Magic Bullet Colorista V

3-Way Correction: Shadow, Midtone, Highlight

The 3-Way controls change the color of the image’s shadows, midtones, and highlights, which correspond respectively to the color grading concepts of lift, gamma, and gain.

The 3-Way controls for color balance and luminance.

Shadow wheel
Shadow sets the black level in the footage. Add density or darkness with adjustments to Shadow color. Raise or lower shadow levels with its luminance control. Offset the color balance in shadow regions with the Hue Point. Moving toward any of the colored regions pushes the color balance toward that color, shifting from unsaturated at the center to completely saturated color at the edge.

Midtone wheel
Midtone changes the midtones in the footage, shifting the middle tones to be darker or brighter. For instance, to make an image warmer, move the Midtone dot toward the yellow/red area of the wheel. The more it's moved to the wheel’s edge, the warmer the image becomes.

Highlight wheel
Highlight sets the white level in the footage. The Highlight wheel will brighten and tint the entire image, but it mostly affects highlights.

Anatomy of the color wheel

Each color wheel is divided into hue, saturation, and luminance controls.

• The Hue Point control adjusts hue and saturation together.
• The Hue Shift control adjusts hue only.
• The Luminance gradient band rests along the right of each wheel.
• The Saturation gradient band rests along the left of each wheel.

The Hue Point control and the Luminance slider combine to set the target color.

 

Hue Point control

The Hue Point control is a dot inside the wheel. The Hue Point always appears as a 100% saturation version of the selected color.

Hue Point is a two-dimensional control because it affects both hue and saturation. It moves along the hue and saturation axes.

Hue Shift control

The Hue Shift control is a chip on the outskirts of the wheel. As Hue Shift, which defaults to red, moves around the wheel, it rotates the Hue Point dot along the center of the ring. The chip always reflects the exact color that it sits over.

Hue Shift is a one-dimensional control because it simply moves along the Hue axis. This control adjusts the hue of the selected color without changing its saturation. This allows finer control and makes calculations more accurate. For instance, say you’re working with skin tones and the saturation appears correct but the hue is wrong. Hue Shift lets you only change the hue without touching the saturation.

Left: Adjusting the Hue Shift control to change hue without affecting saturation. Right: Adjusting the Hue Point control.

Saturation Shift control

The Saturation Shift slider is a color gradient with a white chip. Its value range is from 0% to 100 percent. The default value is 0 percent. Move the chip upwards to increase the saturation of the color being affected. Move it down (toward gray) to decrease that color’s saturation.

When its chip is in the gray area, saturation has gone toward white at the same luminance level. When all the way at the top, the color is at full saturation. Moving the Saturation Shift slider moves the Hue Point dot in a corresponding fashion, along the axis of the most saturated to least saturated point of the same color.

Saturation Shift is a one-dimensional control because it only moves along the saturation axis. Double-click the slider to reset its value.

The Saturation Shift set high (left) and low (right).

Luminance Shift control

The Luminance Shift slider is a grayscale gradient with a black chip. The value range is from 0% to 100 percent. The default value is 0 percent. Move the chip upward (toward white) to increase the image’s brightness level. Move the chip down (toward black) to decrease brightness.

Luminance Shift is a one-dimensional control because it only moves along the luminance axis. Double-click the slider to reset its value.

The Luminance Shift set high (left) and low (right).

Getting around the wheels

Here's some basic guidance and tips about working with the various color wheels:

• The Hue Point dot moves very slowly as you click and drag. The extra sensitivity allows for more subtle adjustments to help concentrate on visually changing the image.
• To move the dot to a specific location, click once in the wheel in a location that is distant from the control dot.
• The wheel's center area is mapped so that saturation moves very little as it shifts from the circle's center toward its edge. Visually, the wheel shows a linear change from white to fully saturated, but the saturation is not mapped linearly with change in position. This makes it easier to make relatively subtle color changes while getting good visual feedback.
• Double-click the Luminance Shift or Saturation Shift slider to reset its value.
• Double-click inside the color wheel to reset the whole wheel.

How midtone/gamma is calculated

The midtone calculation protects changes in shadows and highlights. When shifting midtones, many other correction tools inadvertently lift the shadows and clip the highlights at extreme values.

Colorista's midtone calculation uses a little toe at each end of the gamma curve that prevents it from making changes to the absolute white and absolute black points. The gamma does a mathematically smooth curve, so the gamma change gives you a smooth result in the shadows and highlights while protecting them from data loss and radical adjustment.

At left, a regular gamma is typically clipped at its white and black points. At right, our midtone calculation blends at either side of the gamma.

Numeric entry switch

Numeric Entry is an alternate way of looking at the 3-Way values. Click the switch icon to bring up an RGB display of the shadow, midtone, and highlight values. These are helpful for setting precise colors.

• Each of the nine colors corresponds to a color dot in the wheels.
• Numbers can be scrubbed to reach a value. However, the numeric value can't be typed in.
• Double-clicking a number resets its value to 0.