Cynematik • Cyndi Greening

I’ve always loved doing color correction in Photoshop. Last week, we had a “Maximize Your Mac” class and I got to teach color correction and repair of old photos. People just love those tricks. It amazes me how easy it is to correct an image. There are people who swear they cannot “see” color but I think it is simply an undistinguished skill. Remove a few color casts, balance a few flesh tones, improve the contrast on some black-and-whites and people start “seeing” the light.

I’ve used many of the techniques I mastered in Photoshop in the video environment. The biggest difference is that I get to obsess about one photo at a time but, in the video world, they’re going by at 30 images per SECOND. So, one cannot obsess in the same way. There’s a different kind of obsession with video. Instead of concentrating on the single image, the relationship of all images to one another, of one scene to another, becomes the driving concern. Recently, I found a wonderful video correction training DVD for Final Cut Pro. I’ve been excited about the new COLOR program that comes bundled in the FCP Studio. Understanding how to use the scopes, how to balance the fleshtones and match color is really satisfying. So, I’m having fun being a “colorist.”

I was telling Alec about the training DVD. He said that skilled colorists in NYC make about $500 per hour and the really gifted ones get $1700 per hour. Per hour. I’ve got to tell you that I can’t even imagine making that kind of money … unless they maybe only work an hour or two each month. I mean, seriously, how much work like that can there be? Given that I love color work, it has been an amusing thought. Tonight, I got to thinking about training four or five other folks who love color and creating a small company, a highly skilled and trained cadre of folks to provide that sort of work. What a colorful imagination I can have sometimes.