FCPX Color Issues

[Oliver Peters]

This is a long-standing FCP and QT issue. Both are adjusting the display of the video to optimize it to look good on your screen. The Vimeo and MPEG SC appearance is what the file actually looks like when not displayed by QT Player.

Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Thomas Strand]

Thank you Oliver-
Do you then export and do your actual color grading in a 3rd party program? How does someone working with video edits on a daily basis deal with this? It seems that you can’t just do a simple adjustment in Compressor because you don’t have enough control. And how odd that Apple would have Compressor 4 view and display differently than FCPX. As someone shifting into this from still I am amazed how many screwy things have to be dealt with in video editing that still shooters don’t have to deal with.

[Rafael Amador]

[Thomas Strand] “I am experiencing a discrepancy between what I see for color, contrast and brightness in the FCPX viewer and how QT sees me output file. Quicktime playback looks the same as what I saw in FCPX but my Vimeo upload looks dark and contrasty. If I load the original output file into Compressor 4 or MPEG Streamclip it reveals a darker video file. What gives? Has anybody else experienced this? It is making color grading impossible as I have to guess and over lighten my video files. Please help!
“
That’s what happens when you use different players.
Vimeo is not QT but Flash Player.

You have to make a version with the gamma corrected for Vimeo, that’s how things works.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Thomas Strand]

Thanks Rafael. I got that. But how do you correct for a player format when you can’t judge in your program what it looks like? Also, when viewing the file in either compressor or mpeg streamclip it looks dark. So it’s not just flash it’s quicktime as Oliver stated. So how do I know what I am correcting if FCPX is not showing me an accurate rendition?

[Bill Depalma]

Great questions, really. Answers?
Bill

[Geoff Dills]

I haven’t seen any issues with my uploaded videos looking any different from what I see both while I’m editing, and in a Quicktime player. The only calibration I’ve done on my monitor was using the built in tool in the OS. I just did a test with bars to Vimeo both straight from X and then a ProRes export compressed with Compressor and then uploaded to Vimeo and all outputs look the same.

Best,
Geoff

[Rodrigo Ferraz]

I’m having a color thing going on too. I capture my videos with a Canon T2i and when I import the files into final cut the colors of the clips look awful in the viewer even though the original colors are shown in the events tab. It’s somethink like this:

When I playback the original files in any video player the colors are faithful to the original. Anyone having the same problem? Any idea how to fix it?

[Rafael Amador]

[Thomas Strand] “But how do you correct for a player format when you can’t judge in your program what it looks like? “
Think that if you are correcting in a computer monitor, you are correcting for THAT monitor.
You can’t predict how things will look in other monitors, other players or other platform till you watch thing there.
To get the same picture in two systems, you would need exactly the same gear: Harware, software, settings..
That’s the real value of using an external monitor; but even the best Pro monitor wont tell you how things will look in Vimeo in your friends PC.
Your only chance is testing and see how things look; being aware that the displaying-variety (systems, players, navigators, platforms, monitors..) makes impossible that a clip will look the same everywhere.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Oliver Peters]

Thomas,

If you are coming to this from stills, then think of it as the same as using different printers.

Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Thomas Strand]

I’m convinced this is an Apple issue. My monitors are calibrated and I see the problem if I view the video in Compressor or Mpeg Streamclip. It has nothing to do with players like Vimeo. I can see the problem even before upload if I view out of the QT environment.

Rafael-I don’t think you’re understanding my problem. Please note that I see this issue on my monitor. This is not a monitor issue. If I export from FCPX into Compressor 4 the image looks dark. Compressor 4 is showing me the real image rendition for some reason. This is not monitor or player related.