Replies – Forums – Thomas Strand

Forum Replies Created

Page 1 of 2

1 2 →

Thomas Strand
June 12, 2015 at 6:02 pm in reply to: FCPX Color Issues

An interesting read on this matter. Although I am not sure it helps. It also does not explain why Compressor would show the video darker than FCPX. If Colorsync runs throughout the Apple workflow Compressor should recognize it as well.
Thomas Strand
June 12, 2015 at 2:40 pm in reply to: FCPX Color Issues

The best information I have gathered on this is that FCPX and Quicktime are tweaking gamma. From all that I have read there is really no way to deal with this. I have read a couple of posts by people saying that using a different color profile on their monitor has helped. I am not sure how that solution would work for me since I calibrate my monitors color with Spyder and do not rely on the visual solutions provided by Apple.

You would think that since FCPX and Compressor are both Apple products that the video would look the same in both programs. Since my master export from FCPX looks dark in Compressor that is my first clue that FCPX is not showing me an accurate rendition. What I see in Compressor is very similar to what I would see on Vimeo if I uploaded directly to Vimeo without adjusting my gamma in compressor.

So, I need to now brighten my image in Compressor when optimizing and outputting a format friendly to Vimeo. Except I hate how poorly Compressor works for this. You can not accurately determine color and contrast.

Enter Adobe Premiere. I now import my master file into Adobe Premiere. Which also shows the file as being dark. In Premiere I have access to the full range of color correction tools, especially RGB Curves. And I have a good visual reference as to what changes are being made to my video. Premiere also has a very advanced set of presets for exporting optimized files. It is like Compressor on steroids. What I export from Premiere is much more color and contrast accurate.

I know, you are now thinking “why the hell doesn’t he just edit in Premiere”. To that I would say, “it is a daunting program if you learned on FCPX”. I do not want to relearn a new program and I relay like the editing process of FCPX. Since I already am have access to the line of Adobe products due to my use of Photoshop I did not have to purchase Premiere. That would have been a different story for me.

If somebody has a better solution I would love to hear it. I do video on such a limited basis but I do understand color management from my extensive work in delivering still images. However, it has become obvious to me that video is much trickier to color manage. For instance, my videos all look different when viewed on Vimeo in different browsers. However, my still photos all match across different web browsers. What I have not been able to figure out yet is the color profiles being embedded into the videos and if that can be altered.
Thomas Strand
May 6, 2012 at 6:46 pm in reply to: FCPX Color Issues

Hi Steve-

I started this post but never did resolve the problem. I’m curious, when you export from FCPX what program are you using to burn your DVD’s. Are you going into Compressor 4?
If so, does Compressor reveal the true dark nature of your video? I have looked at my exported QT file in both Compressor and MPEG Streamclip and both programs show my video to be dark.
Thomas Strand
March 28, 2012 at 2:50 pm in reply to: FCPX Color Issues

I never resolved this myself and had to move on. Fortunately for me I usually hand off files to an editor. I did, however, get back into FCPX last week again and was immediately reminded that the problem exists.
Sorry I have no answers for you.
Thomas Strand
September 4, 2011 at 5:22 pm in reply to: FCPX Color Issues

Re what Apple told me about potential color issues with QT10 and Snow Leopard:

QT7 has the ability to set some preferences and I noticed in the general preference window the following option-“Enable Final Cut Studio color compatibility. When enabled, video is not displayed using ColorSync. Source colors are read with 2.2 gamma and are displayed in a color space with 1.8 gamma”.

Could this be an indication that QT10 is adjusting display in FCPX? Is there a way to disable QT10 and have FCPX us QT7?
Thomas Strand
September 3, 2011 at 3:02 pm in reply to: FCPX Color Issues

Mark-
I still haven’t got to the bottom of this but I have read that QT ignores gamma and color profiles and attempts to adjust the image to look good on your screen. It may not be doing exactly that but the jist of it is that QT is altering the color and density. Is FCPX utilizing QT in it’s viewer somehow? What OS are you on? I was told by Apple that there were some QT issues related to gamma and Snow Leopard. It does make color grading impossible and Compressor is worthless for adjusting the contrast and density. I am trying to find time to get in to meet with a Final Cut expert at the Mac store. You try to explain this over the phone or in emails and people think you’re nuts.
Thomas Strand
August 18, 2011 at 2:19 pm in reply to: FCPX Color Issues

More info I found on DVX forum-

As related by Apple support to user

It has to do with your color profiles. i was using a calibrated profile I made with my x-rite Colormunki(which i use for Cs5 and lightroom work) and this does not play well with the new colorsync/FCP-X relationship. Once I changed my color setting back to the default LED Cinema Display in *system pref / display / color* it fixed my problem. I have sent The FCP-X engineers my .icc profile so they can try to fix this problem in a future update. but for now the work-around is using a profile calibrated by apples own methods, not 3rd party.
Thomas Strand
August 18, 2011 at 1:50 pm in reply to: FCPX Color Issues

I did some testing and tried importing several different codecs into FCPX and only optimized the one that was straight from the 5d. All showed the same bright image. Codecs AIC, ProRes 422. I transcoded these in MPEG Streamclip which showed a dark image. I did no adjustments. So FCPX is showing a brighter gamma than the file actually is. I then opened the original camera file in MPEG Streamclip, Compressor 4 and Quicktime 10 and 7. Both Streamclip and Compressor showed an underexposed image but QT showed a bright well exposed image. This is a QT issue and the way FCPX is adjusting images is going to be an issue for color grading unless there is a way to change viewer gamma. It would be nice if you could calibrate the viewer in FCPX.
Thomas Strand
August 18, 2011 at 12:48 pm in reply to: FCPX Color Issues

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.
Thomas Strand
August 17, 2011 at 9:31 pm in reply to: FCPX Color Issues

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?

Page 1 of 2

1 2 →