MINI TESTS
X-RITE COLORCHECKER VIDEO XL £426/$429 xpdistribution.com Getting your colours right is an essential part of workflow, especially if you are using a DSLR or mirrorless camera, drone or gimbal camera rather than a professional 10-bit cinema camera. Most small cameras record footage as 8-bit 4:2:0, which is a compressed codec. So when you start to tweak the footage you will definitely lose quality. You have to get the exposure and white-balance nailed at time of capture. Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve is the software of choice for many when it comes to colour management, and if you spend a bit of time filming a colour chart for each major shot, then it can work miracles inmatching all your footage from different cameras and getting colours right. Resolve has built-in software to work withmost of the major colour chart manufacturers, such as X-Rite’s ColorChecker series. You upload your shots to DaVinci Resolve and add them to a timeline. In the colour page, select the colour chart icon and a menu enables you to specify which colour target you have used – like the X-Rite ColorChecker Video XL. Choose the source gamma that you selected in-camera, like Rec. 709 or S-Log, and select the colour temp. You then use the colour chart tool to drag a box over the chart in your footage, ensuring all the boxes line up with the coloured boxes. Then press Match, which automatically analyses the differences between the known values of the ColorChecker and the output from your camera. It then corrects for the differences, to give your footage totally accurate colour. If you do this to every shot from every camera in your timeline, then your colours and contrast will be accurate, matched and consistent. You
then export the clips back into the NLE to edit.
These auto settings work well most of the time, but Resolve also offers lots of ways to
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fine-tune the footage manually so you can have complete control. If you are going to do this, it’s best to use large colour charts rather than the pocket- sized versions, such as the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport Video. Larger charts have two versions of each colour patch, one saturated and one unsaturated, for more control. A standard-sized ColorChecker works fine for many shots when you can get close to filling the frame with a roughly A4-sized target. But for longer or wide shots or footage fromdrones, for example, the colour targets are too small. That’s where the bumper-size ColorChecker Video XL comes in. It has the same chromatic colours, skin tones and grey reference chips of the standard size ColorChecker Video, but is twice as large. So you don’t have to move the camera closer. At 533x375mm/21x14.75 inches, it’s huge but, as it’s very slim, can be transported inside its custom sleeve and doesn’t take up a lot of space. It is also available in a special custom carry case but that costs extra. The ColorChecker Video XL is rigid enough not to bend in use, when an assistant holds it in front of the subject before shooting begins. You need to be careful to not cover any of the target squares with hands, or to touch them as this can affect their colours. And it’s best to keep it in its sleeve or case when not being used. If you don’t want to use the automatic colour profiling in DaVinci Resolve, but are knowledgeable about
SPECIFICATIONS Overall dimensions (HxLxW): 533x375x3mm/21x14.75x0.12in Colour chip area: 503x331mm/19.8x13.05in Accessories: Carrying case Software support: DaVinci Resolve, 3DLUT Creator Weight: 1.36kg/5lb
ColorChecker Video XL helps control colours but is very big
colour grading and use your own system, the ColorChecker Video XL has the right target patches to do it. The chart has six saturated and six desaturated colour chips aligned with vectorscope primaries, six skin tone colour chips from light to dark with different undertones and four larger steps for even grey balance, including white, 40IRE gray, deep gray and high gloss black. There is also a linear grayscale in six steps for even grey balance including highlight and shadow regions, plus black and white chips at two corners to better assist in determining even illumination. If you know how to use it, the ColorChecker Video XL lets you get exposure and white-balance right in camera, tweak colours afterwards for totally accuracy, andmatch up shots between different cameras and lenses on a shot for consistency. At £426/$429 it’s not cheap, but will last for years and can save lots of time in editing. AD PROMOVIEMAKERRATING: 8/10 A great way to control colours, but is pricey and large to transport Pros: Accurate colour and big enough for super-wide shots Cons: No support fromColorFinale or many third-party plug-ins yet
“Using the customcontrols alongwith a colour targetmeans you canfine-tune each individual hue”
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SUMMER 2019 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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