Primary Color Correction: Color Control Primer - The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction - page 108

Fig. 3.43 The same YC display showing the neutral chart.

If you use Color, you'll need an external waveform monitor, because Flat
Pass is not an option for viewing any of the built-in waveform monitors
in Color, though “overlay” is close to what you need. In Color Finesse, the
waveform to use is called YC Waveform. An external waveform monitor
is definitely preferable for this exercise. If you don't have access to a YC
waveform or Flat Pass composite waveform display, you can use an “over-
lay” type waveform as is available in Color and Color Finesse. The overlay
waveform basically takes the three channels of the RGB Parade waveform
and lays them over each other. The goal with the overlay waveform is
similar to the composite Flat Filter waveform: make a thin line. With the
overlay, you can see the difference in the three channels, and the goal—
at least with a pure white, gray, or black portion of the image—is to have
them all lay perfectly on top of each other.
Looking at the “Neutral_Gray” clip followed by the “Cool_Grayscale
clip” while viewing the YC or Flat Pass composite waveform monitor
shows you that the neutral clip has much less excursion in the trace
( Figure 3.43 )—in other words, the trace is skinny on the neutral clip and
fat in the cool clip ( Figure 3.42 ).
It took some serious movement in the midtones and the highlights of
the hue offset wheels to flatten out the display in the waveform moni-
tor. Note that Color Finesse has four hue offset wheels and that the first
one is an overall—or master—wheel. In order to get enough range out of
the midtones, I had to do some of the correction in the master and then
counteract that correction in the blacks.
Trying to flatten out the color with the composite waveform is some-
thing that you would generally only attempt with a pure white or black
portion of the image in a real-life image. To do this effectively, you need

D e f i n i t i o n
excursion: The difference
in amplitude between two
different levels.