Color Correction

[Richard Swain]

Try using the Sony Color Corrector and the Vectorscope window. Starting at the top of the Color Corrector (Low) grab the “-” eye dropper and click on the darkest (hopefully black) part of the image in the video preview window. Then grab the bottom (High) “-” eye dropper and click on something white in the preview window. Once you get your black points (“Lo”) and white point (“Hi”) set, then using the vectorscope window, click (and hold) on the “+” in the center of the “Mid” color wheel and move it until the vectorscope display is in the center of circles. Small moves are needed here. When selecting the image to use (in the preview window) I like to use cars or trucks – the tires are a good black. Stay away from the shiny chrome for the whites. Puffy clouds are ok as are shirts, ladies shoes, trim on a house etc.

It takes patience, but works great. Sometimes, if the wrong film is used (indoors vs outdoors, or older Kodak Ectachrome) it may be impossible to remove all “cast” color.