Matching Shots - The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction - page 368

color correct or as a base way to approach an image, I always approach it
as a full tone image,” Leffel concludes.
Bob Sliga also took on the challenge of the Art Institute lions. His
approach was that—even though the “base” image wasn't ideal—he
would treat that as the “hero” grade and would match directly to the
uncorrected, slightly warm shot. This is almost the reverse of Kassner's
approach later in the chapter.

I like to look at the vectorscope blown up . . . as far as I can go
because it helps me find a neutral black and a neutral white.

- Bob Sliga

“I look at the waveform monitor, vectorscope [ Figures 9.2 and 9.4 ] . I
like to look at the vectorscope blown up a lot. I blow it up as far as I can
go because it helps me find a neutral black and a neutral white. I also look
at the RGB Parade display, then I look at the picture. What I have up right
now is in the still store; I've saved a picture that I want to match to. The
white balance is extremely different. The exposure level is different on
the scope. I can see where I have to put the signals in order to help match
the image. I'll utilize the wipe to the reference image, then I'll rotate the
split so I have a little bit more of the picture,” he says as he rotates the
wipe so that it goes from the lower left corner to the upper right corner.
“So, I go to primary in and I'm just going to brighten this up really
high. So one of the things I'm looking for is a match in the waveform.
Then it'll be by eye after that. So you kind of get it in the ballpark of the
overall video level. I'm also looking at the black level; how we're higher
over here, so it's not balanced out. So as I come back over here to my
parade display what I'm trying to do is balance these off as close as pos-
sible. To do this, I'm going to start by making my blacks black.”
Sliga uses the shadow trackball to balance blacks. “You can see as I
move around what happens on the vectorscope. You want to have things
coming out of the center. We still have a big-time white balance difference
and I'm not even looking at the monitor. I can do this in the joyball area
and move all three tonal ranges or I can come over here to the advanced
side (the Advanced tab in the Primary room) and grab the channels one
at a time. I'm going to bring my red lift down just a little bit more in the
blacks. Now that we're in the Advanced tab, it's easier than moving three
joyballs at once. This is just another way of doing this.”
Sliga switches from adjusting the red, green, and blue shadow levels
to working on highlights. “We're just going to try to get the highlights in
the ballpark,” Sliga states as he checks the waveform monitor. “We need
to take some of the blueness out of this, which I can look to do in one of