Color versus FCP 3-way Color Corrector?

I'm looking for an opinion. I've never really used Color. I've used FCP's 3-way Color Corrector since the first FCP. I'm wondering if I can get a much finer correction with Color? I've just shot a lot of stuff in fluorescent light using 5400k on the camera. This was the closest I could get to the actual light in the room. It has a faint yellow cast, with a tiny bit of green. Kind of ugly. I want to move it more toward the white, meaning remove some of the yellow/green. I've never been able to do this with FCP's color corrector - it always seems to take me directly into the blue. I'm wondering if I might have better luck with Color, if I can pick a more precise band of the spectrum to control, without affecting all the others?

Any suggestions would be most appreciated...

Ben

Color can definitely do a finer grade than the 3 way. It takes a bit of learning though. I would suggest looking for some online lessons, so you don't go there and decide it's a waste of time because you haven't seen how powerful it is. The grading facilities I've been to here use Color.

My years of working in Photoshop doing color correction helped me work with the COLOR app. That's because they both have curves to make color adjustments. You don't have to use curves in COLOR. You can use those other tools. I learned Color by way of lynda.com. They have great online lessons. You can pay month to month.

Ben Ged Low Wrote:
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> I'm looking for an opinion. I've never really used
> Color. I've used FCP's 3-way Color Corrector since
> the first FCP. I'm wondering if I can get a much
> finer correction with Color? .
>
> Ben

The 3 Way Color Corrector is like playing with crayons and Color is like having an entire art store available. In very simple terms.

With Color you get a Primary Room, 16 levels of Secondaries with masks, a Primary Out Room, a Color FX Room and even a geometry room for drawing shapes.

In particular when you need to lift shadows and midtones you will see a ton of noise come forward in the the 3Way while Color will remain cleaner much longer. With Color you can pinpoint exactly where you want your color changes to happen.

It's really like playing with a toy vs. a professional tool quite honestly. Both will get the job done, but Color will always give you many more options and a cleaner look at the end of the day.

What you're asking to do is one of the simplest things in Color. Once you learn the interface, it's a very simple tool to use, one of the simplest color correction tools on the market.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

<"The 3 Way Color Corrector is like playing with crayons and Color is like having an entire art store available.">

LOL! I wish I'd thought up that one.

<"Once you learn the interface, it's a very simple tool to use">

My friends open COLOR, then go hide under the table. As Walter said, "it's a very simple tool to use". The big thing is too make sure you get your preferences set correctly first. And set where all your files need to end up.

>Once you learn the interface, it's a very simple tool to use, one of the simplest color correction
>tools on the market.

I totally agree, and I do most of my color correction in Color. It is simply a lot more elegant and more efficient when it comes to CC. There are some caveats to working with Color, but those are the same caveats with almost any professional color correction workflows. You need to make sure you have the sequence locked down before you send to Color, or you may be jumping through hoops later on.



www.strypesinpost.com

I highly recommend the tutorials on lynda.com for learning the UI in Color, as well as the basic process of round tripping from FCP to Color and back. In terms of the art of color grading information, get "Color Correction Handbook" by Alexis Van Hurkman. Amazon has it, but an editor friend of mine downloaded it to his iPad, so it must be available that way as well - totally worth the $$.