I agree. The color correction in VV 4 beta is fantastic. I have been finishing a project in VV 3 but color corrected one clip in VV 4 beta, rendered it and imported back into the VV 3 project. Using the color correction fx with the vectorscope gives very precise control and fast too.

I'm interested to know, as precisely as possible, what steps you go through to use these color correction tools to achieve the results you want. Is it just knob fiddling until you get the look you want? Or is there a more methodical way?

I have two clips taken with different cameras that are very different in their color appearance. I'd like to make the one look like the other.

Is this something you've used these tools to do? If so, how do you do it?

Thanks,

David

Well kind of a knob twisting thing. For those that haven't tried the beta, version four includes the color wheel approach similar to Final Cut Pro and other high end applications. You have three color wheels in one high powered FX filter side by side, one for adjusting hues in shadows, another for midtones and the third for highlights, plus a saturation control, Gamma and something new, a gain control with a offet. Wow... I'll probably write a new tutorial one of these days... I'm still messing around and to be honest having too much fun to stop and do any "work" I don't have to.

Just for a quickie how-to, what I do...

Drop the source vid on the timeline, playing it off an external monitor. I then open the new video scope screen setting it so that it shows the vectorscope, luminace waveform and luminace histogram in three window panes. By watching the external monitor and glancing at the vector scope which does real time updates you can get a feel where your video needs work and see 'hot spots' stuff like that. Some of the correction methods are the same as I covered in my tutorials, you'll still problaby want to use color curves first, just now the corrections are easier to do and you can 'fiddle' more, and I think anyways, it is much easier to get skin tones EXACTLY how your want them.

For example I had a little video where some neighbor shot his kids playing in the tub, but the lighting was too dark and the skin tones were orange and the bath water wasn't what it should be. Using version #3 of Vegas I spend a lot of time fooling around with HSL and levels and while I improved it a lot combined with color curves I wasn't really that happy with the final result. Trying again using only the new color wheels and a pinch of gain... and dropping the saturation a bit instant improvement. BIG improvement! Skin tones were right on, the bath water looked like, well bath water. Total correction time, oh about 30 seconds to find the right settings.

Oops... what I also wanted to say was once you have several video under your belt you get a 'feel' for what the histogram should look like in certain situations. Once you master that and file it away in your head, then you got a pretty good idea what to tweak. Again, like in version three, version four is VERY sensitive in that just a little adjustment goes a long way. Meaning: Don't move the slider from say 1.500 to 2.00. Try tiny adjustments like 1.110, to 1,140. As you watch the waveform, you'll see the effect. You don't want to pin the waveform pushing it fill to extremes, at least not always, but you do want to have a fairly stable waveform balancing between midtones, shadows and highlight. Practice, practice, practice.

where do i get the beta?

will it ruin my VV3 installation?


when can i buy 4

Beta 4.0 can co-exist with 3.0. You can download it from the SoFo site:

www.sonicfoundry.com

You can take a project .veg file from 3.0 to 4.0, but you can't open a 4.0 .veg in 3.0, so remember, it is wonderful, but it is still a beta. You can RENDER in 4.0 and take the resultant .AVI into 3.0, but that is not the same.

Near the top of the page, in TINY lettering, on the right side, it tells you to click that spot to download.

Final version is not yet actually on the market, but several companies are already offering prices.

For academic and retail, see www.sharbor.com for PRE-release special retail pricing. NOTE: No one knows if the pre-release special price is better or worse then the upgrade price for current VV3 owners. Look at all those SoFo catalogues you get and look at the current VV2 to VV3 upgrade prices, and judge for yourself what you expect to happen. No one really knows as of this date.

For academic only, try www.academicsuperstore.com

Ain't it exciting?

but you can't go from 4.0 to 3.0, so remember, it is wonderful, but it is still a beta

I don't expect to be able to open V4 projects in VV3 even after the final V4 release.

Tor

That will be true, also. My warning was that, since it is a beta, you might WANT to go back to a "Final" version of 3.0c. Having worked with the 4.0 for a while, I can't imagine WHY, but you might with the beta. But you can't.