Grade Primaries Master adjustments

[Aurora Films]

Hola!

Have been playing with Boutique Color Grade node for a little while now. Lots of fun working with it.

Playing around with the Tangent Panels in Color/Primaries mode, I noticed the Contrast knob adjusts the grade’s Black and White points to get the desire result. At the same time, the Panel’s individual RGB knobs for Levels, Whites and Blacks also adjust the same parameters in the grade. A problem comes when the “Master” controls like Contrast or Levels are reset in the Panels, the color decisions made with dedicated RGB knobs or Trackballs are also reset.

I thought this was more of Tangent mapping thing, but maybe is its more related to the lack of dedicated Contrast and Master parameters in the Primaries. When I reset the contrast (or any sort of global RGB adjustment) parameters in the Panel I expect to have the actual contrast adjustment reset and not all the individual RGB values of the grade.

Please bear with me, as I may be missing something here.

Cheers

Abel

 

[agonzalez@sgo.es]

Answered in the other topic, but just in case I put in here the answer:

The master control that you are asking for doesn't work because it is indeed the same parameter than the RGB parameters. The only difference is that some knobs controls those parameters individually and the other ones in a global way. The same thing happens with the Printer Lights, everything controls the RGB values. We will consider adding master parameters to have more individual control. 

Cheers

 

 

[Cristobal Bolaños]

Hi Abel,

 

It's true that the tools of the printer lights work as unified features that take control over the RGB values. Hence if you manage with the contrast levels in the same vector you were manipulating the contrast of the R channel, it will be manipulated as well. What I recommend is to use a vector only for your contrast, preferably the first vector or the last one. In order to identify it quickly, you can change the name of your vectors easily by double clicking on the vector, then crossing it with your mouse or pen from left to right. Now you can change the name and write "CONTRAST" like in this screenshot:

[Francisco Ramos]

Hi Abel,

There's an important reason why this is like this. It gives far deeper control and ability to micromanage a grade and then share colour grade information with ASC CDL attributes for example. All would be centralized in the same RGB parameter values that will later be translated to ASC CDL values if necessary.

I would follow Cristobal's suggestion.

Remember you also have the option of using contrast in Bands, although it will affect the luma channel.

Cheers,

Paco

[Aurora Films]

Yes I figured that part of the reason was the ASC CDL compliance. I did watch your Webminar on the ColorGrade node... several times... thank you so much for those. We do have acces to a dedicated CDL effect which I think would be the way to go for any CDL related task. I would be suspicious of any Color Grade effect containing CDL information, as there are tons of other parameter that can be changed there. The CDL Grade effect is simple and straight forward... I would only add the option to export and import the values... if its not already there.

I definitely get that you can brake you grade into several vectors to adjust global values individually, but it feels a bit like an extra step to add another vector just to tackle contrast or even to globally adjust the brightness of the image, just to be sure not accidentally reset the individual RGB values. I feels more like an obstacle in the flow of primary adjustment of many shot in a sequence. 

Please take this as humble observation. You got a fantastic piece of software here and many experienced colorist may not find this to be an issue.

A