A video color chart, when illuminated and exposed correctly provides a range of important recorded reference values.Ī typical video color chart includes precise color reference for white (at 90% reflectance), middle grey (at 18% reflectance), black, primary and secondary colors (red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, magenta) and usually a lot more.

This is accomplished simply by shooting a physical color chart such as the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport Video. The offset introduced by the camera system first has to be precisely measured. The first step in a color managed workflow is to measure the change, in the form of any slight offset to color or levels the camera has introduced and counter it with an exact opposite offset. The camera system as a whole, including the lens, as well as encoding and image processing have introduced changes in the recorded image. There are the main considerations I will break down.Įither way, there will always be a difference between the light that exposed the camera sensor, and the digital representation of that light recorded to a video file. The improvement of consumer display technology in recent years makes accurate low budget Resolve monitoring possible. This is largely thanks to Blackmagic Design for democratizing professional color correction by making DaVinci Resolve free for everyone. The cost of the hardware and software needed to manage the video at each point in the pipeline is now more affordable than ever before. However, the accuracy of video displayed on a external monitor is dependent on the correct video signal, and employing a monitor able to reproduce the correct values on screen.

These scopes can be software or hardware. This is achieved by correcting the image so that certain reference values (such as those from a color chart) match up to target values on a waveform and vectorscope. Managing color though this pipeline involves correcting any changes and shifts that can creep in between capture and display.Ĭolor correcting captured video happens easily enough in color correction software, such as DaVinci Resolve. This is to ensure that the audience sees the image as closely as possible to what was intended.

The goal is simply to manage the representation of color from capture to display. The term color management sounds intimidating but the concept behind it is simple.

Davinci color correction