Color correction in FCP vs FCE

OK, I was actually referring to color correction on an UW video (which actually contained a greenish sand area around my light-illuminated subject.

Editors of UW video spend a lot of time fighting the "greenies". Viewers expect UW footage to be blue.

Two options:

1. we could take a united stand and insist "no, sometimes it is green - get used to it", or

2. we can fix it.

The hardest to fix is when you have a foreground subject that's lit by lights (subject is already the right color), and a background that's vomit green. Even worse when the subject is say a gorgonian fan coral and you can see bits of the green background through the fan coral. I had such a case in a video that I'm editing at the moment: a promo video for a dive boat operator.

Took about 30 minutes of playing around with the 3-way color corrector and its "limiter" twirl down to get all the color to where it was OK, with the gorgonian still deep red and the background more bluish than green. The important factor was adjusting the sensitivity (the width of the bottom of the trapezoid) of the limiter for both luma and color. Too tight and the background started shimmering. Too loose and the gorgonian started to change color.

Two things worth remembering:

1. You can add multiple color corrector filter to one clip. if you are subtle in the adjustments, you can fix one problem in on filter (e.g. the overall contrast or a color cast) and anothet problem with a second filter (e.g. a green background).

2. You can key the filters so that effect of the filter change over time (e.g. a color issue that occurs in only one part of a longer clip or one that progessively changes throughout a clip). Fiddly but doable.

For UW video editors, well worth spending some time mastering this tool.

Regards

Peter

Editors of UW video spend a lot of time fighting the "greenies". Viewers expect UW footage to be blue.

Peter, your whole post is laying out a very busy schedule for me. Thanks.

As for your first sentence: is that really what y'all are shooting for, pleasing the audience?

Just kidding. As the proverb goes: one does not argue about taste and colors...

In my case, a color adjustment that I had made to compensate for some crazy WB improvisation by the camcorder had resulted in some unreal color for the sand (and I would have to go back to several videos to improve them now that I have a tool to do that). I was not trying to make it look artificially white, although I must admit that the temptation was almost irresistible...

X.

Peter, your whole post is laying out a very busy schedule for me. Thanks.

Once you've done it a few times, it becomes second nature.

And don't forget "Favorites". Once you have a filter set up to solve a problem that is likely to occur again, drag it into the favorites bin then name it something meaningful (e.g. reduce a little green increase contrast). I have about a dozen like this and sometimes it is just a matter of selecting a whole string of clips in the timeline and dragging the favorite onto one of them. Voila, all fixed - or at least at a good starting point for refinement.

Regards

Peter

Thanks!

Wouldn't you know that no sooner did I put my post up about FCE vs FCP that I received a phone call from a new client asking me to come and teach her Final Cut Express which I have never really used. Here is a new article that came up this past weekend by Steve Martin of Ripple Training..http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/final_cut_express_middle_child_martin.html

A review of the Ripple tutorial disc for FCE comes out on the kenstone.net site this coming Sunday.

Okay, todays lesson lasted 3 hours, plenty of things for an absolute beginner to learn before their head starts spinning. These were the first things I noticed.

No insert/overwrite/replace buttons in the FCE canvas.

No true Log and Capture window where you can name each clip and move on to the next before doing a batch capture. Wow, what a pain.

No 3 way color corrector but the standard 2 way which is really not as easy to use.

Just like FCP, the reconnect media is still wonky when you want to reconnect several clips as oppossed to just one.

Restricted to only certain formats, SD and HDV but no AVCHD. Codecs are animation and a few others, no Pro Res.

No Render Manager. I use the Render Manager all the time, so in FCE, you would have to manually dump render files no longer needed.

More lessons to give tomorrow on it and I will probably add to the list.

Steve

No insert/overwrite/replace buttons in the FCE canvas.

Don't know what this is for so I am not missing it...

No true Log and Capture window where you can name each clip and move on to the next before doing a batch capture. Wow, what a pain.

I am using ClipWrap and just import the .mov files, after I have renamed it in the Finder

No 3 way color corrector but the standard 2 way which is really not as easy to use.

I now use the trick taught in the Kenstone article posted by Peter.

Restricted to only certain formats, SD and HDV but no AVCHD.

I am not sure what you mean? I have no problem importing clips from my Sony CX550V camcorder, which is an AVCHD camcorder...

Codecs are animation and a few others, no Pro Res.

This I learned the hard way when I tried to argue with Eric on the AVCHD/ClipWrap thread... But in a sense, it is a blessing, as I suppose the render files are smaller!

No Render Manager. I use the Render Manager all the time, so in FCE, you would have to manually dump render files no longer needed.

Smaller files, no need to clean up the cache!

Ignorance is bliss...

"Don't know what this is for so I am not missing it..."

Time you learned as inserting, replacing and overwriting are normal and everyday tools of the editor

"I am using ClipWrap and just import the .mov files, after I have renamed it in the Finder"

You shouldn't need to go to another application. Better to have the NLE be capable of what you need and want to do.

"I now use the trick taught in the Kenstone article posted by Peter."

Good tricks and work-a-rounds are important everywhere

"I am not sure what you mean? I have no problem importing clips from my Sony CX550V camcorder, which is an AVCHD camcorder..."

Neither FCP or FCE will work natively with AVCHD. You need to transcode the footage to another codec.

"This I learned the hard way when I tried to argue with Eric on the AVCHD/ClipWrap thread... But in a sense, it is a blessing, as I suppose the render files are smaller!"

No render manager in FCE so unless you are manually deleting them, you probably have a ton of render files, not being used, taking up room on your drive. Smaller is not necessarily better. Hard drive space has come so far down in price this shouldn't be an issue. If I get better resolution and contrast using the larger file sizes of Pro Res than thats what I will always use. I want quality not quantity. Remember in the old days, people would record their VHS machines using the extended play? Yeah, they could get more on the tape but the tape looked like crap.

"Smaller files, no need to clean up the cache! "

Cleaning out caches is a regular part of system maintenence just like repairing permissions using disk utility before and after software updates and installs. Otherwise, you could be asking for trouble in the future when you least expect or want it.

"Ignorance is bliss..."

Knowledge is power. Ignorance is a pain in the butt and an interuption in any shooters/editor's workflow. The more I know the more I realize how much I don't know and better learn.

Happy Halloween,

Steve

Obviously, I intended my post to be ironical... and tried to present the perspective of the beginner user who is not even aware what he/she is missing and probably would be overwhelmed by jumping in directly into FCP... HH

You don't need to go into FCS at all until you feel you want the additional tools. FCE seems to fit what you need and using cheaper 3rd party software often makes the workflow better. Clipwrap, Mpeg Streamclip etc are all awesome programs which help workflow speed tremendously.

I do agree with Drew on this. After using FCE for the last two days making a surgical movie with a Doctor's nurse, though I discovered several differences between the two applications. Express is a great way to start. In fact, if one were allowed to upgrade from Express to Pro instead of having to buy Pro as a whole new application, I would recommend Express to everyone just starting out. All the basic and necessary tools are there.

Steve

Thanks for the link to Steve's review. I do not feel I have outgrown FCE yet... far from it.

Just re read this thread and, on top of Peterbkk's 'Favorites' comment I can add this. When you trash preferences or do a clean install, which I recently had to do, your favorites will be gone. There is a great work around for this I discovered years ago. Create a new project and name it favorites. Add a few clips to a timeline and add all your favorites to these clips. It doesn't matter whether they are favorite transitions, filters, custom settings or motion graphics. Just add them to this project and save.

Now, should your favorites folder ever be emptied because of crashes, clean installs, or trashed prefs all you need to do is then open your Favorites Project and they will all be there which you can then easily transfer over to any new or old project. I wish this applied to the saved button bars and custom interface layouts but clean installs wipes them away.

Steve

just learning about FC Studio at the moment, mainly for colour correcting. I found some colour correction tools in FCP, but I think I like the results from "Colour" to be so much more workable. But for now, I'm just doing "rushes" I'll leave the real thing to the colourists I think.