Apple Final Cut Express 4 - Manual (Page 702)

702 Part IX Effects and Color Correction
Step 3: Add additional color correction as necessary
It’s important to remember that you don’t have to do everything with a single
application of the Color Corrector filter. For example, if you can’t get the colors in both
the dimly lit areas and the highlights of your clip right with a single filter, focus only on
the dimly lit area. You can then adjust the highlights with a second application of the
Color Corrector filter.
Step 4: Add other filters to address specific needs
After you’ve finished adding the Color Corrector filter, you may find yourself with some
additional issues to resolve. Perhaps you can’t correct certain areas of your clip without
introducing unwanted color into the shadows or highlights. In this case, you can use an
additional filter, the Desaturate Highlights or Desaturate Lows filter, to correct this
quickly and easily. In another example, you may have discovered that the combination
of filters you’re using forces the chroma or luma to extend into levels illegal for
broadcast. In this situation, you can use the Broadcast Safe filter to bring down the
offending parts of the picture to acceptable levels.
Step 5: Match the coverage of the scene to the master shot
Once you’ve finished defining the look of the master shot in your scene, you can move
on to the rest of the shots. It’s easy to copy the settings of the color correction filters
you’re using to other pieces of the same master shot that you may have used in the
same scene. For example, if you cut back to the master shot five times in your scene,
you can simply copy the filters from the first piece of the master shot you corrected to
all other instances used in your sequence.
As you move into the coverage shots used in the scene, you’ll probably repeat steps
2 through 4 for each shot. You can compare each new shot with the master shot that
you corrected, switching back and forth rapidly to compare the look of one clip with
that of the other.
Remember, once you finish correcting one segment of a given clip, you can apply those
same settings to all other segments in that scene from the same clip. If you apply
multiple color correction filters to one clip, you can also apply them all to other clips.