Tutorial: Inspecting the Inspector in Final Cut Pro X, Pt. 2
This tutorial on Apple Final Cut Pro X takes a closer look at color correction in the Inspector, exploring the Balance Color, Match Color, and Color Mask and Shape Mask features.
Adding a Color Mask
So if you look closely at Correction 1 in Figure 6 (below), you’ll see two icons to the right of it . The first icon (from left) is Add Color Mask; to its right is Add Shape Mask. These two obviously add masks to your image, which means they allow you to mask off certain areas of your image to allow you to selectively color-correct your image.
Figure 6. Add Color Mask (left) and Add Shape Mask (right).
We’ll begin with the color mask. Traditionally, a color mask is used for color isolation; e.g., the girl’s dress is red and everything else is black and white. That application is not my cup of tea. I use it in a somewhat less traditional manner. At Cord3Films (www.cord3films.com), we shoot with DSLRs, so the dynamic range that we’re awarded is a little bit low, compared to something like a RED or a Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera.
The image in Figure 7 (below) was shot with a Canon 5D Mark III. It’s pretty much impossible to get a perfect exposure here. The highlights in the sky are blown out and the darker regions a little bit underexposed, but we can improve that by faking it using the Color Mask.
Figure 7. This shot has the kind of deficiencies that the Color Mask can correct. To see this screenshot at full size, click the image.
When you click Color Mask and drag your cursor over the image, it becomes an eyedropper. When you click and drag this eyedropper it will start making a selection. As you drag out from the center, it creates a circle of ever-increasing size (Figure 8, below). Everything inside that circle is going to be added to the mask.
Figure 8. The Color Mask. To see this screenshot at full size, click the image.
You have to be careful when you’re drawing out your mask. In the example in Figure 9 (below), as I make it larger and it starts hitting the corner of that building, it’s going to pull in the entire building, and we want to get it as close as we can without doing that.
Figure 9. Be careful when you draw out the mask not to extend it to parts of the image you don’t want to include in your selection and apply the correction to. To see this screenshot at full size, click the image.
After you release the cursor, Final Cut Pro X creates the mask. But once you’ve released it, you can't see your mask. To make the mask visible, go back over to Color section in the Inspector, and Option+drag the Color Mask slider to adjust the softness of the mask, and Final Cut Pro X will show you the mask (Figure 10, below). In this example, if I Option+drag the slider to the right, I’ll get the dark areas of the clouds included in the mask.
Figure 10. Option+dragging the Color Mask slider to reveal the mask while you adjust its softness. To see this screenshot at full size, click the image.
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