Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

>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.

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.

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.

With the proliferation of nonlinear editing systems with increasingly sophisticated capabilities (which go far beyond "editing" these days), editors are being expected more and more frequently to be jacks-of-all-trades. In many cases the editor becomes the effects artist, the audio editor, the music editor, and the colorist. This book, written by two well-known NLE experts, presents the complex topic of color correction in extremely lucid, understandable terms. This is the reference we've been waiting for -- the one many of us WISH was included in the documentation included with the NLE's that have these capabilities, but wasn't. A copy should be on the shelf next to EVERY editing system that has color correction built into it.

I am a video enthusiast and I use Canopus DVStorm and Premiere for editing of my videos. I was hoping to learn more about color correction in YUV space, using waveform and vectorscope tools and, most importantly, to improve the quality of the videos that I make.
This book starts with a very basic theory of color. Then is suddenly takes giant steps towards the color correction technologies. It explaines some but certainly not all parameters and that can be quite frustrating. Particularly the use of YUV parameters is hardly mentioned at all and it is not explained in any of the excercises. Explanation of the use of the waveform is excellent (some questions still remain) and I got a basic understanding how to use the vectorscope.
A significant part of the book explains the tools and features of professional systems found in studios. Obviously such systems are much more sophisticated than PC-based NLE systems. I am still looking for book that is geared more towards PC based systems.

Still, I found the book inspiring because it made me try my tools in new ways and actually achieve better results. That's what counts for me.

Unfortunately, this is the best book I have found on the subject.

The section on vector scopes and wave forms helped me understand those tools for the first time. That alone made the book worth the purchase price for me.

Unfortunately, the rest of the book was not as good. The introduction to color theory was superficial at best, and was not tied into the rest of the book as one would expect. The examples of color corrections were somewhat interesting, but would have been more useful if they included more guidance about why each step was taken. I also found the frequent errors in spelling and grammar rather distracting. The book needed better editing.

But even with its deficiencies, I found it worth the price -- if only because I couldn't find anything better on the subject.

This is a fantastic book - required reading for anyone producing video.

Everyone will have tried basic color correction and been confounded by the number of parameters that all seem to do the same thing, yet interact to produce worse results than you started with. This book goes into great detail about how luminance and color influence your image and leads you through excercises to try on your own material, and images provided on the enclosed CD.

Although it is a technical subject, it is written in a very readable way.

It is amazing the changes that happen with quite subtle adjustments. That is the key to everything. Subtlety that creates great results.

The book covers color correction to match other footage, but also correction to create special effects and drama. There are even examples of how to highlight the subject from a confused background.

A, MUST READ book that should be on everyone's shelf.

The book does a good job of being an overview for color correcting video - but unfortunately because it avoids anything application specific it fails to show you how to do stuff in your specific NLE. Training dedicated to a specific application & color correction- like my FCP training DVD by Digital Film Tree is much better because it teaches the theory AND the tool - so you cover both angles while this was just the theory. But that may be what you want - or your NLE may not have a book about color correction dedicated to it. If you're a FCP user, there's a book called 'Advanced Finishing Techniques' in the Apple Training Series that I would recommend over this one.

As video has become more availble to everyone, the greatest problem with the end product is the "look."

DVD's, DV cameras have made it possible for almost anyone to make a video. But to make it look GOOD color correction is critical. To fix miscolored pictures (when you forget to white balance or if you just plain aren't the best shooter in the world) is all done with color correction.

This book explains and through direct examples, shows how to actually fix video that is under exposed, doesn't match from shot to shot and is misbalanced.

And it's done in such a way that it's understandable. It's now on my shelf as a reference. The book covers all the major editing software that has color correction in it, ALONG with color theory and reading video scopes so it's possible to understand what's wrong with your video and make it broadcast safe.

Simple question? Do you want your video to look as good as possible? Simple answer: this book.

I never get desappointed when I get a new book from DV collection.
This book was an excellent acquisition, it goes into details and shares the experience of the author. It is not only for the video enthusiast but for professionals who work on video as a reference book.
It shows a broad collection of tools that will help us make a better video and also correcting those shots made by consumer DV cameras.