Math & Colour Science for Colourists (MCSC)

2026‑09‑13

Following the successful first term of Math and Colour Science for Colourists, which ran March~June for about 50 participants in 3 cohorts, I’ll repeat the course.

I’ll present twelve, 90-minute online sessions: one session weekly, across about three months – so, 18 hours of course time in total, equivalent to about 2.5 work days. Register with a one-time payment, or three (monthly) installments; details below.

Many practising colourists are accomplished in using their colour grading systems; however, there are no textbooks that cover cover the math and science of grading, and available training courses have incomplete – or worse, misguided! – coverage of these topics. Grading of commercials can be done completely visually; but in my opinion, efficient, successful long-form grading requires a solid colour pipeline from DoP to distribution, therefore requires knowledge of colour science and math. In this course, I will fill-in the deep fundamentals.

  • Sessions are expected to include questions and vibrant discussion (with video recording available afterward).

  • A PDF course handout, ~110 pages in total

  • An online forum is available for discussions among participants & instructor

I expect that many people interested are already familiar with, and perhaps have already had training in, a colour grading system (most probably, DaVinci Resolve). What I am offering goes beyond training into education in the principles of colour science as applied to image systems in general – and specifically cameras, displays, and colour grading systems. I’ll teach the fundamentals of techniques that colourists often use without a complete understanding of the big picture. (I will not teach hints, tips, tricks, or user interfaces.) You’ll gain a deep understanding of the building blocks and the pipelines. The course material is directly applicable to Resolve, Baselight, and other grading and on-set systems.

Graphs and equations will be shown and explained. If you have first-year university math: great! You’ll gain a deeper understanding of log coding, the CIE chromaticity diagram, and other things. If you have high-school math, you’ll still follow, and you’ll increase your understanding of how math informs image and color science.

To enable lively interaction, I plan to limit each class to about 30 participants, and generally expect “cameras on.” You’ll be expected to attend the majority of classes. Video recording will be made available after each session for those who are unable to attend, and for those who wish to retain a recording for their own personal use.

An Outline is available.

  • Classes are weekly. (I will defer several November classes, owing to a planned trip.)
  • Cohort 1 will start Tue Oct 20, 20:00 EDT (Toronto); this time is suitable for California (17:00) and Australasia (Wed morn/midday).
  • Cohort 2 will start Thu Oct 22, 12:00 EDT (Toronto); this time is suitable for Europe, UK, and the Americas.
  • Classes will end near the end of January.
  • All cohorts cover the same material. Registrants are free to participate in either cohort.

Registration is at two pricing levels:

  • CAD 1080.00 (equivalent to 90.00/session) for corporations and/or professional full-time colourists;
  • CAD 720.00 for free lancers and independent colourists

If you have any trouble registering, please send email.

Registrants successfully completing the course will receive a certificate and, upon request, be listed on poynton.ca.

WARNING: The presenter is Canadian; colour will be spelled with a “u.”

Charles Poynton is an independent researcher and image/colour scientist based in Toronto. He wrote the book Digital Video and HD Algorithms and Interfaces, now in its second edition. Thirty five years ago, he chose 1080 image rows for HD standards, by which “square pixels” were established for HD and digital cinema. He earned his PhD in 2018 from Simon Fraser University with a dissertation entitled Colour Appearance Issues in Digital Video, HD/UHD, and D‑cinema. He is a Fellow of SMPTE, Colorist Society (CSI), and IMIS (formerly BKSTS). ∎