If you are SERIOUS about color correction. If you want to really understand how to evaluate, fix, and then enhance an image – there’s no better book on the market. Yes, it’s Photoshop. Yes, you need a copy of Photoshop to play along (and you should play along). But anything from Photoshop CS and later should do just fine.

Don’t forget – these still image folks have been doing digital color correction for a decade longer than the moving video folks. They have some insights. These insights absolutely fit with what we do in video.

Note: The curves in Photoshop are backwards from Final Cut Pro or Apple Color – so you’ll have to do some mental gymnastics when writing curves. Not a big deal, but worth warning about.

I’m not done yet reading this book. Already it’s on my Essential Reading list. Why? This book deals with the fundamentals of human color perception, color theory, color notation and I’m about 2/3rds the way through. The explanation of the CIE color chart is easily the clearest easiest to understand I’ve yet come across.

Note: This is a paperback book without color pictures. The author keeps referring to images that were clearly meant to be published in color. I’ve been able to manage with this slight annoyance. You’ve been forewarned.

Don’t forget to crack open the CD and read the extended interviews that didn’t make it into the book.

This is a book that launched a movement. It’s totally and completely dedicated to the Do-It-Yourself crowd. It’s about making do with what you have without compromising image quality. The author Stu has a fantastic blog that – if you’re into color correction – you need to be following.

Note: Only a few chapters deal explicitly with color correction. And Stu advocates using After Effects for 32bit float rendering, ensuring you use every bit of color detail you captured. If you’re looking for a 100% Final Cut Pro centered how-to book, then this isn’t for you. But if you’re willing to dig into some alternative world-views and have big ideas with very small budgets… go for it!

If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die: The Power of Color in Visual Storytelling
Amazon.com

“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” And sometimes the only reason Al Pacino is in a yellow taxi cab is because New York City taxicabs are yellow. That aside, if you want to read an exploration of how colors are used in filmmaking – it’s a fun read. Especially if you watch a few of the movies from each chapter. You start to develop an eye for picking out these color schemes. And if the Hollywood heavyweights are using color to influence the audience through wardrobe, set design, (and yes) color correction – it’s not so hard for the rest of us to ask the lead actor who dies at the end to add purples to his wardrobe. At the very least, it makes for a more interesting looking image.

In case I haven’t been clear, everything on this page is meant to support our clients of PrimaryShots… which is centered around Final Cut Studio. You know, just you know…

Toolfarm Buying Options
Final Cut Studio 3 $995 | Final Cut Studio 3 Upgrade $299

DV Rebel Essential Tool

After Effects, it’s an industry standard. For DV Rebel workflows, AE is essential for its 32bit float processing. It’s a tedious workflow – if you plan on having clients in the room. But for DV Rebels and PrimaryShots filmmakers, combined with Colorista (below), it’s a terrific package.

Toolfarm Buying Options
After Effects CS 4 $989 | After Effects CS4 Upgrade $299

DV Rebel Essential Tool

Colorista is a terrific replacement to Final Cut’s default 3 Way Color Corrector. It has two features that, from a creative perspective, will improve your corrections / grades. First, it has a built-in mask tool. This allows us to isolate a specific area of an image and ‘pull it forward’ or ‘push it back’ in the scene, adding depth and perspective and a ton of production value. Second, combine it with Automatic Duck – and you can port all your Colorista settings from Final Cut into After Effects. Mmmmm… floating point goodness (though not for the faint of heart).

Whether you plan on rendering out in Final Cut or doing additional work in After Effects, Colorista makes it much easier to engage in some real color grading.

Buying Options
Colorista $189 | Colorista Academic $99
Magic Bullet Suite 2009 $759 | Magic Bullet Suite 2009 Crossgrade $399
Magic Bullet Suite 2009 Upgrade $199 | Magic Bullet Suite 2009 Academic