Color Correction for Digital Video: Using Desktop Tools to Perfect Your Image [Paperback]

Steve Hullfish (Author), Jaime Fowler (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1578202019 | ISBN-13: 978-1578202010 | Publication Date: December 2002

Readers will learn the principles of color theory and video signal analysis, including the differences between film and video color. Beginning with an analysis of common color corrections, the book will introduce the reader to the color corrections possible with an array of digital video software, such as Final Cut Pro, Premiere, Avid, Avid Xpress DV 2.0, After Effects plug-ins, and other nonlinear software. Color correction problems and solutions are presented with tutorials on the companion CDROM to ensure that the reader gains a working knowledge of the techniques.

Color Correction for Digital Video shows you how to use color to improve your storytelling, deliver critical emotional cues, and add impact to your videos. Beginning with a clear, concise description of color and perception theory, this book shows you how to analyze color correction problems and solve them-whatever NLE or plugin you use.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...this book will get you through the necessary color theory and technicalities then straight through to the real works." -- Barend Onneweer, Creative Cow

"The section devoted to waveform and vectorscopes is probably better than any manual that comes with your units." -- Stephen Schleicher, DigitalMediaNet.com

About the Author

Steve Hullfish produces and edits trailers, TV spots, promos and DVDs through his company, Verascope Pictures, which serves high-end clients: Universal Studios, NBC Television, HIT Entertainment, Jim Henson Entertainment, VeggieTales and others. His 22 years of producing and editing TV shows and spots have garnered many national awards, including a national Emmy as part of the editing team of the Oprah Winfrey Show. He has co-written three other books including "Color Correction for Digital Video," "Avid XpressPro On the Spot," and "The Avid XpressPro Editing Workshop." He has also written for DV magazine.

Jaime Fowler is the director and creator of Film CampTM (www.filmcamp.com), a controversial learning program where supervised student editors complete low-budget independent feature films. He has been a film and video editor for over 20 years. As a freelance editor, he edited trailers/promotionals for Warner Brothers, Tri-Star, and Lightstorm. He has completed documentaries for director James Cameron, including Under Pressure: The Making of the Abyss, The Making of T2, and edited several seasons of Jeopardy! for Merv Griffin/Sony. The editor for seven Emmy-winning television programs and one of the developers of Avid's Emmy-winning MulticamÔ, Jaime is a well-experienced editor who has served as an editing consultant for over 30 national sitcoms, several major motion pictures, and the Sundance Filmmakers Lab.

Product Details

• Paperback: 202 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578202019
• ISBN-13: 978-1578202010
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,294,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars not much here, July 8, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Color Correction for Digital Video: Using Desktop Tools to Perfect Your Image (Paperback)

>This book and companion CD is the best book I have ever read >on the subject and this goes back a ways!

Well, that still doesn't say much. The author has a good start, but really, this book doesn't tell you much. It describes the history of color correction and mentions some color perception. The examples are ok, but there aren't many.
To the untrained eye, some of the pictures (such as the watermelon example) look identical. Were they intended for a different color space ? If so, why was the book released this way?

The author mixes industry jargon, such as "Pull back on the blacks" while referencing a color tool that has a label "Shadows". There are at least three sets of jargon
used interchangeably, and none are specifically defined set by set. I didn't even know what exactly a midtone was when I bought this book. The index lists a few pages for midtones, but nowhere is this term or most of the others specifically defined. For a "Digital tools" book that spends so much time on analog vector scopes, I'm disappointed that most of the examples were described in words rather than pictures.

Overall, this tutorial falls short. I learned a little, but I didn't walk away with much. I don't see the purpose of this
book. The CDROM is basically a demo distribution disk.

I bet the other glowing reviews are fake. Experienced colorists will find little in this book, and beginners can't learn much.

Dear Author, please write another edition and include a DVD
of video examples, step by step. Looking forward to your next book.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excerpt from Bob Turner's review in "The Cut", January 13, 2003

By 

Steve Hullfish (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Color Correction for Digital Video: Using Desktop Tools to Perfect Your Image (Paperback)

This review was excerpted from PriMedia's e-newsletter "Bob Turner's 'The Cut.'" A Video Systems Publication and was written by Bob Turner. Ellipses indicate edits from his original text.

This book and companion CD is the best book I have ever read on the subject and this goes back a ways! ...

As to being a bit intimidated, this book helped me understand why I felt that way. ...

Almost 100 pages into the book I was still learning about tools available, the alternative monitoring available and how each works. As a "senior" editor who lived through the linear days where one eye was always on the WFM/VS, I thought I knew these devices fairly well, but "Chapter 5: Using Scopes as Creative Tools" taught me quite a bit. ...

I truly appreciated the CD-ROM. In addition to the graphics files/tutorial images, the disk also included software tools and plug-ins from companies such as 3-Prong, Boris FX, Digital Film Tools, Discreet, Synthetic Aperture, and Tektronix. There were also full-length interviews with renowned experts. These and the comments made in the book were very useful. ...

Once I made it through the first half of the book (I needed to re-read it a few times), the tutorial segment was superb! I can truly say I have a far greater understanding of color tonality, and feel far less intimidation when confronted with the need to access the color correction/grading tools and do a bit of tweaking.

One very nice aspect to the book is the way several different manufacturers' toolsets were used and several different manufacturer's waveform displays were illustrated.

This is a book for the experienced editor, and a basic understanding of the technology and editing process is assumed by the writers.

I am going to close with a quote -- the very first words in the introduction:

"As technology brings more and more innovations into the edit suite, editors are expected to perform a much broader section of postproduction tasks, including audio sweetening, compositing, graphics, compression and 3D animation -- not to mention editing. Now you can add to this list the daunting responsibility of color correction. Not simply making an image brighter or darker or "legal", but manipulating the picture with a vast palette of tools that have only recently become available on the desktop."

If you agree with this viewpoint, this book is a MUST READ! I emphatically state that it is worth the effort.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great job, well-balanced approach, October 22, 2003

By 

Steve T "saltomich" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Color Correction for Digital Video: Using Desktop Tools to Perfect Your Image (Paperback)

The subject of video color correction is a difficult one, and most books about it usually suffer from being over-technical, over-theoretical, or (failing those) oversimplified. This is the best one I've read yet. A very accessible intro about color theory, followed by important technical detail (not only what a waveform or vectorscope does, but what it looks like when the color is "wrong", and what it should look like when the color has been corrected and optimized), and then, best of all, examples that are written in "editor-speak"--or more accurately, "colorist-speak". Language, that is, which is exactly how you and a client would talk to each other while analyzing a shot: "Pull down the black levels...rescue some detail from the overexposure...let's try to isolate the subject from the background and make it pop more." And then, step-by-step procedures to actually achieve those aims.

The examples in the book are also well-chosen and painstakingly done, so you really can see the difference in the "before" and "after" states of a picture.

I must confess that I've gotten so much valuable information from the book that I haven't explored the CD yet. It really has changed the way I analyze what a shot needs and how I go about making changes.