MBR Color Corrector 3 Manual - Reference
This page describes each option of the MBR Color Corrector 3. If you want a guide to get you started, it is better to look at the main manual.
Overview
MBR Color Corrector works by performing the following calculations in sequence...
Input
: The footage is converted to linear RGBColor Correction
: The linear RGB information is multiplied by a matrix to correct the colors.White Balance Correction
: The linear RGB information is multiplied by a matrix to correct the white balance.Preserve Lightness
: The linear RGB information is multiplied by a constant to correct the exposure.Saturation Adjustment
: The linear RGB information can have its saturation adjusted by moving the RGB values towards (or away from) gray.Adjustments
: The linear RGB information is adjusted by applying a curve to it. (The default curve is to do nothing).Highlight Protection
: Any over exposed RGB values are edited to give a more pleasing image.Output
: The linear RGB information is transformed into something sensible.
Input
Transfer Function / Color Space
Simply select the option from the dropdown list that matches the settings used on the camera when filming. Usually this is obvious, but sometimes it requires a little more thought as the options may have slightly different names in the camera.
The option Rec. 709
really means
ITU-R Recommendation BT.709
but is often abbreviated as Rec. 709
, BT.709
, or
ITU709
; this means that if the camera has an option called
BT.709
you should select Rec. 709
as the Input Transfer
Function. Similarly: Rec. 2020
or Rec. 2100
may be
called BT.2020
or BT.2100
on the camera.
Some cameras have a HLG / BT.2020
option, for this you should
select Rec. 2100 HLG
as the Input Transfer Function.
Hybrid Log Gamma is defined in
ITU-R Recommendation
BT.2100, and the color space for Rec. 2100 is the same as the color space
for Rec. 2020. Therefore the HLG / BT.2020
option is referring to what
the effect calls Rec. 2100 HLG
.
The various Canon Log 2
, Canon Log 3
, and
Sony S-Log 3
options refer to the same transfer function, but with
different color primaries. If you have a shot with the reference card in it; it
really doesn't matter which color primaries you choose as the color correction
based on the reference card patches will correct the primaries. (If you are
correcting a shot without any reference card in it, then
it is important to select the correct color primaries).
RGB Primaries, White Point
You almost certainly want to avoid editing these options...
The CIExy
control shows where the RGB Primaries and White Point
sit in the
CIE 1931 color space.
These diagrams are commonly found in the specifications / descriptions of the
various standards, for example the
Rec 709 page on wikipedia
includes one in top right.
You can change the values for where the red, green, blue and white point are
by editing these eight values. As you edit them the CIExy
section
will update to show the new color space, and the Source
card will
update to match (if it is a reference card).
These options are most useful with the Linear RGB
transfer function,
for example if you want to use the effect to convert a computer generated
overlay into some display space that you specify in the Output
section.
Correction
Card Location
These four options are used to set where the card is in the frame before
using the Read card from frame
button in the Source
or
Target
section.
Once you select any of the four corners, the overlay should appear in the monitor. You can now drag the corners the correct location.
The overlay shows a dotted line outlining the area in the frame where the card is. The dotted line is colored to match the patches at the edge of the card, and the top left of the card is marked with a diagonal line, to help mark the card in the correct orientation.
Card Type
Use this option to select which type of color chart you have.
When the Card Type
is changed, the Source
and
Target
options will update to match. If the new card has a
different arrangement of patches, both the Source
and
Target
will update to a reference card. If the new card has the
same arrangement of patches, then they will only update if they are set to the
reference card.
The following color charts are supported:
Source, Target, Patch
The effect works by calculating how to match the colored patches in the
Source
to look like those in the Target
.
How you intend to use the effect dictates how you wish to set these two options:
- If you wish to correct some footage:
- set the
Source
card to the footage,/li> - and the
Target
card to the reference card.
- set the
- If you wish to match some footage to some
other footage with the correct look:
- set the
Source
card to the footage with the wrong look, - set the
Target
card to the footage with the correct look. (probably by using the Load button)
- set the
The five buttons to the right of the colored patches do the following:
Find card in frame
: This looks in the current frame for the card, and then reads the patches from it into the effect.Read card from frame
: This reads the patches from the current frame into the effect. TheCard Location
options specify where in the frame the colored patches are read from.Load
: This loads the colored patches from a file.Save
: This saves the current set of colored patches to a file.Ref
: This resets the colored patches to be the reference card. The button is highlighted in yellow if the colored patches are the reference card and the patches are updated to match how the reference card should look for the relevant Transfer Function / Color Space. (theInput
options are used for theSource
card, while theOutput
options are used for theTarget
card).
Clicking on individual patch in the Source
or Target
option will select that patch for manual editing. Change the Patch
option to update the individual colored patch by hand. (This is very useful
when dealing with a partially obscured
card).
The image on the right shows the top left patch on the Source
card selected (it is outlined in yellow) and ready for editing.
Colour Correction
The Colour Correction
option has three settings that control how
the color correction step (see overview) works:
None
: This means that the color correction step is skipped.Per Channel
: This means that the color correction step multiplies each color channel by a different number to match theSource
card to theTarget
card.Mix Channels
This means that the color correction step calculates a 3x3 matrix to match theSource
card to theTarget
card.
If the color space is different between the Input
and
Output
, then the Per Channel
selection should not be
selected.
White Balance Correction
The White Balance Correction
option selects if the white balance
correction step (see overview) is skipped.
If the option is on: the white and grey patches in the card are used to
calculate a 3x3 matrix to match the white balance of the Source
card to the Target
card.
If both the Color Correction
and
White Balance Correction
are enabled, then you can think of the
color correction as being slightly biased towards getting the white balance
correct (rather than the highly saturated patches).
Preserve Lightness
The result of the color correction and white balance correction steps
(see overview) is that the footage will have the exposure
corrected so that the Source
card will have the same
lightness as the Target
card.
If the Preserve Lightness
option is on: then the exposure
readjusted so that the overall lightness of the footage is unchanged.
Adjustments
The Adjustments
section can be used to apply a simple non-linear
curve to the linear RGB values before they are passed to the Output
section.
If you are converting from HDR / log footage into 'normal' dynamic range, the
Exposure (EV)
slider can be very useful to get the correct part of
the footage exposed reasonably.
The default settings only apply Highlight Protection
and do not
make any other adjustments.
Curve
The Curve
option shows the curve that results from the
Exposure (EV)
, Grays
, Contrast
,
Whites
, and Blacks
option settings.
Exposure (EV)
The Exposure (EV)
option specifies how many stops to make the
image lighter. For example a setting of +2
would make the image 2 stops
lighter (i.e. multiple the linear values by 4).
Grays
The Grays
option specifies which linear RGB value should be
mapped to 0.5. You can think of this parameter as performing the same
adjustment that a gamma curve would.
In the example image, the curves have Grays
set to 0.3, 0.5, and
0.7 from left to right.
Contrast
The Contrast
adjusts the slope of the curve where the output is
0.5 (i.e. the point specified by Grays
).
In the example image, the curves have Contrast
set to -10, 0,
and +10 from left to right.
The Contrast
option is only enabled in the full version of
the plugin.
Whites
The Whites
adjusts the slope of the curve where the output is
1.0.
In the example image, the curves have Whites
set to -1, 0, and
+1 from left to right.
The Whites
option is only enabled in the full version of
the plugin.
Blacks
The Blacks
adjusts the slope of the curve where the output is
0.0.
In the example image, the curves have Blacks
set to -1, 0, and
+1 from left to right.
The Blacks
option is only enabled in the full version of
the plugin.
Saturation Adjustment
The Saturation Adjustment
option allows for tweaking the
saturation of the footage. If the option is set to:
0%
the footage will be converted to black and white.100%
the footage will be unchanged by thesaturation adjustment
step.
Highlight Protection
The Highlight Protection
option controls how overexposed parts
of the frame are handled.
If the option is off: then the overexposed pixels are passed to the
Output
step unchanged.
If the option is on: then the overexposed pixels are adjusted as follows:
- The lightness that the pixel should be (assuming no clipping) is calculated.
- The pixel value is clipped, and the lightness that it now is is calculated.
- Then the pixel is lightened (by adding white) until the lightness matches the lightness calculated in step 1
The sample images are both identical apart from the Highlight
Protection
setting, which is off
for the upper image and on
for the lower image.
The Highlight Protection
option is only able to be disabled
in the full version of the plugin (the trial version always has it on).
Output
Transfer Function / Color Space
Select the output transfer function based on how you intend to use the footage.
If you don't have a clear idea of which option to pick, you probably want to pick one of the various ITU-R Recommendations as follows:
- For HD footage you probably want to select
Rec. 709
. - For 4K footage you probably want to select
Rec. 2020
. - For HDR footage you probably want to select
Rec. 2100 PQ
orRec. 2100 HLG
.
Linear RGB
If you are preparing footage to be composited with computer generated footage you probably want to pick one of these options, in all cases the output will be Linear RGB; the difference is the color primaries / white point which are taken from the following standards:
Linear sRGB
: those used in the sRGB standard (which are also those used in the Rec. 709 standard).ACES2065-1
: the AP0 primaries specified in the ACES standard.ACEScg
: the AP1 primaries specified in the ACES standard.
If you need to output any other linear RGB, then you should select any of three options, and edit the RGB primaries and/or white point to suit.
DCI Standards
The DCI-P3 D65
and DCI-P3 Theater
options use a pure 2.6 gamma curve and the DCI-P3 RGB primaries, the difference between the two is the white point:
DCI-P3 D65
: uses the D65 whitepoint, you may know this standard asDCI-P3 Display
.DCI-P3 Theater
: uses a whitepoint with a color temperature of ~6300K.
In either case, you can edit the white point
if needed to generate any other DCI-P3 output
(for example, to generate DCI-P3 D55
, you'd set the White x
to 0.33242, and White y
to 0.34743).
DCI DCDM
The DCI DCDM X'Y'Z'
option can be used to help produce Digital
Cinema Distribution Masters.
- The output is encoded with a pure 2.6 gamma curve.
- The red, green, and blue channels encoding CIE X, Y, and Z values.
- The white point is specified as
equal energy
(i.e. it has CIExy coordinates of 1/3, 1/3).
ACES Standards
Four ACES standards are supported, they have the following intended uses:
ACES2065-1
: is linearly encoded, intended to be used for long term storage of footage.ACEScc
: is log encoded, intended to be used for footage to be color graded. (This option may be useful if you using MBR Color Corrector to correct the footage, and some other method to grade the footage afterwards).ACEScg
: is linearly encoded, intended to be used for compositing with computer generated footage.ACESproxy
: is log encoded, intended to be used for transport only. (You probably never need to select this output option).
The ACES2065-1
uses the AP0
color primaries, the other
ACES options use the AP1
color primaries.
The Various Camera Log Standards
You can encode the footage in any of the various supported camera manufacturers log standards.
RGB Primaries, White Point
You almost certainly want to avoid editing these options...
The CIExy
control shows where the RGB Primaries and White Point
sit in the
CIE 1931 color space.
These diagrams are commonly found in the specifications / descriptions of the
various standards, for example the
Rec 709 page on wikipedia
includes one in top right.
You can change the values for where the red, green, blue and white point are
by editing these eight values. As you edit them the CIExy
section
will update to show the new color space, and the Target
card will
update to match (if it is a reference card).
Export LUT
The Export LUT
option will save a .cube file that performs the
same color correction as the effect. There are several reasons why you may
want ot do this:
- You have multiple sets of footage that you wish to apply the same color correction to (for example a multi camera shoot, or a shoot with controlled lighting).
- You'd like to generate a LUT to load in to a production monitor.
- You wish communicate a particular look to someone (your color grader), who may not be using Adobe programs.
The Export LUT
option is only enabled in the full version of
the plugin.