[Paul Buhl]

Justin,

here’s some basic info for someone starting out.
First, don’t think about rules, learn to trust your eyes. If your picture looks blue, then adjust it so it doesn’t look blue. Easiest place to start is your whites / highlights. Try to get your white balance to look pleasing to you, push toward orange / yellow to counter the blue. Then make sure your blacks not washed out, or so black that you lose all detail in the shadows.

As far as how your image holds up in different viewing environments, think of 2 basic systems: computer screens, then everything else including TV and projectors. Computer is easy because you are viewing it on a computer right now. So make it look good on your monitor and it will work for the web. Just remember, Macs are a bit lighter than Windows PC, so if it’s a bit dark on your Mac, then it will be a problem on Windows PC. For TV and projector, you just want to really make sure your blacks are solid and color saturation is decent. Look at it this way, picture what you see now on your computer with about 10 percent more light pushing through the image. That’s what TV and projector will roughly look like, so if your color correcting for projector, keep your image a little darker then what’s ideal for your computer monitor. If your color correcting for web, go by your computer monitor as is. Just remember the mac vs Windows PC issue.

All the other technical stuff said in the other replies is accurate and important, but you will grow into understanding that stuff as you go. So research all the time, read everything you can, meanwhile I’m trying to offer a very basic point of view for you to use.

Remember, don’t get intimidated or overwhelmed, it’s simple information, just A LOT of it! Don’t try to see it all at once, take it piece by piece. learn one thing at a time and keep moving forward.
Good luck.

Paul Buhl
774-521-9000
https://www.acifilms.com