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Color Science as an Amateur Colorist/Broke College Student

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Charlie Mattie

Hello,

Quick introduction: my name is Charlie, and I am a freshman in college (business major at a school in the South of the US). I have work experience in the sports media industry, doing videos, graphics, and photography. I have also been color-grading my own footage and stuff I find online for the past couple of years, reusing the same clips over and over. I am truly captivated by this craft more than anything else, and I never find myself bored.

I am very interested in the analytical side of color grading and look development. Since I do not have an outlet for gear (Film stocks, data, professional cameras) or a physical outlet for learning (I go to school for business marketing), I was hoping that the people of LGG could help me by pointing me in the right direction. I've already scoured the depths of YouTube, creators' sites (Yedlin, Demystify, Thatcher Freeman, etc.), and any free master classes I could find. I hope to find more in-depth color science, theory, and practice.

I am very tired of falling into the trap of LUTs and dctls that I find online. Now, I want to start making looks and transformation algorithms completely by myself. If anyone has any information or tips to share, I am all ears.

PS. I have been emailing and DM'ing professional colorists and post houses for a little while now. I also have been messaging as many film majors at my school for knowledge and work, though the film program at the university I attend is not the strongest

Another P.S.: I have also been applying to some graduate film programs, hoping to learn this stuff formally.
 
Here's some good references on Color Science:

VES: "Cinematic Color" (free 52-page white paper)
github.com

cinematiccolor/ves/Cinematic_Color_VES.pdf at master · jeremyselan/cinematiccolor

Contribute to jeremyselan/cinematiccolor development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com

"Color & Mastering for Digital Cinema"
by Glenn Kennel

"Digital Cinematography: Fundamentals, Techniques, & Workflows"
by David Stump

"Color Management Handbook for Visual Effects Artists"
by Victor Perez

"Color Reproduction in Electronic Imaging Systems"
by Michael Tooms

"Digital Video and HD: Algorithms and Interfaces"
by Charles Poynton

"The Reproduction of Colour"
by Dr. R.W.G. Hunt

"Color Mania: The Material of Color in Photography and Film"
by Barbara Fluckiger

"Colour Cinematography"
by Adrian Cornwell-Clyne
Chapman & Hall

"Color for the Sciences"
by Jan Koenderink

"Full Spectrum: How the Science of Color Made Us Modern"
by Adam Rogers

"The Reproduction of Color"
by R.G. Hunt

"The Elements of Color" (FREE)
by David Briggs

Color Science & Digital Imaging
by Steve Wright

"If It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die: The Power of Color in Visual Storytelling"
by Patti Bellantoni

The best book on Film Lab color-correction I've ever read is this one:

"Film Technology in Post Production"
by Dominic Case

The latter explains how film was color graded in the laboratory prior to television and digital. Some of the basic principles still apply today.


BTW, you might also check out the MixingLight.com website, which has a plethora of information and good courses and discussion on the art of color -- I learn new things there all the time.
 
"looks and transformation algorithms"
Maybe you can post an example what you're after? LUTs and dctls are not good or bad, they are just tools. Knowing their strengths and weaknesses is just part of the workflow process. A lot of books are just theory and don't get into the layering, mixing, transforming, color model interpreting or they just stay inside a technical 'framework'. Also, another thing they don't really talk about is the order of applying color changes. Color is like audio and has increasing levels of destruction and errors. Some are invertable, some are not. One thing I like to point out, is that if you are rolling your own looks, you often have to build your own color models/HDR tools. Many don't natively exist. Some are built in with certain grading programs, but its important to learn how they work in case you need to move to another tool. Do you have a specific tool you use or want to use? If I were you starting out, i'd read about color composite modes. They exist in most systems so are the most prevalent. Then read about color models.
 
While reading your post, and due to your rabbit hole search going deep, I was surprised to see that you did not specifically mention the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Hopefully this resource is of help to you.

www.rit.edu

Program of Color Science/Munsell Color Science Laboratory | College of Science | RIT

The RIT Munsell Color Science Laboratory and the Program of Color Science are one of the world‘s foremost color science research and education organizations.
www.rit.edu www.rit.edu
 
Another option is FXPHD. They have a lot of classes you might be interested in, with these in particular:

www.fxphd.com

Advanced Color Theory and ACES Workflow | fxphd

For nearly 20 years, cinema production and post-production has been based upon the conceptual model of film acquisition: Even if digitally acquired, imagery was typically processed using the Cineon/DPX model– technically, Cineon Printing Density (CPD) coding. That coding incorporates the...
www.fxphd.com
www.fxphd.com

Collection: LUTs, Gamma and ACES | fxphd

This package consists of a collection of our efforts to explain and demystify one of the most challenging issues in day-to-day vfx workflows: dealing with LUTs, gamma, and general color pipeline issues. Taking advantage of the technical nature of this collection, we've also included some classes...
www.fxphd.com

If you would like to see how "analytical" color can get, this collection of videos will take you down the rabbit hole.
 
Ryan Moser said:
While reading your post, and due to your rabbit hole search going deep, I was surprised to see that you did not specifically mention the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Hopefully this resource is of help to you.

www.rit.edu

Program of Color Science/Munsell Color Science Laboratory | College of Science | RIT

The RIT Munsell Color Science Laboratory and the Program of Color Science are one of the world‘s foremost color science research and education organizations.
www.rit.edu www.rit.edu
Click to expand...
Glad someone called this out! I'm biased as an alumni myself, but some of the faculty/grads have done some webinars, etc. over the years through SMPTE that might be useful:

SMPTE Essential Technology Concepts: Human Perception Fundamentals: Color, Contrast, and Motion:

Color Science Fundamentals In Motion Imaging:

Color Science Fundamentals in Motion Imaging

Color Science Fundamentals in Motion Imaging
www.smpte.org www.smpte.org

We also have some free training at Dolby that touches on some of these concepts briefly:

Dolby Learning Management System

Dolby Institute
learning.dolby.com learning.dolby.com
 
Charlie,
Have you considered in enrolling in graduate film courses offered at your school or elsewhere? If you wish to advance your knowledge and education investing in a few paid professional masterclasses is highly recommended.

Check out Walter Volpatto's TAC masterclass which will offer you insight into his underlying look development philosophy and workflow.
www.tacresolvetraining.com

Walter Volpatto Masterclass Bundle | TAC Resolve Training

Get bundle access to the Masterclass on Color Workflow & Methodology (Recorded) + Live Grading of "Bertie" : A visual treatise of the Negative-Positive Color Model (Live) Walter Volpatto Masterclass 1 (24.04.2021) Key Discussions: Why do something instead of focusing on how to do...
www.tacresolvetraining.com www.tacresolvetraining.com

I also recommend looking into the work and courses by Charles Poynton who is currently teaching an online"Math and Color science for Colorists" masterclass.
www.fxphd.com

Introduction to Digital Colour Theory | fxphd

We are all involved with some part of the colour science pipeline as it spans filming to final display, and all the complex steps in between. This course offers a way of understanding and setting up a colour pipeline so what you see and film on set is what you see and enjoy on the final display...
www.fxphd.com

Colorist Society International - CSI Fellow Charles Poynton

coloristsociety.com coloristsociety.com

Poynton Math and Colour Science for Colourists masterclass.

Math and Colour Science for Colourists, in twelve, 90-minute online sessions: one session weekly, across three months – so, 18 hours of course time in total, equivalent to about 2.5 work days. Register with a one-time payment, or three (monthly) installments; details below.
  • Sessions are expected to include questions and vibrant discussion (with video recording available afterward).
  • A PDF course handout each month, 30 pages for each of 3 months, ~100 pages in total
  • An online forum is available for discussions among participants & instructor
Course outline
The material will be presented in 12 sessions, roughly as follows:

FUNDAMENTALS
  • questions & axioms: Dirk [most important piece of equipment], Charles [Axiom Zero, “reproduction”], Troy [stimulus, sensation, cognition; image formation]
  • fundamentals & terminology; radiometry & photometry; units of light;
  • RGB/CMY mixtures (why the usual colour mixing diagrams are wrong); idealized additive RGB; mosaic & Bayer [RGB cube; visualization]
  • photon path; sensels, pixels, subpixels; perceptual uniformity;
  • the “‑nesses”; CIE metric lightness L∗; bit depths
CLASSIC COLORIMETRY
  • from spectral distribution to tristimulus values;
  • LMS, CIE XYZ, [x, y] chromaticity (why the classic CIE [x, y] plot is misleading)
  • RGB; white point, CCT; affine transforms (eg between primary systems);
  • colourspaces; luma; colour difference systems; LAB;
MATH (I)
  • notation; functions; linearity & nonlinearity; y=A·x+B
  • vectors; 3×3 matrices; introduction to linear algebra (“channel mixer”)
  • computing fundamentals & tools (W|A, python);
  • algebraic & numerical approaches; estimation/optimization
DISPLAY TECH
  • various display technologies including LCD, OLED, QD‑OLED, Xe and laser projectors;
  • display signal processing; EOTF
  • CONTRAST & BRIGHTNESS (and a 75‑year‑old terminology problem)
IMAGE SIGNAL CODING
  • digitization; sampling & quantization;
  • full/legal range;
  • SDI, HDMI;
  • luma & colour differences; chroma subsampling; 4:2:2; Y′CBCR, I′CTCP
  • LUTs: 1D, 3D; technical & creative LUTs; interpolation (eg, trilinear, tetrahedral)
MASTERING, METADATA, DISTRIBUTION
  • fundamentals of HDR & WCG; colourspace summary
  • colour calibration;
  • metadata (incl. colr, nclc/nclx, gama, and “Rec. 709‑A”); delivery
MATH (II)
  • perceptual uniformity refresher;
  • log, exponential, and power (gamma) functions;
  • bit depth; stops & density units; LV & EV; optical density; Beer’s law;
  • gamma & log coding; OpenEXR; floating point; Barten’s “curve”; PQ; HDR10; HLG;
PHOTOCHEMISTRY & DENSITOMETRY
  • photochemical film: H & D, D-log E;
  • classic colour timing;
  • OCN//IP//IN//RP; printer lights (“points”);
  • Cineon/CPD/DPX;
SENSOR & CAMERA TECH
  • OETF; camera spectral constraints, Luther/Ives condition; introduction to metamerism
  • gamut, gamut mismatch, gamut mapping;
  • IDTs/CFMs; why “colour correction”/CCM is the wrong terminology for cameras
COLOUR APPEARANCE
  • appearance attributes;
  • Axiom Zero; classic HD pipeline;
  • chromatic adaptation (eg, Bradford); hue uniformity;
  • colour appearance models including CAM16, T-CAM, Jzazbz, OpenDRT;
  • display mapping, I′CTCP
COLOUR PIPELINES & ACES
  • HD; scene referred and display referred pipelines;
  • modern cinema pipeline;
  • ACES 1.x & 2.0 (OETF//OETF⁻¹//LMT//DRT//EOTF⁻¹//DM//EOTF)
COLOUR GRADING
  • modern grading: “video” and “film” grading;
  • grading controls (lift-gamma-gain-offset; exposure, saturation, “temperature”);
  • node graphs; LUTs; formula transforms; ctl, OpenColorIO
For registration details, see the main masterclass page.
 
Joe Marler said:
In addition to the references posted by Rajneesh, below are a few more:

"Color Correction Handbook: Professional Techniques for Video and Cinema (2nd edition)"
by Alexis Van Hurkman
Amazon.com

"Understanding Color Management (2nd edition)"
by Abhay Sharma
Amazon.com

"Colour Appearance Issues in Digital Video, HD/UHD, and D-cinema"
by Charles Poynton
Click to expand...
I certainly agree with the latter two and will add them to the list.

I love Alexis (and know him personally a little bit), but that's more a book for people learning Resolve, not for people specifically into Color Science.

@Charles Poynton is always a master and knows the subject as good or better than anybody alive.
 
A lot of people have mentioned a plethora of advanced and thorough resources from scientists/industry professional. Additionally if you are interested I also post a lot of the things I’m working on, on my Instagram @vannyation.

I personally have found it quite difficult to find resources and accessible information. Hence why I try to share as much of the little knowledge and things I’ve done.

Most of it is regurgitated, dumb downed or incorrect self interpretations from other peoples work. But sometimes there might be something work checking out.
 
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