Part 1: Pinnacle Liquid Edition's Color Correction Tool
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One interesting approach is how Pinnacle uses the vector and histogram views to allow adjustment of the picture. For example, with the vector view, I can actually grab it and manipulate both the hue and the saturation of the picture in real time. Similarly, with the histogram view, you can independently adjust the gains of red, green and blue – in each of the highs, mids and lows no less! It’s not useful for all things, but for quickly previewing a stylized look it can’t be beat.
Red, Green, Blue – Just the basics please!
While it’s fun to talk about all the things you can do, many times what needs to be done is fairly straightforward. A lot of the time all that needs to be done is correcting a green cast or bumping the luma value in a certain area to make the shot “pop”.
Liquid Edition’s primary color correction tool (see graphic above) is simple and can be used independently of Edition’s more powerful CX color correction tool. Actually, each clip within Edition’s interface has real-time primary color correction built in. Taking a look at it, the interface is divided into three ranges: highs, mid-tones and lows. Or, another way of saying it is whites, grays and blacks, but with color! Each of these sections has an independent luma value as well as red, green and blue gain controls. In addition to this, you have saturation, hue and limit controls. There’s quite a bit of power even in Edition’s base corrector, but read on and find out about the really fun stuff!
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Shotgun Color
This secondary color correction tool allows you to isolate a particular color and adjust it – you can change the gain, its hue or both. This is the “change the red ball to blue” effect, or a blue sky to green. Each of the six points refers to one of the points on your vector scope. You can isolate any one or all of these and play with them independently (See graphic below).
Let’s be Selective
The next and most powerful type of color correction allows you to select a specific color, isolate it, and adjust it with several controls to keep your look smooth, and the color uniform. You can have as many as fifteen of these individual colors. With this amount of selection and control, it is possible to create almost any kind of look you’re interested in (see graphic below).
Keep it Legal
At the far right of the CX interface is a small section where you can check to keep your colors CCIR-601 legal or even a safety margin at 75%. Additionally, there are soft clipping controls for both your luma and color values. Finally, beneath the Legalizer is a small section that allows you to save your settings (very useful for a project) and the ability to display specific channels (R,G,B and Y).
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How to make sense of all this:
As you can see, the CX tool brings a lot of means for color refinement or experiment to Liquid Edition. While the interface and tools are laid out cleanly, to the beginner, it may seem a little overwhelming. We’ll tackle that in the next article as we start to dive into specific examples on how to use some of these tools.
Editor's note: For Part 2, click here.
Dennis Radeke has been involved in the audio and video business nearly his whole life. Moving between video and audio, Dennis has most recently been working for Pinnacle Systems. Now, he's managing a radio station. You can find Dennis on the DMN Liquid Edition forums. He has released a training DVD on Liquid Edition. You can find it at www.videoguys.com/howto.html and other dealers. Send Dennis a note at video43@hotmail.com.Prev 1 2
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