Professional Practice: Colour Correcting the Edit

Although, I am really pleased with my shots for the video, I was a bit worried about the colour of some of the clips. The white balance was very hard to set in the studio as the lighting kept changing, knocking the WB out of place, and also the movement within the studio meant that the WB sometimes looked blue. This is hard to see on the viewer on the camera and I was only really able to see how blue some of the clips looked once they were uploaded onto the iMac.

These two shots show the difference in colour when compared to one another. I was struggling to find a quick way to correct each shot, and sat down with our 'man in the know' (Fergus) to try and sort the colour. He showed me such a simple way to change the colour of the clips using the software 'Colour'. This blew my mind at how these clips could be enhanced within seconds (albeit by someone who knows the software incredibly well), but in the long run, would take far too long to export all of my clips as XML files, colour correct them, render them back through and import them back into Final Cut. This process would work out way too long and just wouldn't be viable for the turnaround in which I need to have my edit finished.

So...I found a colour match tool in Final Cut Pro X which would allow me to match my colour to another shot. This didn't work very well and I ended up with really dark shots and shadows. After this failing on me, I decided to try and have a play around with the colour tools on Final Cut Pro X, which I hadn't used before, and to my surprise, I was able to alter the levels I needed to correct the colour. From the software Fergus showed me, I knew that I needed to increase the red within my shot, just to add a bit of warmth and take away from the harshness of the blue. I also needed to bring the saturation up a tiny bit, just to bring the colours in their clothes out a bit brighter. I was able to do this after about an hour playing around with different tools and waveforms which I wasn't sure how to use! Now i know my way around the colour correction pallet which will definitely help me in future projects. Below is a screen shot in which you can see how I have altered the colour. I am pleased with the final colour of the clips and relieved that I was able to modify them within the short time I had left myself.