All language subtitles for Procolor_C05_L1b_Why

In this chapter, we're going to be talking
a lot about the color scopes.

Now, before we dive into what color scopes
and just kind of solidify

why we need to use this, because it is
a little bit of technical stuff to learn.

And if you're like me,
sometimes you wonder,

is this even worth my time?

So here on the right,
these are some typical color scopes.

And what these really are
are ways to measure

what kind of colors
are actually in our shot.

In a technical way,

if this looks super intimidating right
now, don't worry about it.

We're going to walk through all of this.

But really what we're looking for

is to measure different
aspects of the colors in our footage

from how bright or dark something is to
what kind of color cast it has, how bright

the colors are, whether they're warm
or cool, all of those things.

But if color grading is a visual art,
then why can't we just look at a shot

and decide whether we like it or not?

Decide whether it looks bright or dark
or anything like that?

Well, for the most part, we can look at
an image and decide a lot of these things.

But there are a couple of problems.

One is things are going to look different
on different monitors.

And too,
everybody has slightly different language

for how they kind of describe
what a image looks like.

Here we have three of the same image
tinted different colors,

and it might be pretty easy to tell
when these are side by side.

That one is blue, one is yellow,
and one is more kind of white.

But when they're not side by side and you
don't really have anything to compare it

to, it's really easy for your eyes
to kind of start playing tricks on you.

And for instance, maybe this one, once
we sit on this frame for a little bit,

our eyes

kind of get used to it, and it doesn't
look as blue in the background,

and it just doesn't look as far off
as it did.

There are ways to get around this,
like looking at something else

for a while,
comparing it with other images.

But for the most part, if you are just
looking at this on your monitor,

you might not guess that this is tinted
blue 100% of the time.

In fact, her teeth look pretty white.

In fact, just looking at this,

as I've been talking, my eyes are starting
to get used to it, to the fact

where I'm like,
yeah, it's a little it's a little blue.

But then when we zoom out,

it's really, really blue.

If we use the color scopes,
then we can actually look at the data

for this back wall
and for her shirt and for her skin.

And we can tell without having
to rely on our eyes or our environment

that everything
is tinted a little bit blue.

Same thing over here.

Pretty easy to tell that one of these is
yellow until we zoom in.

And that's the only thing.

And then after a while, slowly,
your eyes start to get used to it.

And it looks less and less yellow.

Now, you may look at that and say, I don't
know, It looked yellow the whole time.

Maybe So with an extreme example
like this, you might be able to tell.

But when you're in the middle

of a color grade, you don't want to rely
just on your eyes to tell

if something has a color cast or not,
or whether it's too bright or too dark.

And then the big question is
why do we care if something is white

or not or tinted or not tinted
when we're making movies?

It all comes down to communication.

What we're creating with our images,
we want people to understand

when they watch it.

If we want a movie
to feel bright and happy and kind of warm,

we want to make sure that our colors
have these warm tones in them.

If we want it to feel clean and crisp,
maybe we want this more kind

of neutral palette and for wanting things
to feel a little bit cooler,

maybe a little bit more harsh,

we might want to put some cooler tones
into the image.

And the only way to really know for sure
if you are doing that in a way that's

going to reproduce well on most people's
monitors is to measure it.

So we're going to use these scopes
like a measuring tape,

just like a carpenter uses
a measuring tape to make sure that he's

building the right size shelves

and that whatever he's making is going
to actually fit through the doorway.

We want to measure our colors

and make sure that they're giving
the right feeling to the viewer

and also make sure that the technical
aspects of how bright or dark

or strong our colors are,
we are actually doing that.

So there's a lot to learn with scopes,
but that's why we're putting in the work.

So we have a nice tool
to measure what we're doing.