Master Stage
The Colorista II tools are organized into three stages of color correction. This page covers the final Master stage, which has additional refinement controls with Exposure, Density, 3-Way, Saturation, HSL and a terrific fine tuning Curves control. The first stage is Primary and the second stage is Secondary.
Keyboard shortcut: Press Cmd+3 on Mac [Ctl+3 on Win] to twirl open the Master group, and twirl closed Primary and Secondary.
Master Exposure
Exposure stretches or compresses the Red, Green and Blue channels. Exposure is good for setting the overall brightness of the image. You can use the 3-Way Highlight control to similar effect, but you may already have used it to adjust white balance. Use Exposure when you want to add brightness compensation after adjusting the other correction controls. Read more here.
Master Density
Density shifts up or down the value ranges for the Red, Green and Blue channels. This tool allows you to reset the color range that you are using. Primary Density is more for larger shifts while Secondary and Master Density are best used to fine tune areas. Read more here.
Master 3-Way
The three color wheels adjust the Shadows, Midtones and Highlights in your image. These wheels are traditionally called Lift, Gamma and Gain. The 3-Way wheels operate in HSL space (Hue, Saturation, Luminance). Read more here.
Master Saturation
The Saturation slider raises or lowers the colorfulness or intensity of color of your footage. Value range is –100 to +100%.
The default value of 0% does not affect the saturation of your image. Lower values drain color from the image, making it closer to grayscale. Higher values add color intensity and causes your image’s color to become more bold. Be careful when using this parameter as a high Saturation can make colors look too pure and artificial-looking.
Master HSL
The HSL tool lets you grab the color you want to adjust, and move it toward the color you want it to become. HSL is spilt into two color wheels that together define Hue, Saturation and Lightness. Each wheel has eight different color channels, along with numeric entry option, that provide a very refined HSL adjustment. Read more here.
Master Curves, RGB Curves, Red Curves, Green Curves, Blue Curves
Four groups of Curves parameters give you precision control over smooth contrast and color adjustments. There are individual controls for adjusting the Red, Green and Blue channels as well as all RGB channels together. The RGB Curves, in particular, are good for the power user or color finisher. Curves provide a quick way to boost colors or get a film-like contrast in the image. Read more.
Master Power Mask group
The Power Mask generates a rectangular or elliptical shape-based mask to qualify or isolate an area. The Power Mask group has many tools that are useful for a power user or professional colorist. For instance, use the mask to add a gradient filter to a sky or vignette when used in combination with Exposure and 3-Way controls. Read more here.
There are two Power Masks, one in Secondary stage and one in Master stage. Use them separately or in combination for powerful effects. The mask is perfect for qualifying a change to a face when used with the Secondary Keyer.
Master Mix
The Mix slider is a refinement control that sets the interaction between the original image and the Primary correction stage. Value range is 0 to 100%. Default setting is 100%, which means the Master correction is fully applied. Lower values make the Master correction less visible. At 0%, the Primary correction is effectively turned off.
Mix gives you very fine control over how much a stage contributes to the overall correction. Let's say that you have added a lot of contrast with your Master correction. Instead of having to turn down each of the controls in that stage, you can lower all of the controls at once by lowering the Mix.
There is a Mix control in each stage of correction. By controlling the transparency or strength of each stage, the user can back off the effect to provide for more subtle color correction. This provides for greater flexibility in combining and adjusting the three stages.
Master Bypass checkbox
The Bypass switch similarly turns off all the controls in the Master stage. Turned off by default (unchecked). By activating Master Bypass, you are passing over the color correction of the Master stage. This makes it easier to evaluate the Colorista results as you work.
Bypass also lets you solo a correction stage. For instance, if you bypass the Primary and Master stages, then you have effectively solo'ed the Secondary stage, meaning you are only viewing and using Secondary. Like the Mix control, the Bypass switch provides for greater flexibility in combining and adjusting the three stages.
Keyboard shortcut: Press Cmd+Option+3 on Mac [Ctl+Alt+3 on Win] to toggle on/off Master Bypass.