General Workflow for Making Color Corrections
Avid Color Correction gives you a great deal of flexibility when you make color corrections. The exact workflow that you employ will depend on your individual methods, your degree of familiarity with the color correction controls, and the requirements of your project. However, the basic steps to take when making a correction will be similar for all users.
The following procedure outlines a typical color correction operation. You can adapt the exact order in which steps are performed or repeated to conform to your particular needs.
To color correct a sequence:
1.  In editing mode, load the sequence.
2.  Do one of the following:
  Select Toolset > Color Correction.
  Press Shift+F8.
3.  (Option) If necessary, configure the toolset and adjust Correction Mode Settings to suit the requirements of your project and editing style. For more information, see Main Topics: Understanding Color Correction Mode.
4.  Preview the material in the sequence to develop a sense of the kinds of corrections that are needed and the approach you will use to make them.
For example, you might look for a shot that you would like to use as a reference for your adjustments and lock that shot in one of the monitors. For general guidance on what to look for when previewing material, see Main Topics: Color Correction Techniques.
  Some users might prefer to preview extensively and plan their corrections in advance. Others, especially those with more color correcting experience, might work by moving back and forth frequently between making corrections and assessing the material on which they are working.
5.  Make sure that the Record Track button for the track on which you want to make corrections is the topmost selected button in the Track Selector panel in the Timeline.
You can color correct any number of tracks, including nested tracks by stepping into the nest. However, you can correct only one track at a time. Color correction is applied to the topmost selected track in a sequence.
6.  Use the Composer Window buttons or the position indicator in the Timeline to move to a segment you want to correct.
7.  Click the appropriate tabs in the Color Correction tool to display the controls you want to use to make the correction.
8.  Use the automatic color correction features or adjust the color correction controls manually until you are satisfied with the correction.
Remember that you can repeat steps 7 and 8 to make successive adjustments using several different groups of controls and to selectively turn them on and off while you assess their effect on the segment. You can use the Dual Split button in the monitors to view corrected and uncorrected images side by side.
9.  (Option) Add a comment for the correction.
10.  Repeat steps 5 through 9 for each segment you want to correct.
11.  When you are satisfied with the corrections throughout the sequence, make a selection from the Toolset menu to exit Color Correction mode and return to other editing operations.

Some features described in Help are available only in Avid Xpress Pro or Avid Xpress DV. For more information about Avid Free DV go to
www.avid.com.