Apple Final Cut Pro X (10.1.2) - Manual (Page 377)

Chapter 12 Color correction 377
•
Manually adjust color, saturation, and exposure: Manually correct a clip’s overall color, or use
color or shape masks to limit a correction to a particular color range or area in the image.
You can even add multiple manual color corrections to one clip. See
Manual color correction
overview on page 380.
•
Save color correction settings and apply them to other clips: Save a clip’s color correction settings
and apply them to other clips in the project or in other projects. See
Save and apply color
correction presets on page 390.
Although these features are independent of one another—you can turn any of the features
off and on to see its effect—the order in which you use them matters. In general, you should
use these features in the order of Balance Color, Match Color, and (if necessary) manual
color correction.
Final Cut Pro also includes several video scopes you can use when manually color correcting
your video. The scopes make it possible to precisely monitor the luma and chroma levels of your
video clips.
Analyze and balance color automatically
Color balance overview
Final Cut Pro includes an automatic color-balancing feature. When you use the color-balancing
feature, Final Cut Pro samples the darkest and lightest areas of the image’s luma channel and
adjusts the shadows and highlights in the image to neutralize any color casts. In addition,
Final Cut Pro adjusts the image to maximize image contrast, so that the shot occupies the widest
available luma range.
The video frame used as the reference frame depends on whether the clip has already been
color analyzed:
•
If the clip has been color analyzed, either during import or while in the Browser: The analysis
process extracts color balance information for the entire clip. Whether you add a portion of
the clip or the entire clip to a project, the color-balancing feature chooses the frame within
the project clip that is closest to being correctly balanced. This means that if you add multiple
partial clips from the same Browser clip to the project, each clip is balanced based on analysis
information for its own section of media.
•
If the clip has not been color analyzed and you balance its color: You can determine the reference
frame for a clip selected in the Timeline by moving the playhead to that frame in the clip. If
the playhead is on a different clip or you’ve selected a clip in the Browser, the clip’s middle
frame is used.
Analyze a clip for color balance
To automatically balance a clip’s color, Final Cut Pro uses a single frame from the clip as a
reference and calculates a correction for it that is then applied to the entire clip. Analyzing a clip
for color balance allows Final Cut Pro to choose a representative frame as the clip’s color balance
reference frame.
You can have a clip’s color balance analyzed when you import it, whether importing from a
camera, importing a file, or dragging a clip directly to the Timeline from a Finder window. You
can also analyze a clip’s color balance at any time in the Browser.
67% resize factor