Color Correcting
I love color correcting, but its tedious and often subtle work. Like fly fishing, installing closet organizers or steam cleaning carpets, the prospect of doing the actual color correcting often seems to out weigh the end result. That is until you are finished, and you have a trout in your hand, a Tetris-like closet and you’re sinking your toes into the soft plush carpet that you realize, it was so worth it.
I got my first real education from reading the book Photoshop Color Correction, which teaches you the theory and elements to color correction and how to apply it in practice using Photoshop. Even though the book is more than eight years old now, its content and approach is still relevant today. If you are still using “Brighten/Contrast” or or “Auto Color” in Photoshop, then you need to read this book.
Having recently ventured into the video editing world, I have learned that color correcting video can be even more time consuming and daunting a process. When I first opened up the program Apple Color for Final Cut Pro I had flash backs to calculus class. Needless to say, I searched for alternatives and found Stu Maschwitz and his software Magic Bullet Looks. Not only is the software very intuitive, but Stu explains why everyone in Hollywood action movies are orange and the backgrounds blue. Read his post Memory Colors.
