User guide

109
Creating a custom color correction
¦NoteBy default, any changes you make to the color balance (cyan to red,
magenta to green, or yellow to blue) affect your clip globally, from the lightest
white to the darkest black. To affect only shadows, midtones, or highlights,
you’ll need to select
Affect specific tonal range.
$ Auto Balance When you click this button, an eyedropper tool appears
over your image in the
Preview Window. Click the eyedropper tool on an
area of white or gray in your image. This automatically applies a color shift
to your clip to compensate for different lighting conditions.
¥Tip You can also use a keyboard shortcut to select Auto Balance. Press A,
then use the eyedropper tool.
$ Color sliders Drag a slider toward a color you want to increase in your
clip, or away from a color you want to decrease. You can also enter a value
in the text box beside each slider. Increasing a color by a certain value
automatically decreases the opposite color by the same value. For example,
if you move the
Cyan/Red slider towards red, you also decrease cyan by
the same amount, as shown in the following diagram:
$ Preserve luminosity Select this to maintain the luminosity values (tonal
balance) in your clip while changing colors.
$ Affect specific tonal range Select this to make color balance changes
to only one of the following tonal ranges:
• Shadows Affects the darkest areas of your clip.
• Midtones Affects the areas with tones between the darkest and lightest
areas of your clip.
• Highlights Affects the lightest areas of your clip.
• Input Levels These controls let you fine-tune your clip’s brightness and
contrast by changing the luminance value that represents black, white, or
gray. Doing so expands or compresses the range of luminance levels in your
clip, which increases or decreases your clip’s tonal range.
For example, by moving the black triangle to the right, you set black in your
clip to a higher luminance value, which compresses the luminance range and
darkens your clip proportionally.
MAGENTA
RED
YELLOW
BLUE
CYAN
GREEN