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 Event 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 Event Browser clip to the project, each clip is balanced based on analysis information for its own section of media.
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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 Event 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 Event Browser. Analyzing a clip for color balance can take from a few seconds for shorter clips to a minute or more for longer clips. The analysis process takes longer if you also analyze for people and stabilization issues. After a clip has been analyzed for color balance, you can turn the color balance correction on or off at any time. By default, color balance correction is off for clips in the Event Browser and on for clips in the Timeline, if they have been analyzed. For information about turning the color balance correction on and off, in either the Event Browser or the Timeline, see Balance a clip’s colors on page 357. Analyze color balance during file import 1 Choose File > Import Media (or press Command-I). 2 Select the files to import, and select “Analyze for balance color” in the Video section of the window. 3 Click Import. The files are imported and analyzed for color balance issues.
Chapter 13 Color correction
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