Last week I shipped the first Newsletter with the new redesign. This week, I'm shipping the Newsletter with a tweak to its name. While Tao Colorist was cutesy and served for 8 years...

It didn't match my website. Plus, a simple search on the word 'colorist' offers up a dozen hair colorists before you get to digital colorists.

> aside: It's always funny when you meet a woman at a party and see how her eyes light up when you say you're a 'colorist'. If I was single, I'd get some mileage out of that line!

I thought about re-naming this Newsletter the Tao of Color Correction Newsletter... but correcting is the boring part of the job (even if it's the most important). Nope.

Color Grading.

A Color Grader is the complete digital colorist. From balancing, to shot matching, to look creation. From client management to time management, a color grader is a skillful artisan who has put in the time, repetition, and elbow grease that comes from specialization.

The work I do on this Newsletter (and with Mixing Light) is designed to nurture the next generation of digital color graders - and support the current generation.

The re-named Tao Of Color Grading Newsletter greets you this morning with a big Hello and...

Happy Grading!!!

See you next week.

- Pat Inhofer
  Colorist | Publisher | Mentor

A pithy article of pull-quotes from longer interviews. It covers key decisions from camera selection to color grading challenges. (premiumbeat.com)

Light on workflow details - but a good overview on the production & post-production for this original series trying to keep a very 'real' look. Mastered in Dolby Vision - so one to check out if you've got a Dolby Vision TV at home. (postperspective.com)

An interesting list of the most-requested new features by Avid users - from a poll they did earlier this year. Enhanced color grading tools made both the Top 5 overall requested feature as well as the Top 5 for Media Composer, specifically. Click through to find out the pending release time frame of these features. (studiodaily.com)

[forum] The great thing about color grading is how there are so many answers to the same problem. In this thread, the complicated (but cool) answer arrives first. Then... DOH! (liftgammagain.com)

A friend of the Tao (and Orlando neighbor) has a solid primer on the terminology of these important terms that are in broad usage but commonly confused. (digitalfilms.wordpress.com)

[forum] This post, in a longer (somewhat related) thread, lays out current delivery requirements for the major streaming platforms. I thought you'd find it interesting. (liftgammagain.com)

A good review of three different paid lens flares 'systems'. (jonnyelwyn.co.uk)

[video] A pithy and useful tutorial for Finishers and Colorists who sometimes need to jump into Premiere but aren't conversant in it. This video shows you how to find a clip's usage if you're browsing media folders. (premierebro.com)

Pomfort provides a useful primer about on-set metadata. It defines metadata' and describes the different types of metadata worth capturing. If you're new to the DIT craft then read this and start thinking about how to capture it; your colorist will thank you. (pomfort.com)
 

CineDeck is *the* solution if you want to insert edit on rendered ProRes exports - without doing a complete re-render. But how does it work? I just found this explanatory page. But I don't know that it really clears things up - and probably raises more questions than it answers. But interesting to read and think about. (cinextools.com)

[forum] A few interesting answers are provided to a frequent finishing task. (liftgammagain.com)

Yeah. I made this mistake when setting up my Microsoft 360 account last year. And I'll be following along with this article to undo it. (pugetsystems.com)

The thing that caught my attention here: DJI, the drone company, has been added. If you're in an ACES workflow, you might suddenly be fine with those integrated cameras. Possibly? (postperspective.com)

[video] I've always had mixed feelings about Compound Nodes in Resolve. They're great for organizing. But annoying to navigate into and out of. Colorist Dan Moran provides us much needed perspective on a powerful reason to use them much more actively. Call it: Object Oriented Color Correction. Cool. (mixinglight.com)
 

[video] I didn't realize that Adobe rebuilt Premiere Pro's 'video limiter effect' until colorist Jason Bowdach posted about it this week. The question he's asking: Can this software limiter shine where so many have failed before - protecting against Gamut excursions that normally fail QC? (mixinglight.com)

[video] Are you looking for ideas on programming your El Gato Stream Deck or Razer Orbweaver to speed up color correcting? Get some tips about focusing your efforts to reduce 'mouse travel' - increasing your productivity. (mixinglight.com)

[podcast] Flanders Scientific is shipping it's highly anticipated XM310K - a 31 inch DCI 4k 3000 NIT HDR mastering monitor with 12G connectivity (whew... try reading that out loud). Recently, Robbie Carman got a chance to talk with FSI CEO Bram Desmet about HDR & the XM310K. (mixinglight.com)

An integrator posts a warning about file copy failures to specific Glyph external 3TB drives. They've narrowed down the types of copies that initiate this failure... and it's the type of files and folder structures used by media professionals. (pugetsystems.com)

[forum] It's a nice decision to be forced to make - choosing between Blackboard control surfaces. And the answers are interesting. (liftgammagain.com)

[forum] Are you having trouble remembering your button layout for your control surface (while sitting in a dark room and can't read the labels)? Of all the solutions offered here, I like Marc Wielage's the best. I have serious questions about the CRI of other proposed solutions - messing up your color perception. (liftgammagain.com)
 

[forum | video] Are you looking for new ideas on midi controllers or gaming keypads to control your editing or color grading software? You'll find a few interesting ones in here. Plus a video on programming an XKeys knob. (liftgammagain.com)

Does that 8086K look familiar to you? If you're of a certain age, it does. And if you're building a home-brew grading system, should you buy this 40th Anniversay edition CPU - with a premium price? That's what the review asks... and answers. (anandtech.com)

Last week I linked to two items about this Intel beast of a new CPU. More details have emerged about the computer specs driving the CPU (and the benchmarks derived from it). (anandtech.com)

I'm a Mac-head who switched to Windows because my rig needed to be upgraded and I couldn't wait for Apple. This pithy (for AnandTech) article edumacated me on BIOS, motherboards, and CPU ugrades in a way I understood. If you're in my boat (still getting up to speed on PC building terminology) then you may find this article useful. (anandtech.com)

[video] Adam Savage gives you the ultimate Sunday fun(ny) to do with your kids. Or spouse. Using the ultimate Nerf toy as the building base. Enjoy! (tested.com)

Two OS variants are tested: In the Mac OS (where the game was built) and in Boot Camp running Windows 10. Which gives you better performance? Are the results fun, funny, or infuriating? I guess it depends on your set up but I think I'm going to put down my coffee and do me some Tomb Raider bench-marking... (barefeats.com)

[video] It's just too cool watching the embedded behind-the-scenes video from Microsoft. The rationale is something like, "Because we can". Fun. And yes, funny. (jnack.com)

Pullquote: "this phone is meant to be one piece of a modular system of cameras and other media creation equipment." Right. So... WTF? Click through & read the article. But, I'm still not grokking it. (displaydaily.com)