The Color Wheels Mystery …

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Jeremy Garchow] “the wheel “brightness””

Could I jump in here and mention that Apple, in their inimitable style that we all love so well, are using the term “Brightness” in a non-technical sense right across the wheels, apart from the Master control which is indeed a Brightness or Offset control.

The Shadows “Brightness” is in fact what is conventionally known as Lift, the Midtones “Brightness” is Gamma, and the Highlights “Brightness” is Gain.

I’ve touched on this before but maybe not made that fully clear.

The naming convention doesn’t of course matter one iota – except insofar as it can confuse anyone who is expecting the accepted meaning.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Simon Ubsdell] “The Shadows “Brightness” is in fact what is conventionally known as Lift, the Midtones “Brightness” is Gamma, and the Highlights “Brightness” is Gain.
“

Yes. I am referring to how Apple names it in the filter:

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Yes. I am referring to how Apple names it in the filter:”

Yes, so was I.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki

[Michael Gissing]

[Simon Ubsdell] “The naming convention doesn’t of course matter one iota – except insofar as it can confuse anyone who is expecting the accepted meaning.”

Too kind to Apple. The naming does matter and this is yet another example of Apple changing for changes sake. They are years late to the party in adding proper grade tools so to change name convention is either trying to fool the user that somehow theirs is new and superior or just contempt for established convention which accurately describes the process.

Every grade tool I have used since telecine grading live to air in the 1970s uses the correct naming. If Apple has no respect for accurate terminology, then no amount of justification from acolytes will cut the mustard.

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Michael Gissing] “Too kind to Apple. The naming does matter and this is yet another example of Apple changing for changes sake.”

Is it not rather a case of Apple trying to make the naming as un-intimidating as possible to the average user?

That’s how I interpreted this decision.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki

[Mike Bonner]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Try clicking the scope button with the waveform on it and change the scale from 100% to 133%.”

Yes, Jeremy, you are right about this. Having a look back at Apple’s support pages, it’s stated when using 75% contrast color bars to set the vector scope to 133%. Although, this seems like an odd default setting while working in a Rec709 project, but oh well, I guess that is a discussion that should have been had 5 years ago. But, I’m put a little more at ease using that setting.

[Michael Gissing]

[Simon Ubsdell]”Is it not rather a case of Apple trying to make the naming as un-intimidating as possible to the average user? That’s how I interpreted this decision.”

Dumbing down language is not going to help the user when they deal with any other NLE, which is the real world for most of us. How long does it take to come to terms with a word like gamma? Once learned it makes it possible to go anywhere in the hardware and software world and instantly understand what we are dealing with. Isn’t that less intimidating?

I’m sure Apple is happy to add to confusion if it helps people with the illusion that Apple just works. By all means change naming when genuine innovation creates a new paradigm but this is not anything like that.

EDIT: I know you are being devil’s advocate here Simon so I am not directing this criticism at you.

[Mike Bonner]

[Oliver Peters] “First of all, be very, very careful in making any color judgements based on the viewer”

Thanks, Oliver, I definitely defer to you for experience in color; I am aware of this issue.

What struck me though was how different applications handled the footage. I know that Resolve’s viewer is supposed to bypass the OS profiles, and I tested the deliverables in VLC, which I believe does the same. I was not aware that PP and MC were capable of doing the same.

What I did not mention was that I tried to do a few tests as simply as possible, recreating if you will, what most FCPX users would experience (i.e., no broadcast video monitor). And, it just seems FC is doing something very different than the other NLE’s (operating under the same OS color profile)

Anyway, I’m taking this discussion off topic. Thanks for the responses.

[Mike Bonner]

This may be obsolete in a few hours when the next version of FCPX is released, but…

I was just playing around with the lasted release of CommandPost. (an app that hacks additional features into fcpx)

The latest version allows you to map Tangent panels to both the color board and color wheels in FCPX.

Relevant to this discussion, you can map the LGG rings to the color board exposure pucks, and the balls to the color wheels RGB controls. In this way, you can achieve the “expected” adjustments with a panel when working in REC709.

Hopefully, they will address the previously discussed issue in the next release, maybe even offer native panel support, but if not, this is a very useable work around.

[Robin S. kurz]

[Mike Bonner] “… in the next release…”

Now’s the time to find out. ????

– RK

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