Color Finesse – user experiences

[Matt Larson]

I use this software daily. It is MUCH better than FCP’s color correction in my opinion. I have the After Effect Only version so I do most of my color correction in AE now.

Having Photoshop style curves is great and I like having all the different scopes and controls all in one plugin. I’ll often use several tabs of correction to get one shot right.

All of that said, it’s not perfect: It’s not real time, you can only grade one frame at a time (as of version 1.5)

Not sure which version you downloaded, but they showed off Version 2 at NAB, so if that’s not out yet wait and get that. There are some big improvements. If you have any questions about it, go over to the Synthetic Ap forum here and post it. Very helpful and quick response.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Steve Connor] “I’m thinking of getting Color Finesse, I’ve downloaded the demo and it looks pretty good – has anyone got any comments about how good/bad this software is?”

I tried out the demo as well, but to be honest, I got the same results using a combination of the Color Corrector, 3 Way Color Corrector, Levels and Broadcast Safe filters in FCP. I just didn’t see enough of an improvement to make it worth spending the money for Finesse.

Now Final Touch is a killer color corrector so if you’re doing heavy color correction it would probably be well worth the cost. I’m not at that point yet, but if I need to get more horsepower for CC, that is the tool I’ll add to the shop.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

Now editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

G5 Dual 2.0, AJA Kona 2, Medea FCR2X

[Francois]

I just wonder ? You can ONLY monitor what you do with Color Finesse on desktop monitor, (at least while you are at it) right ?

Fcp rules

[Steve Connor]

[Walter Biscardi] “Now Final Touch is a killer color corrector “

Absolutely, but it’s almost eight times the price of Color Finesse!

Steve Connor
Cardinal HD

[Mark Raudonis]

Another vote here for “final Touch”. Sure it costs $995 for the SD version, but you’re essentially getting a DaVinci on your desktop.

Awesome capability. With this software, a well trained eye, and a dollop of “good taste”, you’ve got a truly “no excuses” set up.
Initial cost isn’t everything. You have to consider workflow and efficiency as well. Often the “right tool for the job” is NOT the cheapest.

Just my .02 cents.

Mark

[Walter Biscardi]

[Steve Connor] “Absolutely, but it’s almost eight times the price of Color Finesse!”

Sure, but with real-time capabilities even running HD. As I noted before, I really don’t think you need Color Finesse at all with the tools available in FCP so in my book Finesse is a waste of money for the Final Cut Pro user. I would rather spend $999 for Final Touch SD or $5k for Final Touch HD and get a really powerful tool that doesn’t really duplicate what I already have.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

Now editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

G5 Dual 2.0, AJA Kona 2, Medea FCR2X

[Glenn Chan]

You could also look at Nattress’ Film Effects, which is seriously underpriced (and comes with top-notch support, free upgrades).
https://www.nattress.com/filmEffects.htm

FCP + Nattress versus Color Finesse: They more or less do the same thing. It comes down to what interface you like better. I would prefer FCP because you should be able to color faster in it.

Nattress versus Final Touch: FT is more powerful in most areas. It also takes up more of your time.
Gamma curves in FT HD is clunky and doesn’t offer the same degree of control that Nattress offers.
FCP + Nattress has perfect conforms. Effects, generated media, multiple layers, dissolves, speed changes may not conform into FT.
FCP + Nattress is more mature and stable.
FT has motion tracking, which rocks.
FT has colorFX, which allows a wide range of looks.
FT has optimizations for speed over accuracy.
FT has improvements constantly being added to it and they do listen to user feature requests. My information may be outdated.
If you are spending lots of time on each shot, FT is a good tool to have.
If you aren’t going crazy on color correction, I’d probably lean towards Nattress.

—

Nattress Film Effects info:
Version 2.5 changed the way gamma curves work, so you might want to try to demo that (not sure if the v2.5 demo is available… although you can just buy it, it’s not that much).

The gamma curve options/filters is similar to what you can do in Color Finesse. The interface is different in that you adjust sliders, not a graph (which is like Photoshop-style).

Combine that with FCP’s color correction tools, which are good. The 3-way color corrector is really good- use it to adjust levels, white balance, and for secondary color corrections.

If you want to be broadcast safe, you may need to use custom controls so that it doesn’t squish your highlights (gamma curves will push values into the 90-100IRE area, which will be affected unless you set it not to).

2- The top things (in my opinion) that you can do in color correction is setting exposure levels, white balance, and adding film-like gamma curves (unless originating from film). This almost always makes footage look dramatically better and costs little of your time. At these specific things, FCP + Nattress is probably best.

Other things you can do is secondary color correction, masking / motion tracking (time consuming), setting looks (subjective; not everyone may like it). FCP has an excellent secondary CC (the key blur is better and slower than FT), ok masking (the interface is poor, but you can push exposure further than FT), no motion tracking (*haven’t looked into a particular plug-in), and can do a good range looks with Nattress and FCP’s 3-way CC (FT is probably better here).

—-
Glenn

[Glenn Chan]

Note: I haven’t tried any of the control surfaces, which may really boost your productivity.
They are also quite expensive. I would research which control surface to get on the FT user forum.

[Andy Mees]

interesting stuff!

regarding Color Finesse for use in FCP, what kind of render times were you looking at HD/SD (as compared to stacking up the CC3-way, Levels, Broadcast safe etc) .. similarly, with the prospect of adding of a hardware control surface (JL Cooper Colorociter CS-1 based on MCS Spectrum) to version 2, do you think that would change your opinion at all?

i’m thinking about mid to low end color correction, basically just making the most of the shots we’ve got, rather than creative grading and coloring … but a lot of it (about 8 man-hours per day). It seems that a single powerful color grading plugin that replaces using multiple combos of other built-in filters might be a good thing – and a real productivity booster, especially with a dedicated control surface to bypass the UI. of course that doesn’t come cheap, $4500 for plugin + Colorociter, or $5500 for standalone + Colorociter.

with the other obvious option being Final Touch HD + MCS Spectrum at $8000 … what are your thoughts regarding standlaone versus FCP plugin

thanks in advance
Andy

[Walter Biscardi]

[Andy Mees] “regarding Color Finesse for use in FCP, what kind of render times were you looking at HD/SD (as compared to stacking up the CC3-way, Levels, Broadcast safe etc) ..”

Don’t know about Color Finesse, but for 22 minute episodes in DVCPro HD, it’s around an hour or two with the 3Way CC, Levels and Broadcast Filter on every single clip. There’s also some special effects and a lot of graphics in there as well. Render time was about the same with an 8bit 720p timeline.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

Now editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

G5 Dual 2.0, AJA Kona 2, Medea FCR2X