frustrated about the long waiting period and the delay of the publishing date and was close to cancelling my order, but I am happy I own this book now. The book may seem a bit meager and I wish for more examples and exercises in an updated version, but I feel it gives me a great headstart in learning how to use Color and I feel confident enough to explore all the possibilities on my own.

I waited a long time before this book arrived but it was completely worth it. I edit on Final cut pro but never really did too much with respect to secondary coloring. I used the color correction tools with Final cut but they are not very good for precision coloring. I've always peeped through the window admiring da vinci system and even considered buying Final Touch but didn't have the nerve to pluck down $20K. Then Apple bought the company and folded it into Final Cut suite. I upgraded immediately. I soon found that i was out of my element in Apple Color.
The manual that came with Apple color didn't help that much either. Yes i could color but didn't always get the exact look i was going for. I concluded that only Da vinci system could give me the look i wanted.
Then came this book. It thoroughly explained the right way to mix and match to get precise looks, from skin tone to mood.
This book is worth twice it's price. Forget going on any silly course. read it and practice and you are good.

I'll say this for Apple color. It can color as good as any da vinci system. It is 10 times slower to render unless you create a huge cluster, granted, but the end result is the same. Anyone tell you different is trying to justify their higher rates.

I ordered this in June of last year and I wish I'd not. I'm a live tv camera shader so my background is in color manipulation. If you have absolutely no idea how to manipulate colorimetry, this is not the book for you at all. It tells you how to drive the software with some helpful color hints scattered about. Read the manual, work in the application, scour the net and Amazon for information about color and you can learn the same stuff.

If you have a background in color manipulation, skip this book and read the manual to learn how to drive Apple's Color. If you're like me and enjoy constant learning, run and pick up "Encyclopedia of Color Correction" by Alexis van Hurkman. It's a far more useful text than this title.

I found the Program Color to be pretty intuitive and had the opportunity to use it in a professional environment before reading about it. Nonetheless, this book has been most helpful for filling in the gaps in my knowledge where intuition wasn't enough, and as a way of checking my assumptions / methods against what is prescribed. If you don't know that much about the program Color this is an excellent book to have. Of course, when it comes to really using and understanding the program the footage on the DVD is critical. Here are a few things to consider.

1) A good bit of the footage on the DVD might be thought of as fluff footage. That is, it looks bad uncorrected but its pretty easy to make look good. Keep in mind this footage is supposed to be easy to correct, so unfortunately, it's not a reflection of our natural skills as colorists when this footage starts to look good with little effort.

2) Some footage has characteristics not mentioned in the text, so you might be left scratching your head a few times. For example, the clip called "Car Shot Wide" used in chapter 1 has a flaw in the whites, bring down the luma of the shot and you'll see symmetrical curves appear on the right and left of the car. Raise the luma back up to more normal levels and you'll see these curves don't go away they are just far less visible.

Also take a look at the shot called "Car Track MS" look at the top third and bottom third of the shot. You'll notice that the top of the shot has a magenta hue, and the bottom is slightly green. These features and others are not mentioned in the book but you can use them to create additional exercises for yourself by using Color's tools to clean them up.

Other things to consider:

1) Color is still has a fair number of bugs, so when the program does not behave as the book tells you it should, you will be left wondering what is going on, and with no good way to get around the bug.


2) The book is a general guide so it's a bit short on detail on issues faced all the time in the professional world. For example, the book contains an example of a way to smooth out skin, but I didn't think the shot for this exercise was a good choice, further the logic of how the smoothing effect is constructed in the book didn't make a lot of sense, and didn't work well enough when applied to footage I was dealing with on a show. There must be a variety of ways to smooth out rough textured skin in color but the content here was pretty light.

There is a lot more to say but in short, this is a very good book and has a great deal of useful information, buy it and enjoy. Just, keep in mind that there is plenty of room for a second volume.

I wish I could give a 4 1/2 because that is what deserves. The book came in excellent conditions except that the lower part of the book from the pages margin was marked with permanent marker. Some of the corners of the cover are bended. I was expecting better conditions from amazon seller. Fast delievery, no delay. I recommend this seller, but don't except your book to come intact of slightly very noticeable marks

The content of the book is far excellent for someone who is barely starting to learn color correct. Apple Color Software comes with a couple bugs that don't respond according to what the books says, but again. Once you get familiar with the interface and the rest of the feature of Color, you will find the solution right away.

knowing only a little about color correction and practically nothing about the application color, this book helped me to become familiarized in the best way possible, with color correcting in apple's color

All the Apple Pro books are great tools for anyone that does video editing. However, my copy of Color came with the top left hand corner of the back cover ripped off. I expected better quality since I was ordering directly from Amazon.

let's start by the conclusion.your chances of running "colour" software without this book are purely and simply unexisting.How can you..?where to start...?
considering mostly colour is a must have software.
so the book is great and the excercises fantastic.It is very nice to learn in those conditions