Apple MA434Z/A User Manual - Page 443

5 Render out 48 frames. The Wedge macro automatically brackets your initial pick up and down by whatever value you set as the colorStep. For a wide bracket, use a high number (such as 90). For a narrow bracket, use a lower number (such as 22). This process prints 48 different color, brightness, and contrast tests, then automatically returns the image to log color with the default settings. The internals of the Wedge macro are basically LogLin (log to lin) > ContrastRGB > LogLin (lin to log). 6 Record and print your 48 frames. 7 Compare the actual physical pieces of film to the frame of the original workprint on a light box using a loupe. The exposure numbers are printed on the frame by the Wedge macro. Select the frame that exactly duplicates the original print. If no frames match up, adjust your starting points for red, green, and blue, narrow your colorStep, and wedge again until you have a frame that looks correct. 8 For all composites that use this plate, use the values you selected in the Wedge macro in your LogLin node, converting from log to linear color. Keep your default values when returning to log color, with the exception of the conversion setting, which is linear to log. This process is generally done for every shot. At a larger studio, there is likely to be an entire department to do the color timing for you. Count yourself lucky to be in such a wise and far-sighted studio. The second technique to handle the color process is to not handle it at all-let the Color Timer for the production or the developing lab handle it. While this is easier, you do surrender some control over the process. However, this is a perfectly acceptable technique used in many large effects houses. When you employ this technique, you use the same values in your LogLin in and out of your color. You may adjust the numbers slightly, but make sure the same numbers are used in both operators. For example, because a physical piece of negative has a slight orange cast, your positive scan may have a slight green cast. You may want to adjust for this in the LogLin node. A good technique is to adjust your log to lin LogLin, copy the node (Command-C or Control-C), and then paste a linked copy back in (Shift-Command-V or Shift-Control-V). Next, adjust the conversion setting of the second LogLin node to lin to log. If you adjust the original LogLin node, the copy takes the same values since it is a linked copy. Chapter 15 Image Processing Basics 443