Primary Color Correction: Color Control Primer - The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction - page 110

an external scope. Although many of the colorists liked to zoom in on
their waveforms vertically—in other words, expanding the waveform to
closely examine only the top or bottom—Kassner also likes to zoom in
horizontally to better find and examine the color in a specific horizontal
location on the waveform monitor. If your waveform monitor allows you
to zoom in horizontally, so that you are not seeing the entire field, give
this tip a try and see how much easier it is to isolate what is happening in
the magnified area.
Color Contrast
When doing primary color correction—or secondaries, for that matter—
another thought to keep in mind is that the contrast of colors in an image
is just as important as the contrast of tones. If an entire image is warm or
cool, the impact of that color temperature can be further strengthened by
having some contrasting color to give your eye something to compare.
This concept is applicable to balancing colors in an image. If you are
trying to introduce or enhance a color cast, it often creates interest and
a heightened sense of the color cast if one of the tonal ranges—usually
shadows or highlights—is either perfectly balanced or has a slight color
cast in the opposite direction. This contrast of colors can often help your
eye see the color cast better by “anchoring” it with a pure balance. The
reason this works is that if all of the tonal ranges have the same color cast,
your brain starts to color balance the scene automatically, but if your eye
has a pure black or white to hold on to, then the color cast elsewhere in
the picture can't be filtered away.
In addition to general color casts in an image, color contrast can be
enhanced to add interest. The best way to do this kind of isolated color
work is in secondaries, however, so we will discuss that in Chapter 5 .