Appendix G: Color Reference

The screenshot-and-scan card for color — Chapters 31 (correction) and 32 (grading) compressed into scopes, checklists, and tables you can pull up on the color page. It assumes those chapters taught you the why; this is the what, the order, and the landmark to check against. The single idea beneath all of it: correct first, grade second — make every shot honest and matched before you make any of them feel like something. Delivery of the finished grade (export, color space, calibration) is Chapter 36; the button names in your editor are in Appendix E.

The whole appendix in one line. Read the scopes, not your eye. Correct each shot — set black and white on the waveform, neutralize the cast on the parade, hold skin on the vectorscope's flesh-tone line — then match the scene to a hero shot. Only then grade: build a look as an ordered pipeline (correction → look → secondaries → Rec.709 out), protect skin above everything, and stop about a fifth sooner than feels satisfying.

Notation used throughout: Rec.709 (the standard delivery color space for standard-dynamic-range web, social, and broadcast video), Log (a flat, low-contrast capture profile, Chapter 3), LUT (Look-Up Table), "the look" (a piece's deliberate, consistent color signature), and stops (a doubling/halving of light). Scope reads are in percent, 0% = black, 100% = white.

G.1 The three scopes — read the image, don't trust your eye

Your eye adapts: stare at a blue-cast shot for a minute and your brain quietly re-defines white, hiding the cast the file still contains (Chapter 31). Scopes don't adapt — they read the signal. Learn these three and you can correct any shot, in any editor, on any monitor, even a bad one.

FIGURE G.1 — The luma WAVEFORM: a map of brightness. Vertical = how bright (0% floor → 100%
             ceiling); horizontal position matches left-to-right position in the frame.

  100% ┤· · · · · · · · · · · · · ·   ← CEILING. Trace welded flat here = BLOWN (detail deleted)
   90% ┤              ▓▓▓             a bright window, held below 100
   70% ┤         ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
   55% ┤   ▓▓  ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓            ← a lit face usually lands ~45–70%
   40% ┤ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
   20% ┤▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓             the shadow side of the room
    5% ┤▓▓▓▓                         darkest corners, still above the floor
    0% ┤· · · · · · · · · · · · · ·   ← FLOOR. Trace welded flat here = CRUSHED (detail deleted)
       └───────────────────────────
        left           image           right
  GOOD: the trace reaches near 0% and near 100% but stays OFF both rails. Push contrast
  UP TO the rails, never THROUGH them — a rail is a wall, and clipped detail never comes back.

FIGURE G.2 — The RGB PARADE: three luma traces side by side (Red, Green, Blue). Because grey,
             white, and black are made of EQUAL R, G, B, the three sit LEVEL on anything neutral.

   BEFORE — a cool (blue) cast               AFTER — balanced to neutral
      R      G      B                            R      G      B
  100│▓▓    ▓▓    ██  ← blue tops ride high  100│▓▓    ▓▓    ▓▓  ← tops level
   50│▓▓    ▓▓    ▓█                          50│▓▓    ▓▓    ▓▓
    0│██    ██    ██  ← blue floor lifted      0│██    ██    ██  ← floors level
      ‾‾     ‾‾    ‾‾                            ‾‾     ‾‾    ‾‾
   METHOD: find something that SHOULD be neutral (white shirt, grey wall, black jacket) and
   check R, G, B there. One channel high or low = a cast, and its HEIGHT tells you the tonal
   range: blue high at the bottom = blue shadows; red low at the top = cyan highlights.

FIGURE G.3 — The VECTORSCOPE: hue = the DIRECTION a color points, saturation = how FAR it
             reaches from center (schematic — your software may rotate the scope).

                     R
                    /
           Mg      / S            S = the SKIN-TONE / FLESH-TONE line
              \   / /                 (center → ~11 o'clock, between R and Yl,
               \ / / Yl               closer to R). Older scopes label it the "I-line."
         B ------●------  ← center = neutral grey (ZERO saturation)
               / \
              /   \
           Cy      G

   • Neutral shot  → the glowing trace bunches at the CENTER (little/no color).
   • Color cast    → the whole trace drifts off-center toward the offending hue.
   • Skin (any complexion) → the little arm a face throws should ride the S line. Deeper skin =
     a SHORTER arm (nearer center); lighter skin = a LONGER arm; the ANGLE is the same for all.

G.2 Primary correction — the order of operations

Run this fixed routine on every shot, then the scene. The order matters: tone before color, because a too-dark shot looks like it has a cast until you fix its brightness (Chapter 31, §31.4). (Note: some colorists do a quick white balance first; this book's canon sets tone first, then neutralizes — the two moves are the core of every correction either way.)

FIGURE G.4 — The primary-correction checklist (per shot, then per scene)

  PER SHOT
  [ ] 1. NORMALIZE   if it's Log/flat, apply the Log→Rec.709 transform (or expand contrast by hand)
  [ ] 2. TONE        WAVEFORM: black point DOWN to ~0%, white point UP to ~100% — no crush, no blow.
                     Place the midtones/face (~45–70%) with gamma. This IS your contrast.
  [ ] 3. WHITE BAL   PARADE: pick a neutral reference (white/grey/black), align R = G = B. Eyedropper
                     it, then refine with TEMPERATURE (warm↔cool) and TINT (green↔magenta).
  [ ] 4. SATURATION  restore natural saturation (Log arrives flat); nothing neon, nothing grey.
  [ ] 5. SKIN        VECTORSCOPE: confirm faces ride the flesh-tone line. WAVEFORM: face ~45–70%.
  [ ] 6. CHECK       whites white · blacks black · skin honest · nothing clipped · no banding.

  PER SCENE
  [ ] 7. MATCH       pick the HERO shot, correct it fully, match every other to it (G.8).
  [ ] 8. PLAY        run the scene at speed; fix any cut where color or brightness jumps.

The gray card is the cheapest correction tool you own. Shoot two seconds of a grey card (or a white sheet) under the actual light at the head of every setup, and lock white balance manually so the camera can't re-guess between takes (Chapter 31). In post you eyedropper the card and balance is solved in one click — and every shot matches automatically because they share one physical reference. You correct for the shoot you did; disciplined shooting makes correction trivial.

G.3 Color spaces — Rec.709, Log, and a word on HDR

Why Log looks "broken": it is deliberately not Rec.709 yet. Log trades on-set contrast for latitude, on the explicit promise that you expand it back to Rec.709 in correction. That expansion — a technical starting transform (often a conversion LUT, §G.5) — is the first thing you do to a Log shot, before any manual move.

A word on Rec.2020 and HDR. Rec.709 is the standard-dynamic-range (SDR) space almost all web, social, and broadcast video still delivers in — grade and deliver there by default. Rec.2020 is a much wider color container used for HDR (High Dynamic Range) delivery: brighter highlights, deeper range, more colors. HDR grading is a specialist workflow with its own reference monitors, brightness targets, and delivery specs — not something to switch on casually. Unless a client specifically asks for HDR, grade in Rec.709, and confirm the exact target with the client and platform before you start (Chapter 36).

G.4 The grading pipeline

A good grade is never one adjustment. It is a short stack of separate, named steps, each doing one job — so you can toggle any step off to audit the one before it, adjust one thing without disturbing the rest, and copy just the look onto every shot while each keeps its own correction.

FIGURE G.5 — The grading pipeline (build left → right; the image flows through each stage)

  SOURCE           CORRECTION          LOOK               SECONDARIES        OUTPUT
  Log / flat   →   balance +      →    motivated     →    windows &     →    transform to   →  DISPLAY
  camera clip      contrast to         color:             qualifiers:        Rec.709            (calibrated
                   NEUTRAL             warm/cool,          guide the eye,     for delivery       screen)
                   (Ch.31)             palette, curve      protect skin       (Ch.36)
                   "make it RIGHT"     "make it FEEL"      "shape PARTS"      "make it SHIP"

  Correct FIRST — a look on an unbalanced base amplifies the error on every shot.
  Grade a LOCKED cut (Chapter 30): windows/qualifiers track to specific frames, so re-cutting
  knocks the grade loose. Do your storytelling in the edit, lock it, THEN color.

FIGURE G.6 — A sane node / layer order (a starting template — rename each step, adapt freely)

  1. BALANCE      set black & white point, neutralize the cast          (correction, Ch.31)
  2. CONTRAST     shape the tonal range to taste                        (still correction)
  3. CONVERT/LUT  Log→Rec.709 transform, OR a creative LUT at reduced strength
  4. LOOK         the motivated color: warm/cool, palette, curves       (the grade)
  5. SKIN         a qualifier holding faces on the flesh-tone line      (§G.6)
  6. WINDOWS      power windows: vignette, relight, tame a hot area
  7. OUTPUT       transform to Rec.709 for delivery                     (Ch.36)

  Simple pieces need fewer nodes; complex shots need more. The ORDER is the point:
  correct → convert → look → protect → shape → output.

A node (DaVinci Resolve's term) or an adjustment layer / effect instance (in layer-based editors) is one reversible step. A secondary grades only part of the frame: a power window isolates by shape (and can track a moving subject), a qualifier isolates by color (click the sky, or the skin). Use secondaries to direct the eye, relight in post, fix a local cast, and — above all — protect skin. Use the fewest that work, feather their edges soft, and motivate each one (Chapter 32). Appendix E maps every one of these to your editor's menu names.

G.5 LUTs — what they are, and their limits

A LUT (Look-Up Table) is a preset recipe that maps every input color to a fixed output color in one step. Because it's just a fixed table, it is fast, consistent, and completely blind — it applies the identical transform no matter what's in your shot.

Its limits, stated plainly:

• A LUT is global. It hits the whole frame equally — it cannot protect skin while it stylizes the room, or darken only a window. Anything selective needs a secondary (§G.4), not a LUT.
• A LUT is blind, so it is not a fix for a bad exposure or a cast. A table can't see your exposure or white balance; drop one on an uncorrected shot and it bakes your errors in and stylizes them. A slightly warm shot becomes a lot too warm; a slightly crushed shadow becomes a black hole.
• A heavy LUT clips, crushes, and can drag skin off the line. Many creative LUTs push contrast hard. If the vectorscope shows skin swinging off the flesh-tone line the moment the LUT lands, the LUT is doing damage.
• A LUT built for another camera won't fit yours. The "cinematic" LUT from a tutorial expects a specific Log curve; on a different camera, a phone, or a standard profile it can look plain wrong.

The rule, non-negotiable: correct first → creative LUT on its own node, dialed back → hand-trim. A LUT gets you to the neighborhood; you still have to find the house. Free LUT packs won't give your videos a look — they'll give them the same look as everyone else who downloaded them, applied blind over footage they were never built for.

G.6 Skin tones and the flesh-tone line

If you remember one rule from all of color, remember this: protect skin above everything. An audience will accept a wildly stylized world but never a person who looks sick — we read faces pre-consciously, and a face even slightly off registers as "wrong" instantly. So the grade bends everything else around the skin, never through it.

FIGURE G.7 — Skin on the vectorscope (schematic; your software may rotate the scope)

                     R
                    /
           Mg      / ● ●          the FLESH-TONE LINE runs from center out toward
              \   /● ● /          ~11 o'clock, between R and Yl, closer to R.
               \ /● ● / Yl        (Older gear labels it the "I-line.")
         B ------+------
               / \                 ● ● = a face's skin cluster: it should trace
              /   \                       UP the line. Correctly balanced skin of
           Cy      G                      EVERY complexion falls along this ONE line.

  What differs between a very dark and a very fair complexion:  how FAR OUT the cluster
  sits (saturation) and how BRIGHT it is (luma) — NOT the angle. Leaning toward red =
  too ruddy/warm; toward yellow-green = wrong white balance or a look dragging skin off.

The working method: solo a shot with a face, open the vectorscope, and check the skin cluster against the line. If it leans off, either fix the white balance, or — when the look is what's pulling skin — qualify the skin on its own node and hold it on the line while the look pushes everything else. That single move (a warm room, on-the-line faces) is what makes a bold grade read as "mood" instead of "everyone has jaundice."

Grade people to look like themselves. "Neutral" and "natural" mean true to the actual person — never push deeper skin toward a lighter target or lighter skin toward a tan. Historically, film and video were calibrated around light skin; a colorist's job today is to undo that bias, not repeat it. Check darker complexions specifically for lost detail crushed into muddy shadow (the parade and a shadow-lifting node are your friends). And never let color be the only signal that carries meaning — roughly one viewer in twelve has some color-vision deficiency, so back color with contrast, shape, position, or text, and keep saturated flashing gentle (a photosensitivity hazard, Chapter 34).

G.7 Look recipes — starting points, not laws

Directional starting points, to adapt to your footage and your story. Every one is a motivated departure from neutral — you must be able to say the sentence the look is speaking. None of these is a set of numbers; grade by eye and by scope, then pull back about a fifth (Chapter 32).

⚠️ The teal-orange trap. Warm subject / cool surround is a genuine tool — skin is warm (it lives up the flesh line toward orange), and orange's complement is teal, so a warm subject pops off a cool surround. Used with restraint and motivation it's beautiful. The trap is dialing it to eleven and applying it to everything: shadows go a sickly cyan, skin drags to a uniform pumpkin orange straight off the line, and your work looks like every trailer of the last twenty years. The fix is the whole grading chapter in one move — motivate it (does this story want warm/cool separation?), restrain it (a hint, then back off a fifth), and protect the skin (qualify it, hold it on the line, §G.6) so the split colors the world without touching the faces.

G.8 Shot-matching quick-workflow

The job that most visibly separates professional work from amateur: making every shot in a scene share one color and tone, so cuts are invisible and the scene reads as one continuous place and time. Matching is a discipline, not a talent.

FIGURE G.8 — Matching a scene to one baseline

  [ ] 1. HERO    pick the shot closest to right (usually the widest / most story-important);
                 correct IT fully to a clean neutral baseline — everything else matches to IT,
                 not to some abstract ideal.
  [ ] 2. TONE    put each other shot's WAVEFORM beside the hero's; match the black point, then the
                 white point. Tone before color — a shot that's simply darker LOOKS like it has a
                 cast until you fix its brightness.
  [ ] 3. COLOR   on the PARADE, align where each channel sits, so a white wall is the same white in
                 both shots and a grey the same grey. The vectorscope confirms it.
  [ ] 4. SKIN    on the VECTORSCOPE, both faces ride the SAME point on the flesh-tone line — same
                 angle, same distance out. When skin matches, the cut vanishes.
  [ ] 5. PLAY    watch the cuts at speed. Every place the room, wall, or skin visibly changes color
                 or brightness is a shot you haven't finished matching.

  Most common job: the two-camera / shot-reverse-shot conversation. The same discipline scales to
  any scene — a talking head, a product insert, a walk-and-talk from sun to shade, a multicam event.

G.9 Common color mistakes → fixes

The one sentence: read the scopes, correct every shot honest and matched to a hero, then grade a locked cut as an ordered pipeline — protecting skin on the flesh-tone line above all else — because a look only reads as mood when the base is true.