Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.1.2 User Guide

							 Chapter 12    Color correction 3 91
Turn log processing on or off
Many modern cameras have a log or wide-dynamic-range recording option that provides more 
f-stops of exposure latitude in the image. You can apply log processing to this footage to convert 
its appearance to a standard broadcast look. Some cameras embed metadata in the media file 
that enables Final Cut Pro to turn on the appropriate log processing setting automatically. Many 
cameras do not embed this metadata, and sometimes the metadata may simply be lost if the 
material is transcoded. In any case, you can change this setting at any time.
Turn a clip’s log processing on or off
 1 Select a clip recorded with the log option.
 2 To open the Info inspector, click the Inspector button in the toolbar (shown below), and click the 
Info button at the top of the pane that appears.
 3 In the Info inspector, choose Settings View from the Metadata View pop-up menu.
 4 In the Log Processing pop-up menu, choose an option for converting the appearance of your footage:
 •None: Turns off log processing.
 •ARRI Log C: Applies ARRI Log C linearization with a default tone mapping.
 •ARRI Log C (3DLUT ): Uses the 3DLUT embedded in the media to apply a custom look.
 •BMD Film: Applies the appropriate linearization for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera and the 
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera.
 •BMD Film 4K: Applies the appropriate linearization for the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K.
 •Canon Log: Applies the appropriate linearization for Canon Log.
 •Sony S-Log2: Applies the appropriate linearization and 709(800%) MLUT tone mapping for 
footage shot with the S-Log2/S-Gamut setting on Sony cameras such as the F5 and F55.
 •Sony S-Log3: Applies the appropriate linearization and 709(800%) MLUT tone mapping for 
footage shot with the S-Log3/S-Gamut3.Cine setting on Sony cameras such as the F5 and F55.
Note:  Final Cut Pro properly displays Apple ProRes media captured with the ARRI ALEXA camera 
Log C recording option and imported with Final Cut Pro X 10.0.8 or later. If Log C media was 
imported into an earlier version of Final Cut Pro X, Log C processing is disabled by default for 
that media.
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Measure video levels
Video scopes overview
Broadcast facilities have limits on the maximum values of luma and chroma that are allowable 
for broadcast. If a video program exceeds these limits, distortion can appear in the form of colors 
bleeding into one another, the whites and blacks of your program washing out, or the picture 
signal bleeding into the audio signal and causing audible distortion. In all these cases, exceeding 
standard signal levels can result in unacceptable transmission quality. As you’re color correcting 
clips in your project, you can use the Final Cut Pro video scopes to make sure that the luma 
and chroma levels of your video stay within the parameters referred to as broadcast-safe, or 
acceptable for broadcast.
Even if your project is not intended for broadcast, using the video scopes is an important part 
of your workflow. If the monitors you’re using don’t display color accurately or you’ve been 
working with the same clips for a while, you can easily get used to seeing a color cast or blacks 
that are not quite right. The scopes provide exact measurements of the luma and chroma levels 
of your clips so that you can make more informed decisions about adjusting Final Cut Pro color 
correction settings.
Final Cut Pro provides the following video scopes:
 •Waveform Monitor
 •Vectorscope
 •Histogram
Use the video scopes
By default, the video scopes appear to the left of the video image in the Viewer and the Event 
Viewer. Each viewer displays only one scope at a time.
Open a scope
 1 Do one of the following:
 •To open a video scope in the Viewer: Choose Window > Viewer Display > Show Video Scopes (or 
press Command-7).
 •To open a video scope in the Event Viewer: Choose Window > Event Viewer Display > Show 
Video Scopes.
In either the Viewer or the Event Viewer, you can also choose Show Video Scopes from the 
Viewer Options pop-up menu in the top-right corner.
You can use the same commands to close the video scope.
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							 Chapter 12    Color correction 393
 2 Choose the scope to display from the top section of the Settings pop-up menu.
Choose the scope you want to use from the 
Settings pop-up menu.Viewer Options  pop-up menu
 3 After you choose a scope, choose the display options from the bottom section of the Settings 
pop-up menu.
Note:  You may find it convenient to display scopes below the video image in the Event Viewer. 
To do so, choose Vertical Layout from the Settings pop-up menu in the Event Viewer. For more 
information, see Play back and skim media in the Event Viewer
 on page 82 .
Waveform Monitor display options
The Waveform Monitor shows the relative levels of luma and chroma in the clip currently being 
examined. These values are displayed from left to right, mirroring the relative distribution of luma 
and chroma levels from left to right in the image. Spikes and dips in the displayed waveforms 
correspond to light and dark areas in your picture. The waveforms are also tinted to match the 
color of items in the video.
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The Settings pop-up menu in the upper-right corner of the Waveform Monitor provides a variety 
of display options:
 •RGB Parade: Presents three side-by-side waveform displays that display your video as three 
separate red, green, and blue components. The waveforms are tinted red, green, and blue so 
that you can easily identify them.
The RGB Parade view is useful for comparing the relative levels of red, green, and blue 
between two clips. If one clip has more blue than another, the Waveform Monitor displays an 
elevated blue waveform for the clip with more blue and a depressed blue waveform for the 
other clip.
 •RGB Overlay: Combines waveforms for the red, green, and blue color components in 
one display.
 •Red: Shows only the red color channel.
 •Green: Shows only the green color channel.
 •Blue: Shows only the blue color channel.
 •Luma: Shows only the luma component of the video.
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 •Chroma: Shows only the chroma component of the video, and is tinted to match the 
video’s colors.
 •Y’CbCr Parade: Presents three side-by-side waveform displays for the separate luma, Cb (the 
blue color difference channel), and Cr (the red color difference channel) components. The 
waveforms are tinted white (for luma), magenta (for Cb), and yellow (for Cr) so that you can 
easily identify the waveform for each component.
 •IRE: Displays the video range in IRE units.
 •Millivolts: Displays the video range in millivolts.
 •Guides: Turns the Waveform Monitor’s grid and numeric values on or off.
 •Monochrome: Dims and desaturates the scope display to prevent visual distractions and color 
perception issues in your color-finishing suite.
 •Brightness: Sets the relative lightness or darkness of the scope display.
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Vectorscope display options
The Vectorscope shows the distribution of color in your image on a circular scale. The color in 
your video is represented by a series of connected points that fall somewhere within this scale. 
The angle around the scale represents the hue displayed, with targets indicating the primary 
colors of red, green, and blue and the secondary colors of yellow, cyan, and magenta. The 
distance from the center of the scale to the outer ring represents the saturation of the color 
being displayed. The center of the scale represents zero saturation, and the outer ring represents 
maximum saturation.
The Vectorscope shows you, at a glance, the hue and intensity of the various colors in your 
image. Once you learn to identify the colors in your clips using the Vectorscope, you can more 
easily see where two images differ and correct them so that they match as closely as possible.
The Settings pop-up menu in the upper-right corner of the Vectorscope provides a variety of 
display options:
 •100%: Sets the reference chroma level for the color bar targets (the squares representing each 
color in a standard color bar test signal) at 100 percent saturated chroma. Use this when your 
source media uses 100 percent color bars as its reference.
 •133%: Sets the reference chroma level for the color bar targets at 75 percent saturated chroma. 
Use this when your source media uses 75 percent color bars as its reference.
 •Vector: Uses a normal chroma hue reference, with red near the top.
 •Mark3: Uses a 90-degree rotated chroma hue reference, with red on the right side.
 •Show/Hide Skin Tone Indicator: Shows or hides the diagonal line that represents the human skin 
tone chroma phase, which is between the yellow and red color bar targets.
 •Monochrome: Dims and desaturates the scope display to prevent visual distractions and color 
perception issues in your color-finishing suite.
 •Brightness: Sets the relative lightness or darkness of the scope display.
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Histogram display options
The Histogram provides a statistical analysis of the image by calculating the total number of 
pixels of each color or luma level and creating a graph that shows the number of pixels at 
each percentage of luma or color. Each increment of the scale from left to right represents a 
percentage of luma or color, and the height of each segment of the Histogram graph shows the 
number of pixels that correspond to that percentage.
The Settings pop-up menu in the upper-right corner of the Histogram provides a variety of 
display options:
 •Luma: Shows only the luma component of the video. The height of the graph at each step on 
the scale represents the number of pixels in the image at that percentage of luma, relative to 
all the other values. For example, if an image has few highlights, the Histogram shows a large 
cluster of values in the midtones.
Using the Luma Histogram view, you can quickly compare the luma of two shots so that you 
can adjust their shadows, midtones, and highlights to match more closely.
The shape of the graph also helps you determine the amount of contrast in an image. A 
low-contrast image has a concentrated clump of values nearer to the center of the graph. By 
comparison, a high-contrast image has a wider distribution of values across the entire width of 
the graph.
 •RGB Overlay: Combines waveforms for the red, green, and blue color components in one 
display. If the image being examined has equal levels of two or more colors, you see the 
combined color:
 •Equal levels of green and blue appear as cyan.
 •Equal levels of green and red appear as yellow.
 •Equal levels of red and blue appear as magenta.
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 •Equal levels of red, green, and blue appear as gray.
 •RGB Parade: Presents three graphs that display your video as separate red, green, and 
blue components. The waveforms are tinted red, green, and blue so that you can easily 
identify them.
You can use the RGB Parade view to compare the relative distribution of each color channel 
across the tonal range of the image. For example, images with a red color cast have either a 
significantly stronger red graph or weaker green and blue graphs.
 •Red: Shows only the red color channel.
 •Green: Shows only the green color channel.
 •Blue: Shows only the blue color channel.
 •Brightness: Sets the relative lightness or darkness of the scope display.
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							  399
Sharing projects overview
Final Cut Pro provides a variety of destinations, or preconfigured export settings, that you can 
use to output your project or clip. For example, you can export a project or clip as a QuickTime 
movie, export it for viewing on Apple devices such as iPhone and iPad, publish it to websites 
such as Facebook and YouTube, or burn it to a disc. You can also save a frame from your movie or 
export an image sequence. Each of these options uses a different destination.
When you first open Final Cut Pro, a default set of destinations appears in the Share submenu of 
the File menu and in the Share pop-up menu. 
Details about each destination in the default set are listed in the table below. 
DestinationUse to
DVD Burn your project to a standard-definition (SD) DVD.
Master File (default) Export your project as a QuickTime movie file.
Apple Devices 720p Export files for iPhone and iPod. 
Apple Devices 1080p Export files for iPad. 
Facebook
YouTube
Vimeo Publish your project to your account on any of these 
websites.
Share your project
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You can easily add destinations or replace the default set of destinations with your own 
customized destinations. For example, if you want to save a frame from your movie as a 
Photoshop file, you need to add the Save Current Frame destination to your set and specify that 
the destination export a Photoshop file. You create and modify destinations in the Destinations 
pane of Final Cut Pro preferences. 
You can also create a bundle of destinations to export several types of output at once. For more 
information, see Create and modify share destinations
 on page 403. 
The default destination is Master File. You can quickly share to that destination by pressing 
Command-E. To change which destination is the default (and will be activated by that keyboard 
shortcut), see Create and modify share destinations
 on page 403 .
To further customize your output, you can use Compressor, the professional transcoding 
application. For more information, see Export your project using Compressor
 on page 414 .
Share projects, clips , and r anges
You can share an entire project, an entire clip, or a portion of a project or clip (indicated with a 
range selection). You share using one of the built-in destinations provided with Final Cut Pro, or 
using a custom destination that you create in the Destinations pane of Final Cut Pro preferences. 
For more information, see Destinations preferences
 on page 447. 
You can also share a project’s roles, exporting each role as a separate media stem. If you want to 
export the same roles from another project or clip later, you can save your settings as a preset.
Because the transcoding required to create the shared file happens in the background, you can 
continue working on your projects in Final Cut Pro after sharing. (Keep in mind that changes you 
make to a project after the transcoding process begins are not reflected in the output files.)
For information about output formats, see Supported export formats
 on page 402.
Share a project, clip, or range
 1 Do one of the following:
 •Select a project or a clip in the Browser.
 •Select a range in a project in the Timeline or in a clip in the Browser. 
Note:  To share just a portion of a project, you must make a range selection. A clip selection is 
not sufficient. For example, you can use the I and O keys to set the range start and end points. 
 2 If you’re sharing a project that is set to use proxy media for playback, open it in the Timeline and 
choose Optimized/Original from the Viewer Options pop-up menu in the upper-right corner of 
the Viewer. 
This ensures the highest quality in the exported file. When you choose this setting, Final Cut Pro 
uses optimized media to create the shared file. If optimized media doesn’t exist, the original 
media is used.
 3 Do one of the following:
 •Choose File > Share, and choose a destination from the submenu.
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