Color for Digital Cinema:
Origination, Mastering, and Display

Syllabus

Fundamentals

• Lightness terminology - brightness, intensity, luminance, lightness;
• Contrast, contrast ratio, viewing conditions, and image quality;
• The relative nature of lightness sensitivity;
• The logarithmic optical density measure.

Tone Reproduction

• Perceptual uniformity, and why it leads to nonlinear coding;
• How image data is altered to compensate for viewing conditions;
• Gamma in video, PCs, Macs, CGI, and film;
• Setting the brightness and contrast controls.

Color Reproduction

• Concepts of color - lightness, hue, and saturation;
• Classical CIE colorimetry; spectral and tristimulus reproduction;
• The concept of metamerism, whereby 3 components suffice;
• Additive reproduction, gamut; and the necessity of matrixing;
• Subtractive reproduction, and its unwanted absorptions;
• Limitations of classical color science; shortcomings of LAB and LUV.

Image Coding

• Perceptual uniformity and codeword utilization issues;
• Coding schemes: XYZ, LAB, R'G'B', Y'C_BC_R , log RGB, DPX/Cineon;
• Chroma subsampling - 4:4:4, 4:2:2, 4:2:0, etc.

Film

• Sensitometry (D-log E curves), film gamma;
• Emulsion sensitivities and dye spectral characteristics;
• Film gamut, compared to additive gamut (e.g., HDTV);
• Film timing.

Color Appearance

• Subjective effects: chromatic adaptation, induction;
• Rendering in film, video, HDTV, and CGI;
• Introduction to color appearance models.

Color Management Theory And Practice

• Color transform techniques, and gamut mapping;
• ICC architecture, profiles, and profile connection space;
• Device characterization and calibration.

Charles Poynton - Courses & seminars
www.poynton.com/notes/events/
2004-04-15