The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction Review

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(More customer reviews)I originally wrote this review for my blog and decided to post it here since I think it'll help potential buyers decide if this book is for them. Enjoy...
First question: Is The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction worth reading?
Answer: Yes! Absolutely.
Second question: Is it targeted at newbies or advanced users?
Yes. To both.
The first two thirds of the book "Primary Color Correction" and "Secondary Color Correction" deals with the fundamentals of our toolsets: monitoring, understanding waveform monitors and vectorscopes, balancing shots, vignettes, HSL isolations, and more. While this part of the book can be safely skipped over by more advanced users to whom all that info is second nature, Steve Hullfish does a nice job of surveying how different software apps approach the same concepts. And when a particular software package has a unique tool for achieving a particular task, he breaks it down for the reader.
The upshot: Even if you're experienced colorist on a Symphony you'll walk away with a strong understanding how other software apps work and what you might be missing (or what advantages you may have that you didn't realize). My advice, advanced users should at least skim through these parts paying particular attention when Steve takes a moment to pull a quote from the working professionals he features in the last third of the book. There are some great tips in these sections - especially on how different colorists set up multi-display scopes to help them nail black balance or tweak color values. I ended up changing some of my displays and found a few new setups that I really like.
Overall, the first two parts are not a dumbed down discussion. While Steve starts by laying down the ground-work emphasizing monitoring and external scopes (the latter being a deep discussion that permeates the entire book - which I very much appreciate), he seems to anticipate some of his readers finding material redundant and thankfully breaks out basic terminology to sidebars. Appropriately, those early chapters work through the subject matter in the same order a colorist will typically approach their problem-solving.
The final third of the book "Pro Colorists" is likely where the advanced users will want to begin. Why? That answer leads us to our third question...
Third Question: What makes this book different than other color correction books (or DVDs)?
The soul of this book is contained in the last few chapters and on its supplemental DVD. Steve sits with over a dozen accomplished, professional colorists and puts them in front of a common software color grading platform, Apple's Color (at the time called Final Touch HD), with a Tangent control surface. He gives them all the same set of footage (also provided on a DVD), presses 'record' on a DV camera and grills the colorists about the approach they are each taking to color correcting those images. The result is the author presenting up to three colorists approaching the same shot using different techniques. Or the same technique being used on different shots. Usually in the words of those colorists. It's a great education.
Even better are the transcripts Steve provides on the DVD that didn't make it into the book but he thought were informative. I've just started to read those and already I've gotten some new ideas about different approaches to common challenges.
Another thing that differentiates this book is its largely software-agnostic approach. Color, Avid Symphony, After Effects, Color Finesse, even Photoshop are all featured in the first 2 Chapters alone. Where interfaces are similar, Steve picks a software package and follows it through - pointing out where users of other apps might find things different. I suspect that if iMovie had a color correction module Steve would have a found a place to feature it.
Fourth Question: Any final thoughts?
This is clearly a book about concepts, not tools. As much as it necessarily covers the How To of working with color correction software, it's the Why Do that is emphasized.
In fact, Why Do is the whole point of the book.
Read it. Live it. Learn it.

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Provides direct access to the skills, insights and techniques of some of the postproduction industry's most prominent digital video colorists, delivering practical skills to the postproduction pro seeking to improve their color grading craft. The author interviews and observes 8 professional colorists as they grade a series of real world video images, describing the methods and techniques each artist uses to reach their finalized image. These video images are included on a DVD that allows you to work lockstep with each artist as they grade their images.Though some tools provided may differ from one product to the next, the basic process of video color correction (grading) remains the same. Application agnostic and sure to inspire, The Art of Digital Video Color Correction will further your artistic skills, whether you're an editor, compositor, or colorist, and allow you to apply those skills to the grading process, making your finished image sharper, crisper and more aesthetically pleasing in general.* Digital video color correction tips and techniques from the pros grading the films, shows and commercials we all see everyday, thus advancing theartistic coloring skills of the reader* Is non-software specific, with lessons that are applicable to any postproduction workflow* DVD includes samples of the same video images that the colorists featured in the book were working on, providing direct access to the techniques and process of professional grading

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