The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review




Excellent, October 20, 2009
By George Missor (Hollywood, California)
I read Steve's previous book, `Color Correction for Digital Video' several years ago and had found it to be a very good starting point for my color correction education. I came across `The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction' by accident while looking for a text on Apple Color. The two books work well together in providing a very thorough, easy to understand, survey course on modern color correction techniques.

There were several elements of the book I found excellent. First, Steve's writing is very conversational and understandable and demystifies the science of color and light. His clear methodical approach to balancing color in primary corrections and solving problems with secondary corrections made immediate logical sense to me. Steve explains things in a way any novice or seasoned pro can understand.

Another wonderful feature of this book is that it applies the techniques to and provides screen shots from Avid Xpress Pro, Avid Symphony, Final Cut Pro, Color, Color Finesse, and After Effects and approaches color-correction in a modern cosmopolitan way... understanding that there are multiple tools ands approaches to any problem. This gives the reader a very universal over-view of color correction as an artform.

An improvement over the previous book is the addition of explanations and glossary of terms in the margins; which any good student of color correction will find useful. Both books come with a DVD of video materials that can be used in conjunction with the examples in the book to provide a hands-on tutorial experience for the reader.

I read the two books on the subway on my way to and from work as an editor and was up to speed quickly. I already knew Final Cut, Avid, and After Effects and now am completely comfortable with the color correction tools in all of them as well as Apple Color. I highly recommend this book to anyone serious about modern video editing and color correction.

George Missor; Editor; Hollywood, California





The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction , March 28, 2009
By Brad Bowyer
The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction
This is an excellent resource for understanding and practicing the art of grading. Great in-depth knowledge and a good array of footage for exercises. Highly recommended for anyone exploring color correction whether beginner or seasoned professional



Okay book, but missing important elements., March 9, 2009
By Andrew M. Somers (California)
Overall a well written book, that covers most of the important aspect of color correction. However, I gave it only 2 stars as the book does have some deficiencies.

1) The viewing environment used when color correcting is of utmost importance - yet this book gives only a very cursory coverage of monitor set up and viewing environment. Instead, the author points to a pervious book of his for this vital information.

2) This book has nearly no discussion of gamuts, color spaces, color profiles, LUTs and other related topics, all of which are critical. In fact, the reason I purchased the book was anticipating an adequate coverage of these topics. I would have returned it, but missed Amazon's return window.

3) The book only mentions Luster once in passing. Other than that there is absolutely no discussion of digital color timing for film. As such, this book should be titled "The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction for Video".

In short, while the book does a good job of covering certain tools and a very nice in depth discussion of secondary color correction, it misses to many important topics that I believe should be included in such a book.



Puts you in the room with amazing colorists, November 13, 2008
By Josh Petok (Hollywood, CA)
Someone once told me, "The best way to learn how to color is to watch someone doing it." Gaining access to someone at that level can be difficult (and expensive). At that time, I wished I had this book. The author puts you in the room with some of the best colorists working today. It's interesting to see how each colorist approaches a scene differently and how the elements of the picture can motivate the color. For instance, one colorist may see football as the subject, another might be moved by the gritty dirt smeared over the side of it.

Whenever I need inspiration, I turn to the last chapter in the book, "Creating Looks." This book gave me new direction that I hadn't considered in the past and has helped me build my own "PowerGrade" library. It is by far the best book that I have found on the subject both technically and artistically.



Finally know what all those adjustments do, September 23, 2008
By Ducatimark (Virginia, USA)
The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction

If you've ever tried to color correct in your NLE and have no idea of what all the adjustments mean (such as "input Black") and have been trying to teach yourself the software by just moving the knobs and looking at the results, then this book is for you. I am amazed after reading the first third of the book how much I have learned and how to use the built in scopes that come with most software. I may never become a colorist, but it sure makes my in-house projects far better. And when the day comes that I need to hire a colorist, I feel like I will be better prepared to speak the language. This will be another reference book that will be worn out from daily use.