FCP - Color Workflow Question

I have DVCPRO HD sequences in FCP that I have applied Smoothcam filter to in many instances (one 10 minute sequence probably has Smoothcam applied to at least 15 of the clips). With over 4 hours of footage and Smoothcam applied often it would seem very labor intensive to have to create individual Quicktime movies for each of the clips where Smoothcam is applied and then drop those into the FCP timeline before sending to Color (especially as I will likely have to tweak the Color settings multiple times before getting the perfect outcome).
My sense is that I may be able to minimize the workload by:
1) creating one Quicktime movie of say an entire sequence with multiple instances of the Smoothcam fliter applied (instead of creating individual Quicktime movies of each clip where Smoothcam is applied)
2) sending that Quicktime movie to Color for grading
My question under the scenario directly above is how do you then split the Quicktime movie into the individual clips in Color so that each clip can be graded individually?
The only other alternative I can see is to:
1) remove all of the Smoothcam filters (and sharpening filters) in the FCP timeline
2) send sequence to Color for grading
3) roundtrip to FCP
4) apply Smoothcam filter (and sharpening filters) to all of the individual clips again after color grading is totally complete
I am a little daunted by the thought of this with over 4 hours of DVCPRO HD footage. Your suggestions regarding the best and most efficient workflow would be greatly appreciated.

Not quite six of one and half a case of the other, but you are in for some effort either way. Thomas Edison had an observation about "opportunity" arriving dressed in coveralls, but most people take a pass on it because it looks like "too much work".
If you elect the "bake out one big QT file" workflow, there is some efficiency to bringing the new QT onto a copy of the originating timeline and using that as a cutting guide to "razor in" the event boundaries, and then send that to COLOR. It will save a significant amount of re-rendering time.
If you remove the Smoothcam and other filters and send the raw source media to COLOR, that would be a normal workflow. I'd imagine there will be a significant amount of "attribute" copying after the fact, and of course all the smoothcams will have to go through "re-analysis". (I'd send a duplicate sequence, so the original filtered sequence can act as a source.)
The smoothcam filter will probably yield a different rendition on the COLOR-graded media, since the Boolean re-scaling (to keep the image within the active picture area) may not exhibit the same behaviour -- since you will only be dealing with the selected footage, rather than the entire source clip.
Sending the clips with an attached Smoothcam filter would probably result in massive render times, since FCP requires the entire intact source media to compute the stabilizing script, similar to sending a clip with a speed adjustment.
jPo

Similar Messages

FCP + After Effects + Color Workflow Question

Forgive me if this is a naive question. I would like to know what is the best way to work between FCP, Color, and After Effects. This is the first project I'm working on that requires all three applications.
All my shots are done in DVCPro HD and imported into FCP. DVCPro is not really supported in Color so I learned that they should be converted to ProRes (right?). In Color I will be adding a vignette effect and color grading so I know it has to be last otherwise my texts and mattes in AE will look like they're on top of the video.
My problem with that is almost every shot will have an AE effect in it so it's easier to dump the whole timeline into AE using popcorn's XML script. But once I export it from AE and put it back into FCP it is one clip but color correction and effects has to be done differently for each clip and I can't do that in Color with the single AE clip I just rendered. So I'm kind of lost, is my only option to add effects in AE one clip at a time and return them to FCP?
Also am I right that Color only supports Apple ProRes? DVCPro HD hasn't worked so far.
Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
DP

Hello David.
Regarding your question about DVCPro HD support, it is supported as an Importable format, but Color cannot render out in DVCPro HD. Color supports ProRes across the board. Here's a list of supported formats:
http://documentation.apple.com/en/color/usermanual/index.html#chapter=4%26sectio n=9%26tasks=true
After Effects really isn't part of my normal workflow, so I can't really comment on it, other than I've had a lot of problems with 10.0.1 and ProRes. That problem has caused me to eliminate AE from any workflow that I use here.

FCP - Color Workflow?

Ok, I'll try to be as descriptive as possible in my explanation of my workflow. I'm working on color grading a small independent film for a friend. Since we both of Apple computers, we are using FCP and Color. The directory is doing all the editing on her Macbook Pro. I'm doing all the color grading on my Mac Pro. We are both working on external 1Tb hard drives (1 for editing, 1 for grading).
She starts by editing the film. I already have a copy of her FCP project (and all media files) on my external hard drive. So when she tweaks and edits a sequence, I just copy her FCP project onto my external. I then open her project and export an XML from FCP to reconform with Color.
Color reconforms the XML fine. It was my knowledge that to get from my Color to her FCP, that I would just need to render my Color project, give her the XML that Color creates for her to import into FCP. Unfortunately that is not as smooth as I was hoping. As soon as she imports the XML into FCP, it is constantly trying to reconnect the media. No problem until I realize that the render in Color produced .movs on my external. I proceed to copy those onto her external and they are not able to link up. I keep getting the error that there is a difference in audio - video tracks.
I wish the workflow was easier between both programs when they are on different computers. It just seems that they are not meant to handle a project that is edited and graded on different machines. Does anybody have any suggestions to improve the workflow? I'm sure I could be doing something wrong, but I searched and read and could not find much info about working on different computers. Thanks for any help.

The issue that you are facing is that you did not realize that COLOR would render new media, and it is all video ONLY.
The workflow that succeeds for sharing projects is one in which the media moves with the project.
You do not need to move everything everytime. There is a strategy using "Media Manager". Your production partner should "Media Manage" the locked project to the transport drive. You would open that and create a target directory on that drive for COLOR. Render your graded COLOR version to it, do a Send To... FCP, where it will create a new (from COLOR) sequence in the original FCP project and return the whole shebang to the editor. Beware that there may be some panning issues with the XML -reconnected audio. In that case, copy the audio from the original FCP (for COLOR) into the new (from COLOR) sequence. Or bake it out from the original and drop it into the new graded sequence, or wait for the finished wav from the audio post house.... oh, wait a minute, you're probably not getting the audio mixed or sweetened, but whatever.
There is another, cumbersome, workflow and that has to do with creating a "Final Gather" Quicktime for export. Mostly that option is employed with dpx sequences, since you will by now have probably figured out that COLOR somewhat inconveniently renders each new QT into its own subfolder, which makes them a tiny bit inaccessible for most manual reconnection approaches. To be honest, I haven't used it for so long, that I'm not sure that it works for QT anymore. Worth looking up in the Manual.
Would you mind exploring that for me?
jPo

RED Workflow questions with Mac Pro (including third party plugins)

Hello all,
I’ve been searching many forums for the better part of a day trying to get some workflow questions sorted. I’m experiencing (very) slow export times, and mediocre playback for a machine that should be screaming fast.
Here is what I’m working with:
2014 Mac Pro
-2.7 GHz 12-core intel xeon E5
-64GB Ram
-Dual AMD FirePro D700 6GB
-1TB Flash Storage
Editing all footage off 96TB Raid 6 mini-sas server (getting about 1100mbs read/write rate according to AJA system test) which is faster than any Thunderbolt/TB2 drive array I have.
Media I work with is footage from the RED Epic (normally 5K) as well as DSLR footage from the 5d.
Software:
-PrPro CC 2014 (8.1)
-Magic Bullet Looks 2.5.2
My question(s) pertains to RED post-pro workflow in combination with third party plug-ins and the different approaches to make it more efficient.
Right now, majority of the clients need a 1080p HD master, and they are generally anywhere from 2-8 minutes (usually). So my sequence settings are as follows:
Video:
Editing Mode: RED Cinema
Size: 1920 x 1080
Audio: 48Hz
Video Previews
Preview File Format: I-Frame Only MPEG
Codec: MPEG I-Frame
1920x1080
Maximum Bit Depth unchecked
Maximum Render Quality unchecked
Composite in Linear Color checked
Export Settings
H.264
1920x1080
VBR 1 pass
Target Bitrate 12mbs
Max bitrate 12mbs
Maximum render quality/depth/previews unchecked
Issues I have:
-Playback is fine at 1/2 or even full, but once effects (especially magic bullet looks) start to go on the clips, it’s very choppy and has difficult playback at 1/4
-Export times (especially with magic bullet looks) will take the better part of 1-4 hours for a video that is 3-6 minutes long. This doesn’t seem like it should be the case for a maxed out MacPro
So my questions are:
Do these seem like the right sequence/export settings for mastering at 1080p? If not, what would you suggest?
Would using offline editing help at all?
Do you place your effects on adjustment layers?
Is there anyway to improve export settings when using an array of filters?
Have you stopped using third party plugins for their inefficiency in unreliability and switched to more integrated applications like SpeedGrade?
Is there any other tweaks that you would suggest for RED workflow with PrPro?
Should I consider switching to FCPX or (besides the iMovie-likeness) does it carry problems of its own?

Hi This Is Ironclad,
thisisironclad wrote:
Hello all,
I’ve been searching many forums for the better part of a day trying to get some workflow questions sorted. I’m experiencing (very) slow export times, and mediocre playback for a machine that should be screaming fast.
The biggest issue is that most people have is that updating OS X causes certain folders to be set to Read Only. See this blog post: Premiere Pro CC, CC 2014, or 2014.1 freezing on startup or crashing while working (Mac OS X 10.9, and later).
thisisironclad wrote:
Hello all,
I’ve been searching many forums for the better part of a day trying to get some workflow questions sorted. I’m experiencing (very) slow export times, and mediocre playback for a machine that should be screaming fast.
Here is what I’m working with:
2014 Mac Pro
-2.7 GHz 12-core intel xeon E5
-64GB Ram
-Dual AMD FirePro D700 6GB
-1TB Flash Storage
It's a nice base system. How about an additional speedy disk for media cache files. You also did not mention which version of OS X you are running.
thisisironclad wrote:
Software:
-Magic Bullet Looks 2.5.2
The Red Giant website does not indicate that this software is yet updated to work with Premiere Pro CC 2014.1 (8.1). Proceed with caution here.
thisisironclad wrote:
Issues I have:
-Playback is fine at 1/2 or even full, but once effects (especially magic bullet looks) start to go on the clips, it’s very choppy and has difficult playback at 1/4
I would not use this plug-in until you get the OK from the manufacturer.
thisisironclad wrote:
-Export times (especially with magic bullet looks) will take the better part of 1-4 hours for a video that is 3-6 minutes long. This doesn’t seem like it should be the case for a maxed out MacPro
Again, I suspect your plug-in.
Keep in mind that exports are largely CPU based but you can make sure that GPU acceleration is enabled for AME at the bottom of the Queue panel.
thisisironclad wrote:
So my questions are:
Do these seem like the right sequence/export settings for mastering at 1080p? If not, what would you suggest?
It's OK.
thisisironclad wrote:
Would using offline editing help at all?
No need when you should be able to edit natively. Relinking might also be an issue.
thisisironclad wrote:
Do you place your effects on adjustment layers?
That's one way you can do it with the benefit of being more organized.
thisisironclad wrote:
Have you stopped using third party plugins for their inefficiency in unreliability and switched to more integrated applications like SpeedGrade?
I do. Of course, that's a preference.
thisisironclad wrote:
Is there any other tweaks that you would suggest for RED workflow with PrPro?
Try the following:
Sign out from Creative Cloud, restart Premiere Pro, then sign in
Update any GPU drivers
Trash preferences
Ensure Adobe preference files are set to read/write(Hopefully you checked this out already)
Delete media cache
Remove plug-ins
If you have AMD GPUs, make sure CUDA is not installed
Repair permissions
Disconnect any third party hardware
If you have a CUDA GPU, ensure that the Mercury Playback Engine is set to CUDA, not OpenCLYou have AMD GPUs.
Disable App Nap
Reboot
thisisironclad wrote:
Should I consider switching to FCPX or (besides the iMovie-likeness) does it carry problems of its own?
I really shouldn't answer that question.
Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Kevin

Proper color workflow with CMYK inkjet printer

Hi, I work in an academic science group that has a networked HP DesignJet 800ps printer (postscript RIP). Unlike many inkjets, it appears to be a true CMYK printer - that is, our i1 Match software recognizes it as a CMYK device. We do all our printing in house - we don't have to worry about commercial printing or publishing, and our color management needs are basically confined to trying to have the printer's output match what we see on our monitors when we print photos in Photoshop or posters in Illustrator.
Having previously worked only with RGB printers and in Photoshop, I am pretty much lost now as to how to set up our color management workflow. (And don't even ask about my colleagues. :-)) I've never had to worry about either CMYK workspaces or printers before. I want to keep things as simple as possible for the staff here, given that none, including myself, are graphics specialists.
I've looked at the "Color Workflows for Adobe Creative Suite 3" document published by Adobe, and although it is very meticulous, none of the examples seem to match our situation. Specifically, all the info regarding CMYK printing involves working with commercial presses, which is not relevant to us.
I would like to avoid making my colleagues work in different color spaces depending on whether they are working in Illustrator or Photoshop - ideally, I would like it if we could stay in RGB at all times. First question: Is this unrealistic given that we have a CMYK printer?
No doubt I will have more questions, but I want to start simple for now. Thanks for helping me out - this is not my area of expertise.

> profile them as RGB devices" (to quote the book). The printers that I've profiled in the past with i1 worked this way.
As Peter points out in his post, it is most likely that your RIP is a CMYK RIP (most RIP's are.) If that is the case, you'll be profiling a CMYK device, not an RGB device (as you have in the past.) It is a totally different exercise to profile a CMYK device - ink limits and Kgen are variables that must be dealt with.
> Yes, details would be very helpful. Thanks.
Color management is all about moving from one device/color space to another device/color space while maintaining color appearance as closely as possible.
1) Based on the description of your workflow, step one is to create your original art in a well-behaved RGB color space (like Adobe98) while viewing it on a well-calibrated monitor.
2) If your final output is to be on the HP 800ps, step two would be to preview that art on your monitor as it would look on the HP. This is called soft-proofing - a process by which the art is viewed through the HP profile on-screeen so you can see what happens to all those beautiful, rich RGB colors when they're squeezed into the smaller gamut of the HP profile.
To do this, you go to View > Proof Set-Up > Custom, and choose the HP 800ps profile from the pop-up of all the profiles on your system. You can also choose from among 4 rendering intents - Relative Colorimetric, Perceptual, Absolute Colorimetric, and Saturation. Choosing the correct rendering intent is key - this willl determine how Photoshop deals with the out-of-gamut colors. Without getting into an explanation of what each RI does, the important thing is to choose the one that LOOKS the best on screen. There's no magic to it. In general, for photographic images, you'll be choosing from Relative or Perceptual. For vector graphics (which it sounds like you're doing), throw Saturation into the mix as well. Just try them and see which looks best.
Additionally, be sure to check "Black Point Compensation."
This will give you a good idea of what the final printed version will look like. While you're in soft-proof mode, you can edit the RGB file to alter the way out-of-gamut colors appear. In fact, there's no reason why you couldn't create your art from the beginning while in soft-proof mode. Using a well-built profile and a good calibrated monitor, you should be able to get an extremely close match between monitor and print.
3) When you print, be sure to choose the same profile/rendering intent that you used in Proof Setup.
Again, it all starts with a good profile. Good luck.

Sharpening export workflow question

I have a sharpening workflow question. Say I have pictures from a portrait session I just finished. I have to send 10 pictures the client ordered to a print lab and I also will make some small facebook sized pictures and upload them to my business facebook page. The level of sharpening needed for large prints (I upload to print lab as RGB JPEGS) and sharpening needed for the very small sRGB facebook-sized pictures is different. In Lightroom I have the option to set the sharpening on export and have a bunch of presets that alter the export size, color space, sharpening, etc(WHCC print lab, facebook, Client CD, etc). I don't see how to do that in Aperture. I see they have the option if you have a printer, but not on normal export.
For those of you that have to export batches of pictures in multiple different sizes (with different levels of sharpening), what is your workflow? I could use some photoshop droplets/actions after Aperture export but I was hoping there was a way to avoid the extra step. Am I overlooking an export feature? The BorderFX plug-in looks like the only other option.
Thank you in advance for time and help!
Scott

Frank Scallo Jr wrote:
The thing is guys - Once a file is sized down it WILL lose sharpening - what we are doing is sharpening the full size RAW file or rather what the full size output would be like. Once we export a version sized down it will lose some of the 'bite'. LR has sharpening options on 'output' which is not only smart but a necessity. Adobe realizes that output for screen needs another sharpen. Apple either doesn't know or didn't bother. It makes ANY output for screen less than best.
Bear in mind that there seem to be two separate issues going on here - sharpening adjustments not being applied on export, and resizing.
As far as resizing is concerned, Aperture appears to use something roughly equivalent to Photoshop's Bicubic Sharper setting. Because of this I've never had much problem with Aperture's exports when used for the web, but obviously everyone's taste for sharpening differs which is why an option for output sharpening would be good.
Sharpening adjustments not being applied on export is a separate issue and should be reported via the feedback form ASAP by everyone who is experiencing the bug.
Now printing is another animal - I wouldn't print directly from RAW in aperture either if I'm printing small. Again, LR beats Aperture here as well since they include output sharpening for print.
Aperture has had output sharpening for printing since 2.0 came out (unless it in was 1.5). In A3 you need to turn on 'More Options' and scroll down, I can't remember where it is in A2. I don't know how effective it is as I print via a lab, but it's there and it's been there for a long time...
Ian

Yet Another Workflow Question

Ok I too, like many others here, am new to the Mac (thanks to Apple's I'm a Mac, I'm a PC ads that my wife couldn't get enough of). I have done some searching around and I see that there are quite a few iMovie workflow questions out there. I have not quite found what I am looking for however, so I thought I would make my first post tonight. So here it goes...
I have 3 different ways I capture video:
1. Canon Vixia HF10 (HD)
2. Canon Powershot (SD)
3. Blackberry Storm (SD...I know it isn't a good phone)
I record everything to SD cards. I am wanting to know the best way to store my raw video for editing at any time. Do I copy the AVCHD file structure (for the Vixia) and .avi files (for the other non HD) to my hdd, or do I just import into iMovie '09 and let it reside there, or both? I noticed that iMovie had an archival option (which appears to just copy the AVCHD structure to my hdd), which is why I ask. I want to always keep my raw video in case I decide to go back later and create a new video.
After I have the raw video archived, I would like to know the best way to use iMovie. Depending on where I end up storing the raw video, should I keep the imported video in iMovie once I am finished with a project, and then reimport it at a later date if need be? Or, do I leave it in iMovie as events? I guess this all rely depends on the first question...where do I store the raw video for archival purposes...
Finally, when exporting my iMovie project, should I store that in more of a, pardon the Windows reference, "My Videos" folder with a original size, web optimized size, and ipod optimized size? Thus, keeping the actual exported version of the project separate from the raw video?
I hope I have asked the right questions here. I appreciate any and all help I can get!
Ron

Welcome Ron to the  iMovie boards..
very interesting : 'switchers' care sooo much for 'storage strategies' ..
the by Apple intended workflow/concept for iApps is:
any 'photocam' related material (still or movin') comes-in via iPhoto, and is stored in an iP Library (=you can tell iP to create 2/many Libs, if you prefer to organize manually....)
any 'camcorder' related material HAS to be imported by iM - why? because, iM has some internal routines to make such material editable (codecs, thumnails, stuff....). the same material as 'file by Finder' does not import.. in most cases!
storage..
iP stores in its Library (local/internal HDD and/or ext. HDD)
iM stores in Events (local/internal HDD and/or ext. HDD)
to make Projects/Albums accessible to any iApp, you should keep your fingers off that structure.
Erasing Events 'kills' projects.
allthough, once 'shared to media browser' there's a 'copy' of your project WITHIN the project file. (= the socalled Media Browser is no single Folder somewhere hidden in the system)
there's this Spacesaver feature to erase any Event content which is not in use in any project to keep Events lean.
use the Archive feature from within iM to keep things easy and convenient.. if you miss a single file of the SDcard file-structure, the whole card's content is kaputt ..
summary:
• use iApps as intended.
• use iP for cameras, it stores 'raws' (the avi too)
• use iM for camcorders, use Archive to store raws..
• purchase a dozend of HDDs to store your material..

Color workflow validation

Hi all. First time post here.
Being self-taught sometimes means having to unlearn bad habits learned from various forums and the good ol' internet, right?
I need some help "validating" my current color workflow, to see whether I'm actually wasting too much time and energy on the wrong habits (probably am!), after having recently seen a colleague of mine use something utterly different as workflow.
Got my screen and printer calibrated right now, and my color settings in Illustrator and Photoshop matching. Basic so far.
Now when I start a new project in Illustrator, I go through my swatch book (4-color process guide book) to pick out a CMYK build I like and apply that to my design. The color up on the screen doesn't really match at all my swatch book (I know, different gamut), but I'm basing myself on the swatch book so I know what I'm aiming for... (& let me make it clear; I do not actually use any spot colors in my final layout, just a small square of it somewhere for referencing purposes only).
Finally, I go to Photoshop once the designing is done and use the color picker to find the closest Pantone match (for solid coated).
So then I return to AI, and apply that Pantone color off my artboard for my printer to have as reference, if needed. The breakdown of that PMS color is never really spot-on the CMYK build I initially started with - it's usually off by 5-10%. Normal I imagine.
For instance, I chose CMYK build 100/70/0/0 in my guide book. That gives me PMS 2945 in PS. When I click "OK" in PS, PMS 2945 becomes 100/70/17/3 in its equivalency as CMYK. Pretty close but not perfect.
When I go back to AI and apply swatch 2945 and click "Convert to CMYK", the breakdown suddenly gives me 100/45/0/14. A little too far off for my tastes, but hey...
Reason I do all these steps is because the colors I pick out in the swatch books to begin with never match what I see on screen, so my clients always freak out when they receive soft proofs and then see the finished printed results. The colors always look a wee bit lighter on screen than on print.
I'm aware that screen representation is pretty much useless even with proper calibration (for lack of better wording), but can I fully trust and base myself on my swatch books - considering that the stock I'm printing on is different, etc, etc? Especially because I'm dealing with blues right now...
Would you(s) say this is a somewhat correct workflow or utterly ridiculous workflow? (And please be gentle if going the ridiculous route ).
And if so, how would you(s) start a project from scratch??
Thanks guys!

First I think you have badly calibrated system. With properly calibrated system what you see on your monitor should give a very good representation of your final colors, although for offset print you should always have a print proof accepted from your print shop. I use print proof not because I don't trust my monitor but because it requires client approval and the print shop can guaranty the color match. Obviously there is a difference between colors produced by emitting light vs reflecting but the eye has a good adaptive system of recognizing the same colors produced differently and proper color management takes this into account. If your standards are very high a proper calibration and viewing environment should give you a very good screen representation of the final result. Many Artists and designers create colors successfully referring entirly to monitors.
type_uk wrote:
Finally, I go to Photoshop once the designing is done and use the color picker to find the closest Pantone match (for solid coated).
So then I return to AI, and apply that Pantone color off my artboard for my printer to have as reference, if needed. The breakdown of that PMS color is never really spot-on the CMYK build I initially started with - it's usually off by 5-10%. Normal I imagine.
For instance, I chose CMYK build 100/70/0/0 in my guide book. That gives me PMS 2945 in PS. When I click "OK" in PS, PMS 2945 becomes 100/70/17/3 in its equivalency as CMYK. Pretty close but not perfect.
When I go back to AI and apply swatch 2945 and click "Convert to CMYK", the breakdown suddenly gives me 100/45/0/14. A little too far off for my tastes, but hey...
Reason I do all these steps is because the colors I pick out in the swatch books to begin with never match what I see on screen, so my clients always freak out when they receive soft proofs and then see the finished printed results. The colors always look a wee bit lighter on screen than on print...
I'm not sure why you are even using Photoshop for that but , Illustrator is much more accurate than Photoshop when matching RGB and CMYK to Pantone colors. Also have in mind that the Pantone match depends on your color settings. The color managed program you are using for matching Pantone color will use the display color space of your image, in combination with your monitor profile to figure out the best Pantone color match based on the assumption of how the color is displayed on the monitor and seen by the user. So the Pantone match may be different for each user if the color settings are set differently. Photoshop will choose Pantone 2945 C for your CMYK color if the image is assumed to be displayed in U.S.Web Coated (SWAP) v2 color space. Change that to something else and the Pantone match will be different. Interestingly though, Illustrator with the same settings picks Pantone 2728 C which is much more closer to the original color. I'm not sure as to why Photoshop is that much off - ask the Photoshop programmers, but this is why I always use Illustrator for color conversions.

Lightroom color cast question of JPEG image

Lightroom color cast question of JPEG image
Camera Canon MKII Color Matrix Adobe RGB
Photoshop CS Color Setting Adobe RGB (1998)
Lightroom 1.2 as new lightroom user I did not think that I needed to choose a color setting or color profile until I am ready to print my photos. I have not done any preset camera calibration.
Link to my website with example photo http://www.basecampphotos.com/color.jpg
My question is why is Lightroom displaying the images with a yellow color cast ? The image is a print screen from Lightroom on the left and Photoshop on the right The color cast problem can be seen in the white walls of the stairway. Also when viewing the image with Windows Picture and Fax viewer the walls are white as expected.
Any ideas or suggestions as to why Lightroom is displaying the images with the yellow color cast or what I need to do to correct the issue ?
Thanks
Jim

Almost definitely a corrupt monitor profile. Time and again this turns out to be the cause of such differences between PS and LR. You need to recalibrate the monitor or if you do not have a hardware calibrator, delete the profile from windows' monitor properties pane to test and then get a hardware calibrator.
P.S since you are using adobeRGB jpegs, Windows picture and Fax viewers cannot give you the correct colors even on a calibrated monitor. Those are not color managed programs (I believe picture viewer finally is in Vista but definitely not in XP which you appear to be using). Also, PS has to be correctly set up to always preserve embedded profiles and to ask when you have profile mismatches, otherwise even PS will give incorrect color. Make sure to set this up in Edit>Color settings.
P.S.2: Make sure you are not applying defaults in Lightroom to your images either on import or elsewhere. Sometimes people by accident define develop defaults that in this case might contain a white balance shift. Go to LR preferences and open the Presets tab. Here click on "Reset all default Develop settings" and make sure that only the auto grayscale checkbox is ticked. For images that it might have already happened to, make sure to hit the reset button.

Another color management question

Hi folks,
Apologies for yet another color management question, but Im getting very confused and could do with some help. I use a Canon 10D and Canon 30D. Ive come to LightRoom from Pixmantec Raw Shooter.
As Ive gotten more serious about producing high quality images for both the web and as prints, I thought Id invest in the Colorvision Spyder2 calibration product. So my monitor is now calibrated (quite a difference from what I was seeing!) and I have a calibration profile applied.
My needs are pretty obvious I want my images to look the same wherever theyre viewed including exported files (such as JPEGs) whether this be on my monitor (in LightRoom, a web browser, Paint Shop Pro, whatever) and on a printer.
Perhaps Im getting confused because Im trying to compare what LightRoom does with what RawShooter does.
In RawShooter, when exporting from RAW to JPEG, I can specify the RGB Working Space Im using and then select my monitor profile. I think that what happens is that the export mechanism takes this profile into account and, low and behold, the JPEG looks fine when viewed in any web browser - the colours are exactly the same as in RawShooter. In Paint Shop Pro they look fine too unless I enable Color Management in which case (Im guessing) the monitor profile is, essentially, applied twice! But the upshot is I seem to get the results I want.
What I cant figure out is how I do this in LightRoom. I can make the same adjustments to the RAW image as I did in RawShooter, but there doesnt seem an option for me to select my profile on export to JPEG only the standard 3 color spaces. Anyway the result is a JPEG that looks somewhat different when viewed in a web browser, or Paint Shop Pro with Color Management turned off. However, if I turn Color Management on in Paint Shop Pro, then it looks fine. So Im assuming that my profile isnt accounted for when exporting JPEGs from LightRoom.
So any pointers or explanations would be really appreciated. I also acknowledge that this is my first foray into color management, and feel free to tell me to go and read some introductory article (link please!) and then come back with a sensible question if thats whats needed!
Thanks in advance.
- Pete

Lightroom color management.
a.) Monitor profile used: The profile set as the default in your operating system (e.g. Windows xp). (your monitor profile software usually does this when you calibrate/profile your monitor).
b.) Working space: ProPhotoRGB
c.) Export color space: You can choose one of the following sRGB; Adobe RGB or Pro Photo RGB.
There is no option (afaik) to change a.) or b.) the option you choose in c.) will affect how the exported image will be displayed in color managed applications or non-color managed applications.
Non-color managed applications are not able to display Adobe RGB or Pro Photo RGB correctly. I guess if you wish a consistent display of your images in color managed and non-color managed applications then the only common factor is sRGB and you should export your images in sRGB color space.
The benefits of the other expanded color spaces are in printing and you also would have to get this end of your color management correct. Printing profiles to match your printer and each paper being used etc.
Until you can get this all sorted out you will get better results from sRGB, this is also applicable when using most commercial printing services.

Fcp to Color workflow

I have 20 videos that I need to color correct, and am a neophyte in color... My questions are real simple, just trying to buckle down a workflow.
I have a sequence in fcp. Do I have to add in all transitions prior to sending to Color (does Color embed back in fcp as a single output sequence)?
I shot the footage with two cameras. Do, or should I, place A camera on one line, and B camera on another in fcp, and then send to Color to make anything easier?
I will be using some simple alpha animations to the video. Should I do this after color correction? Or should I place above the footage on the timeline and just highlight the clips I want to send to color?
Thanks in advance!

YOu need something more than a reply on a forum... you need a tutorial on how to use COLOR. Get this:
http://store.creativecow.net/p/66/stop_staring_and_start_grading_with_apple_colo r
- You send to Color when you have locked picture...meaning editing is done. All transitions should be in place. Color will remove them, then put them back when it renders out the video. Each clip is rendered individually, it isn't rendered out as one long piece.
Put all the footage on ONE track if you can. Two if you must. But one track makes things easier. And all the footage must match EXACTLY...meaning same codec, frame size, frame rate.
Remove all graphics from the timeline before you send to Color...including Alpha transitions. Add them back when you render out from Color.

Color grading workflow question

Lets say I want to color grade my whole Final Cut project, should I grade each RAW clip individually then edit in FCP? If you do grade each RAW file wouldn't take take too long since I only use a portion of the raw clip? or should I import that whole, edited, FCP project to Grade in after effects? How do you color grade each individual clip when after effects recognizes your edit as a single clip?

Traditionally, color grading is the last step in a project before final delivery.
The reasons: any other way of doing it results in much unnecessary AE render time and excessive drive space to store extraneous footage.
It IS possible to do it the way you want.
Just make sure that you have 1) the time and 2) the storage to indulge your workflow preferences.

Color management in Illustrator CS6 and InDesign CS 6-settings & workflow questions.

I've read the color management posts and the Adobe help file regarding the Pantone + libraries and the new differences between CS5 & 6. However I'm still a bit confused as to just what my settings should be, and a few posts offer different pieces of advice, so I'm looking for clarification. I don't need to work with legacy CS files, so I don't want to swap out the old Pantone libraries for the Plus ones. However I still have my old Pantone Solid, Coated and Uncoated swatchbooks and until I can afford the new Plus swatchbooks, I'll depend on those. I'm hoping the difference between Pantone 321U and Pantone+ 321 is not great.
If I'm preparing a file for print and to be placed into an InDesign CS6 document for print, I know both document color modes should be CMYK—got that. In Illustrator CS6, I'm assuming I would use a Pantone+ Uncoated swatch (remember I'm using the old Pantone Uncoated swatch book as a visual guide and praying that the difference isn't too noticeable.)
1. In the Swatch settings pallette, should I set the Spot Color option to use the first choice—use LAB values specified by the book manufacturer, or use CMYK values from the manufacturer process books.
2. In the View menu, should I select Overprint Preview to get a (more or less-I know the drill) closer monitor color to what will be printed.
I don't want to fool around with trying to set the CMYK values as listed in Pantone Color Bridge CMYK EC (found on Scribed here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/33104/Pantoner-Color-BridgeTm-Cmyk-Ec ), and I'm not even sure of the point in doing so or what it would do for me.
What I want is to depend on a swatch book, select the named swatch from the Pantone library, have all my settings set properly, then place it in InDesign, then send the file to a digital printer and get as close an approximation to the swatch book selection as possible. I need monitor color settings to reflect the swatches as best possible.
When I can afford it, should I opt for the Pantone+ Coated and Uncoated swatchbooks, or the Color Bridge? I'm usure of the difference, and if there are any Illustrator or InDesign settings that would need to be changed depending.
As a corollary to this questions, once the settings are OK in Illustrator, what do they need to be in InDesign? There are settings for Ink Manager (all spots to process or use standard LAB values for spots, the Color palette has check options for LAB, CMYK, RGB.
I'm not sure what needs to be set in InDesign to make sure colors are consistent between what is set in Illustrator and then what InDesign does.

Let me try to help you further:
1. In Illustrator's Swatch settings pallette, should the Spot Color Mode option be set to use:
a. CMYK
b. LAB
c. Book Color (not sure if this refers to the pantone swatchbook)
- I would use "c" - Book Color. This is the file going to the printer which will use Spot Color on press. For a copy of the file to be output by your Canon, use "a" - CMYK.
2. In the View menu should Overprint Preview be checked, and why, and would it differ based on the settings for #1.
- Only if the color was transparent ( which it isn't ) would overprint preview be of any use or you use a tint value of the Spot color and a black, but even then you may not be able to detect any change in the screen view. I typically do not use any overprint preview and I do not rely on the monitor for any color deisions. You could be different and that is OK. Let me know if you are able to detect any deviates using overprint preview.
I'm sorry for being a little short. There is a lot of confusion about these issues and Adobe and Pantone are not making things any easier.
The key is your Canon will not be able to print accurate Spot color without a RIP for the necessary color tables and conversions for that particular printer. In your case, it will be necessary to build a CMYK file to print a somewhat approximate representation of that specific Spot color. Another frustrating part of this matrix is CMYK cannot match all Pantone Spot Colors.

Color Correction Workflow Question

If I am color correcting on the "original clip" - and then pulling that color corrected "original clip" into its own "clip sequence" that I then pull into a "master sequence", along with all the other "clip sequences" that make up my edit, and I am trimming those "clip sequences" to get just the snippet I need...
Is that creating a longer rendering time than if I...
Do not color correct on the actual "original clip" - still put the "original clip" into its own "clip sequence" - trim and resize that "clip sequence" to just the snippet I need, and then do the color correcting on that "clip sequence" instead of the "original clip" itself?
I'm hoping there is no descernable difference in the approach, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
Thanks.

Good enough for me.
BTW Jim the workflow set-up you held my hand through (http://forums.adobe.com/message/5522489#5522489) is what I'm utilizing here - so far it has truly changed the way I approach everything for the better.

Workflow question - need to do quick speed adjustments in fcp and maintain

Tried the documentation first...
I have a project where I will be adjusting the timing (speed) of most of the clips. Once I have the video and audio locked i will undue speed changes in fcp and use motion to get the most precise results / renders. Check me if I have this part wrong.
to facilitate editing i would like to do the speed changes for a clip in fcp and keep it's associated dialogue track in sync. ultimetly this will be a silent film so the dialogue will fall away. is there any way that speed changes applied to a linked video and audio clip can be made in fcp while preserving pitch? otherwise higly annoying to edit.
if not and i have to go to sound track pro to maintain pitch what does the workflow look like to make speed changes and keep audio at the same pitch.
thanks in advance,
wayne - portland oregon

Michael,
That's what I am doing with Batch Export now. I just wish that I didn't have to create a new destination folder for each bin. This is an insurance documentation project. W/o going into too much detail, I have 3100 clips from 54 different buildings, 395 different units in those buildings and the clips for each unit in their own bin. I need to keep that structure intact as I export.
I'm guessing that using Batch Export is the only way to go with out an upgrade to go straight to compressor from the Browser.
K

FCP - Color Workflow Question

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