Good Color in the Field

Tuesday, June 26, 2007 Filed in: Weekly Tip

One way to address color calibration between your angles is to use a calibration card when shooting. This is relatively easy if you just remember to put a fresh color balance card on your clapboard for each shoot.

One of our favorites is the QP Card, an affordable reference card (http://www.qpcard.se). Priced at less than $5 per card, this is a great investment in accurate color.

They are small and lightweight, easily fitting in your gear bag.
Relatively inexpensive and disposable, so you can use a fresh card periodically. Old cards tend to fade in the light.
It’s adhesive on the back so you can easily attach it to your clapboard.
With a white, black, and neutral grey surface, color correcting with Final Cut Pro’s three-way color corrector is a snap.
$5 spent per shoot is well worth hours saved on color correction. In most circumstances, just three clicks per angle will calibrate across each camera.

Like this tip? It comes from the book
Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.