Basic color correction question regarding color spaces

[Juan Salvo]

[Dave van Watermolen] “If I understand correctly, if you want to color correct for HDTV, you need to use a Rec. 709 monitor. Does that mean that your footage also needs to be in Rec. 709, or do you color correct your footage to look good on a Rec. 709 screen?”

If you have 709 monitor… with a proper signal path, and your image looks the way you want it to on that monitor. Then yes, congratulations your image is now a 709 image! Your source footage does not and frequently is not in 709 to begin with though.

[Dave van Watermolen] “If your footage need to be Rec. 709, do you record it in Rec 709, or can you transfer (s)RGB footage to Rec. 709?”
There is no “video” camera that records in sRGB (if you want to use that as an example). But there are cameras that record in or allow you to view/work with footage in color spaces like s-log, c-log, LogC, RedLogFilm, etc. You would then “grade” this material into your target color space. Something like rec 709.

[Dave van Watermolen] “Also, how do you color correct for DCP’s?”
Carefully and with great skill. 😉

[Dave van Watermolen] “DCP uses the XYZ color space. What monitor do you use in this case? What color space should your footage be?”

DCP uses XYZ encoding… this is like using RGB or YUV. It’s not in and of itself the “color space” that DCP uses. In practice DCP contains images intended for P3 color space.

You footage should be in whatever space you acquired it in. And you grade it to whatever space you’re able to properly display. For (I’d like to say most… but really it’s actually a few that are properly using it) some that’s 709, and for even fewer that’s P3.

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https://theColourSpace.com