FL BL QG 0663 ColourSpaces

Baselight
Grading Workflows with

Truelight Colour Spaces
Version 4.4m1
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Baselight
Product Version: 4.4m1
Document Reference: FL-BL-QG-0660-ColourSpaces
Document Version: 2.0
Modified: 14/04/2015 15:53
FilmLight 2015
Contents
Contents
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Colour management in grading

Multiple camera types
Choosing the right grading environment
Multiple deliverables
From camera to screen
Colour space conversions from Baselight 4.4 onwards
Terminology
Chapter 2 - Grading workflows
Introduction
Film grade
Constructing a film grade workflow
Telecine grade
Video grade
Special considerations with ARRI RAW, Sony RAW and RED R3D
Special considerations when mixing media
Chapter 3 - Grading with Truelight Colour Spaces

Creating a new scene
Setting up the cursor view
Importing footage into the scene
The data colour space
Setting the default data colour space strategy
Changing the data colour space of sequences
Chapter 4 - More information
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Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces
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Contents
Introduction
1 - Introduction
From Baselight 4.4,Baselight uses Truelight Colour Spaces to provide the colour space
infrastructure.
This provides for a more rigorous colour space description than the previous format colour
space functionality. Italso allows Baselight to handle natively most of the colour
management operations that formerly required LUTs or Truelight profiles.
This approach can dramatically simplify most workflows as well as improve rendering
accuracy and system performance.
You may have come across this technology previously described as Generalised Colour
Spaces, referring to the fact that it is a general, extensible infrastructure for colour
transforms.

There are three places where colour management can play a role in a grading workflow:
Balancing shots from different source (usually camera) types.
Choosing the right grading environment (to accommodate a specific grading

workflow).
Creating deliverables for different displays.
These problems have traditionally been approached in different (and unconnected) ways,
and it is worth understanding them in order to see how Baselights new infrastructure
seamlessly encompasses both scenarios.
Multiple camera
types
It is now quite common to mix source material from different types of camera in the same
scene, and although you can use grading tools to balance out the peculiarities of each
input type, many people feel that their workflow is more efficient if the source data of a
shot is converted so that it appears somewhat balanced and consistent with other shots
before they start the grade.
As a colour management problem, this requires knowledge of both the physical
characteristics of the camera sensor and the cameras internal digital processing, but
historically only the latter (known as the transfer function) was easy to obtain. Using only
transfer functions, a simple, one-dimensional tone-mapping transform can be
constructed and this was the original basis of Baselights format-based colour spacesany
source material with a format whose transfer function differed from that of the working
format was automatically converted using a 1D LUT derived from the combination of the
functions. Such tone-mapping conversions are crude in that they can only provide an
adjustment of exposure and contrast, so balancing hue and saturation was a laborious
additional grading task. Note, however, that the use of implicit conversions using formats
Introduction
was particularly convenient as there was no requirement to externally construct a LUT or

Truelight profile for the task and there was no risk of using the wrong transform (provided
the formats were declared appropriately).
In recent years, camera manufacturers have derived and published more detailed
characterisations of their devices, so we can now describe, with a certain degree of
accuracy, how camera output values relate to the scene colours as observed by an eye.
With a suitable three-dimensional transform mechanism (as in Truelight Colour Spaces),
data from one camera can be converted into values that mimic the output of another
camera, so shots can be balanced more effectively.
Raw data
Source A code values

e.g. ARRI LogC
Appearance at scene
Appearance at scene
Source B code values
e.g. Sony S-Log2 S-Gamut
To grade
Figure 1-1: A transform to convert between camera colour spaces is composed of two
camera characterisations (traditionally limited to one-dimensional transfer functions)
Choosing the right

grading
environment
In a grading workflow, you should give special attention to the working colour space as this
choice dramatically affects the way the grading system reactsthe same colour
modification will produce a different result for different working spaces.
In the past, the working colour space was defined by the acquisition medium (for example,
logarithmic printing densities) or the delivery medium (for example, a CRT display). By
applying the grade before or after a Look Up Table (LUT)or not using LUTs at allthe
working colour space was chosen implicitly. This hidden way of selecting the grading
environment resulted in a lot of miscommunication and mistakes.
In a modern grading workflow, we might also deal with different input and output sources.
So which environment is the right one to choose for the creative colour decisions?
In fact, a modern working or grading colour space might not be related to the input or
output colour spaces at all. Historically, we were lucky that some capture and display
colour spaces were somehow well-designed for colour grading, but with the freedom of
digital image processing we can build and choose a colour space that is specifically
designed for grading.
Introduction
Multiple
deliverables
In a classic video grade scenario, the material is graded onand primarily delivered for
a standard display so there is often no requirement for any colour transforms in the
workflow. There is, however, an increasing requirement to provide extra deliverables for
other display systems like DCI or the web, and in this case a conversion transform is applied
during the render. The transform, traditionally in the form of a 3D LUT, is constructed from
two distinct parts: one to describe the way the grading display has turned its input code
values into visible colours, and the other that describes how to generate the same visible
colours on the target display system. This kind of separation effectively defines colour
management and it usually falls to a sophisticated tool like Truelight to construct the
transform from the two colour space descriptions.
Graded image
Grading display code values

e.g. Rec.709
Appearance on display
Deliverable display code values
e.g. DCI XYZ
Rendered image
Figure 1-2: A colour transform used to render data graded on one display to values for
another display is constructed from descriptions of how each display creates visible colours
In the film grade methodology (described in more detail in the following chapter), the
colour correction operations are applied to high dynamic range data (usually log) with a
viewing transform always applied last during the grade. This transform is also traditionally
implemented as a 3D LUT that is constructed by combining two descriptions: how the high
Introduction
dynamic range data ought to appear (to the eye) on a screen, and how the destination
display creates visible colours. In this case the grading display often does not represent the
deliverable display system, so a compatible render transform needs to be used.
Graded image
Graded image
Source code values
Source code values

e.g. ARRI LogC
e.g. ARRI LogC
Grading display code values

e.g. P3
Display
Deliverable display code values

e.g. DCI XYZ
Rendered image
Figure 1-3: In a film grade, the viewing transform (represented on the left) and the render
transform (represented on the right) need to assume the same description of the visible
appearance of the graded data; they differ only in their display descriptions
In all cases, rendering for different display systems invariably involves mapping data to a
different colour gamut and this demands a three-dimensional approach. Until recently,
the only way to efficiently apply a general, three-dimensional transform has been with a
3D LUT. Since this mechanism is effectively an interpolated approximation of the
underlying functions, it always results in some degree of numerical error. Moreover, since
the LUTs do not have metadata to identity the spaces that they connect, their application
has always been a manual, and error-prone, process of selecting the transform from a list.

It would be easy to suppose that a viewing transform for a given camera is a straight
combination of the transform that characterises the camera and the transform that
describes the behaviour of the display. There is, however, a subtle but important extra
step that is crucial for understanding how camera data is normally processed.
Whenever scene colours are translated directly to a display scenario, which is normally
much darker and viewed in a darker environment, the image tends to appear washed out
or less colourful, and the clipping of highlights due to the limited display gamut appears
unnatural. For this reason, all systems that interpret camera values into a display space
effectively incorporate an extra transform to compensate for these effectsand in
Baselight, it is referred to as the Display Rendering Transform (or DRT). While different
systems approach the problem in a similar fashion (usually incorporating some contrast
enhancement and highlight roll-off) there is no accepted correct solution and opinions
vary as to what constitutes an optimal render.
Introduction
In most situations where this transform is applied the details are hidden amongst other
parts of the processing. For example, traditional video cameras will apply it as part of their
internal data processing so that the output is screen ready, and emulsion print film
effectively has display rendering engineered into its physical properties. Modern digital
cameras that have a high dynamic range output format (usually some form of log) do not
impose a DRT but may have a recommended transform (usually a LUT) to convert the data
for a given display, and this will usually include display rendering.
When the transform for viewing high dynamic range camera data is a supplied LUT, we can
extract the DRT using knowledge of the camera properties and the destination display. We
can even deconstruct a classic film emulation transform using a model of the way camera
negative turns scene colours into emulsion dye densities.
Raw data
Source code values

e.g. ARRI LogC
Scene-referred colour space
Appearance at scene
Appearance at scene
Display Rendering Transform
Display-referred colour space
Display code values

e.g. P3
Display
Figure 1-4: Converting from a scene-referred (camera) colour space to a display space
involves a Display Rendering Transform to make the images look pleasing in typical viewing
conditions
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is developing a workflow
structure that explicitly defines the DRT as a separate transform. Since it converts from
their reference colour space (called ACES) they have dubbed it the Reference
Rendering Transform (RRT).
For any of the colour management problems described in this section, the required
conversion can be from a high dynamic range scene-referred colour space to a displayreferred colour space, and wherever this happens we can use a DRT (either an explicit one
like the Academys RRT or one derived from a conversion LUT) as part of the conversion.
Introduction

From the release of Baselight 4.4, Baselight instigates colour space conversions in the
same places that it did in previous versions. The main differences are:
In almost all places where a format is declared, the colour space can be declared
independently. (From Baselight 4.4m1 onwards, the colour space information is
removed from the formats entirely.)
The colour space definitions are generalised to three-dimensional functions, which

allows them to be used for all of the common conversions required for rendering
deliverables and also for a more thorough (that is, including hue and saturation)
treatment of data from different cameras.
Colour spaces are identified as being either scene-referred (for the high dynamic
range spaces, such as the camera log forms) or display-referred, and when a
conversion between these domains is required a Display Rendering Transform
(specified in the Scene Settings View) is also included.
If you look at the list of Truelight Colour Spaces in Baselight you will see that ones
that apply to scene-referred data are shown with a camera icon whereas the displayreferred ones have a display icon:
Scene-referred colour space
Display-referred colour space
Figure 1-5: Icons for scene-referred and display-referred colour spaces
The old Video and Log colour spaces, while still useable in old scenes, are somewhat
deprecated since they do not relate to any modern systems (but were derived from
the contemporary visual effects and telecine practices). It is worth familiarising
yourself with the new colour spaces, which should be more relevant to your
workflows.
If you do continue to use the legacy colour spaces, note that they are assumed to use
Rec.709 (sRGB) primaries.
The internal implementation of Baselights colour conversions, which is now based on

invertible functions rather than LUTs, should substantially improve accuracy and
performance compared to using Truelight profiles for the same workflow.
Introduction
The following table and notes describe the advantages of using Truelight Colour Spaces for
colour space conversions over format-based spaces and Truelight profiles.
Baselight 4.3 format
colour spaces
Truelight profiles
Truelight Colour Spaces
Connectivity
(implicit conversions)
Tone mapping
(exposure and contrast)
Gamut mapping
(hue and saturation)
LUT-free GPU render

(fast and accurate)
The format-based colour spaces in Baselight prior to version 4.4 conveniently applied
implicit colour conversions where different formats were declared, but the space
definitions were not general enough to provide the kinds of conversions applicable with
LUTs. Truelight is fully general and flexible, but profiles need to be applied explicitly in the
right places and, since its render mechanism is a 3D LUT, it can introduce precision errors.
The Truelight Colour Spaces combine the connectivity of the format-based colour spaces
with the flexibility of Truelight profiles, and also add an advanced render mechanism.
Introduction
Terminology
Terminology
Like any specialist system, Baselight uses some of its own terminology to describe specific
objects and functions. To avoid potential confusion, the following is a brief explanation of
some key terms used in this guide.
Term
Description
Cursor view colour space The colour space that is declared in the Cursors panel. In general, this should match the
behaviour of the grading display.
Data colour space
The colour space that an input sequence is identified with when it is imported into the
scene. The initial colour space that is assigned to each input sequence is determined by
the Default Input Colour Space option in the Scene Settings View.
See Importing footage into the scene on page 27 for more details.
Display Rendering
Transform (DRT)
A DRT is automatically included in a colour space transform whenever image data needs
to be mapped from a scene-referred colour space into a display-referred one.
See page 25 for a description of the DRTs supplied with Baselight.
Display-referred colour
space
A colour space that characterises the behaviour of a display in terms of the code values
sent to it. Display-referred colour spaces are identified by the
icon.
Format
The format provides a way for Baselight to store information about a sequence itself
such as the frame rate or pixel aspect ratiothat is not stored within the individual
image file.
Grade result colour

space
This option is provided for advanced grading operationsit allows you to declare the
colour space at the end of the grading stack to be something other than the working
colour space.
In general, it should be left at its default setting (From Stack).
Legacy colour space
Any of the colour spaces in versions of Baselight prior to Baselight 4.4: Log, Linear
or Video.
Scene-referred colour
space
A colour space that characterises the behaviour of a camera in terms of the way it
captures scene colours as code values. Scene-referred colour spaces are identified by the
icon.
Sequence operator
The details of this operator are displayed in the parameter control panel when you
select an input layer in the timeline; it includes fields such as such as the name, duration,
input format and colour space of the input sequence.
Working colour space
The colour space in which grading operations are applied.
Grading workflows
Introduction
2 - Grading workflows
Introduction
In the previous chapter we outlined the different places in a grading workflow that could
require or benefit from a suitable colour transform. In order to take advantage of
Baselights colour management infrastructure it is important that you understand the
colour spaces involved in your preferred workflow. This will help you make the right
choices when you set up a new scene, when you import data into your scene, and when
you render.
As mentioned in Chapter 1, the places where Baselight instigates a colour space conversion
have not changed with the modifications introduced in 4.4, but the nature of the
conversions is different and the colour spaces are no longer bound to formats. As a
reminder, here are the main places where conversions can take place (illustrated in
Figure 2-1 on the following page):
Between the sequence input and the working colour space.

The Sequence operator has controls to define the format and colour space of the
imported data (the input), and also one to specify the format and colour space that
is assumed for the subsequent grading operations (the output). In most cases the
output is left at the default, which is the working format (and colour space) specified
when the scene was created. When the input and output colour spaces differ, a
conversion is applied.
Between the working space and the cursor view colour space.
After the grade operations in the timeline are applied, a number of cursor
operations may be applied from the Cursors panel. The colour space of the cursor
view may be set to reflect the colour space of the display and if this differs from the
working colour space of the sequence (which is usually the working colour space of
the scene) then a conversion is applied.
Between the working space and the render output space.

The Render Manager allows the colour space of the render output to be specified in
same way as for the cursor view, and the same rules apply.
10
Grading workflows
Introduction
Data space
Sequence operator
Working space
Cursor view
Display space
Render Manager
Render
output space
Figure 2-1: Colour space transforms (shown in green) in a grading workflow

In the following sections we describe the most common workflows in terms of the colour
spaces mentioned here. You might like to skip to the workflows relevant to you, and in
order to do so it can help to understand how we distinguish the three main methodologies:
Film grade
The source data is in a high dynamic range form (usually some form of log) and a
viewing transform (traditionally a LUT) is used at the cursor in order to present a
normal view. The grade operations are applied in the high dynamic range space and
rendering a deliverable usually requires burning in of a transform.
Telecine grade
The source data is in a high dynamic range form (usually some form of log) but there
is no viewing transform applied at the cursor. The colourist starts from the washed
out log-style image and adds contrast and saturation. The grade itself can be seen
as a transform from the high dynamic range data space to the low dynamic range
colour space of the viewing display.
Video grade
On input, the data is converted to the display colour space. The data is viewed and
manipulated without a viewing transform on output. The working colour space
usually matches the grading display colour space. The grading display usually
represents the primary deliverable so there is no requirement for a cursor transform
or for a transform to be burnt in during render.
Note that this naming convention only reflects traditional workflows and in no way
precludes using a film grade workflow for a video project or a video grade for a film project.
Grading workflows
Film grade
Film grade
This kind of workflow is often chosen when the projects source data is either in camera
RAW or is otherwise in a high dynamic range colour space, most often a form of log.
Traditionally the working colour space was set to match the source data, so there was no
conversion required from the sequence input. Now, with mixing different cameras, this
practice has become deprecated. The working colour space can be chosen from a creative
standpoint. The data is converted on input from the data space into the working colour
space. With Truelight Colour Spaces, these transformations are done with high-quality,
formula-based floating point operations so there is no loss in image quality. At the cursor,
traditionally, you would apply a Truelight profile or LUT to show the normal view, but
from Baselight 4.4 you can produce the same effect with an appropriate colour space
conversion without using a profile or LUT. This has the advantage that there is no need for
alternative versions of the LUT in order to render for different deliverables.
Data space
(scene-referred)
Data transform
Working space
(scene-referred)
Data view transform
Display space
(display-referred)
Figure 2-2: In a film grade, the working colour space is scene-referred and a viewing
transform is required at the cursor
Baselight constructs the viewing and rendering transforms according to the colour space
conversion rules outlined in the previous chapter. Since, in this case, they invariably
convert from the scene-referred (working) colour space to a display-referred colour space,
the transform will include the Display Rendering Transform that is specified in the Scene
Settings (described in Chapter 3 - Grading with Truelight Colour Spaces) and this effectively
defines the preferred data view for the project.
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Grading workflows
Film grade
It is important to re-emphasise the freedom of choice with this view. In a traditional print
emulation project, the source data space (scanned log) and view space (that of the digital
projector) would be fixed but the choice of recorder, printing lab, and film stocks would
ultimately determine the data view. Just as one choice of film output parameters (the print
stock, for instance) was no more correct than another, the choice of Display Rendering
Transform is also a matter of preference, but some combinations may be more familiar
than others. Here are some examples:
ARRI Alexa LogC film grade
Data colour space:
ARRI: LogC/Wide Gamut and various scene-referred
Working colour space:
ARRI: LogC/Wide Gamut
Display Rendering
Transform:
ARRI Photometric v2
When the cursor view or render output colour space is either Rec.1886: 2.4 Gamma/
Rec.709 or DCI: 2.6 Gamma/P3 DCI, the data view transform that Baselight generates
automatically is the same as the corresponding photometric LUT that you can download
from the ARRI web site. Using Baselights colour management is therefore a particularly
convenient way to follow ARRIs recommended workflow with the added advantage of
being able to render to (or view in) colour spaces that are not offered in ARRIs LUT archive.
Moreover, any non-ARRI shots brought into this scene can be converted to LogC in the
Sequence operatora feature not possible without the Truelight Colour Space
conversions provided in Baselight.
ACES log grade
Data colour space:
Various scene-referred
ACEScc: ACEScc/AP1
Display Rendering
Transform:
ACES RRT 1.0 Dark Surround or Dim Surround (depending on

the display colour space being usedsee page 25 for details)
The ACES reference space effectively describes a virtual, ideal camera. Although the ACES
scheme often only refers to this space in the context of a linear representation (which is
useful for CGI and VFX), in grading it is common to use a variant space that has a (more
familiar) logarithmic transfer characteristic. Therefore, the Academy developed a
logarithmic space called ACEScc. To follow the naming convention in Baselight, it is called
ACEScc: ACEScc/AP1.
Note that in this workflow the source data will not, in general, be in the working colour
space, but since the Truelight scene-referred colour space definitions are based on the
Input Device Transforms as described in the ACES scheme, conversions to the ACES
reference space (the working space, in this example) follow the ACES recommendation.
Similarly, since the display-referred spaces use the same descriptions as the Output Device
Grading workflows
Film grade
Transforms (also part of the ACES scheme) the resulting transform from the working to the
cursor view or render output colour spaces, via the RRT, also follows the ACES
methodology.
Traditional print emulation grade
Data colour space:
FilmLight: Printing Density Log/~ADX
FilmLight: Printing Density Log/~ADX
Display Rendering
Transform:
Truelight Film 1
Scanned film would normally be considered to be in a colour space called printing density
log. To mimic a classic DI workflow for your film scans, you could declare the data space
as FilmLight: Printing Density Log/~ADX. This is a slight modification of the ACES ADX
colour space. The working colour space for a film scan-based workflow can also be set to
FilmLight: Printing Density Log/~ADX.
The transform from FilmLight: Printing Density Log/~ADX to a display space via the
Truelight Film 1 Display Rendering Transform, as would be instigated on the cursor in this
workflow, gives a classic print emulation based on real characterisations of modern film
recorders and stocks. If you have used FilmLights Truelight film calibration service to
characterise a particular film output, it is possible to build this into a custom DRT for your
workflowcontact FilmLight Support for further details.
Note that a print deliverable is an unusual output because the display rendering is
achieved with a physical process instead of a computation. Consequently the Baselight
render output space (for the recordable files) is left as FilmLight: Printing Density Log/
~ADX and no transform is burnt in.
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Grading workflows
Film grade
Constructing a
film grade
workflow
These examples are a very small subset of the film grade possibilities, and when
considering the many types of camera data it can be difficult to see which choices might
optimise a workflow and which are just preferences. Here are some guidelines:
You should consider choosing a working colour space that is designed for colour
grading operations, and this colour space should also be in sync with the Display
Rendering Transform that youre using.
For example:
If the working colour space is...
...use this Display Rendering Transform
ARRI Photometric v2
ACEScc: ACEScc/AP0
ACES RRT 1.0 Dark Surround or Dim

Surround (depending on the display colour
space being usedsee page 25 for details)
The working space can affect the way your image reacts to the grading controls.
Since the log spaces are all similar, the differences between using them as working
spaces are quite subtle. The linear scene-referred spaces (like ACES Linear), on the
other hand, are significantly different and will usually feel too unfamiliarthey are
not recommended for the working space.
The ADX Log and FilmLight: Printing Density Log/~ADX colour spaces have complex
definitions and should only be chosen as a working space if the majority of the
source data is scanned film. The definition of this space is based on the ADX to ACES
transform published by AMPAS and is effectively a crude model of the way a typical
emulsion film camera stock works. The complexity of the transform reflects the
complexity of this modelling problem, and colour space conversions between
ADX Log and other scene-referred colour spaces can be computationally expensive
and therefore compromise performance. The FilmLight: Printing Density Log/~ADX
colour space has been developed by FilmLight to produce smoother results in
most cases.
The Truelight Film 1 DRT was designed for both film scans and modern digital
cameras. It will introduce a pleasing filmic colour reproduction. If the majority of
footage is film scans then FilmLight: Printing Density Log/~ADX is a good choice for
the working colour space. If the majority of material comes from a digital sensor
then a digital-based working colour space should be considered (like ARRI: LogC/
Wide Gamut or ACEScc: ACEScc/AP1).
A DRT derived from a camera manufacturers recommendation can be used with any
source data. If, for instance, you had a project comprising mostly Sony S-Log2
S-Gamut data then using the ARRI Photometric DRT is a perfectly valid choice (the
Baselight distribution doesnt include any of the Sony look profiles as DRTs
currently, but note that the one referred to as LC-709TypeA is almost identical to
ARRI Photometric).
Grading workflows
Telecine grade
If you have a particular viewing LUT that you like to use it can usually be
incorporated as a custom DRTcontact FilmLight Support for assistance.
Alternatively, you can apply your LUT with Truelight in the traditional manner. To do
this, add the Truelight operator to the Baselight timeline; you then need to set the
Grade Result Colour Space in the Scene Settings View to match the output colour
space of the Truelight operator (see page 25).
For example, if you use a Truelight cube in the timeline (within a Truelight operator)
to convert data from ARRI LogC to P3:
Data colour space:
Grade result colour

space:
DCI: 2.6 Gamma/P3 DCI
Display Rendering
Transform:
None
It is possible, and valid, to choose not to use a DRT at all. In this case your starting
view might initially appear to be less colourful than youd like and the highlights
might clip more harshly, but you can make use of your grading tools to correct for
these effects in your own way.
Telecine grade
A common grading workflowmostly found in episodic TV and commercialscomes from
the outdated telecine tape-to-tape workflow. Historically, the acquisition material was
film negative digitised on a telecine machine. Initially the telecine was designed to output
a low dynamic range signal compliant with Rec.709, but telecine engineers modified the
electronics of the telecine to output a log-style image that preserved all dynamic range.
This image was the starting point for the colourist. There was no viewing transform
involved, as there was no need to produce a print-out on film. The colourist introduced
contrast until the image looked pleasing to them.
A modern adaptation of this workflow can be achieved with Truelight Colour Spaces too,
but taking advantage of the technical colour conversion on both input and output.
In order to accommodate this, the grade result colour space was introduced. This setting
allows you to declare a different colour space for the input and the output of the Baselight
timeline. Truelight Colour Spaces will convert any data colour space to the working colour
space, and will also convert from the grade result colour space to any other display
colour space.
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16
Grading workflows
Telecine grade
Data space
(scene-referred)
Data transform
Working space
(scene-referred)
Grade
Grade result space

(display-referred)
Data transform
Display space
(display-referred)
Figure 2-3: In a telecine grade, the grade result colour space is display-referred and
converts from the working colour space to the display colour space
Grading workflows
Telecine grade
LogC-based telecine setup

Data colour space:
ARRI: LogC/WideGamut
Grade result colour

space:
Rec.709: 2.4 Gamma/Rec.709
Display Rendering
Transform:
None
Cursor colour space:
Various display-referred
This setup converts each input into a log-like high dynamic range ARRI: LogC/WideGamut
colour space. The output of the timeline is declared as a monitor-compliant Rec.709 signal.
It is then converted to the actual cursor colour space, such as Rec.709: 2.4
Gamma/Rec.709. If no grade is applied the log-style image is sent to the display.
Whether or not a colour space is suitable as working colour space depends on the actual
design of both the tone curve and the set of virtual primaries. In practice, the following
colour spaces have a very similar design:
Sony: SLog3/SGamut3.Cine
RED: REDLogFilm/RedColor2
Panasonic: V-Log / V-Gamut
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18
Grading workflows
Video grade
Video grade
Traditionally, the source for video grading was material shot with a video camera whose
output was processed in-camera to look good on a video display. The colourist would
work with a high-quality video display and apply grading operations in the same space so
there was no requirement for colour space transforms at all.
Data space
Conversion to working display space
Display space
(display-referred)
Figure 2-4: In a video grade, the working colour space is display-referred and usually
matches the grading display; a conversion from the data space may be applied in the
Sequence operator
Modern digital film capture and distribution has blurred the distinction between video and
film, and many video colourists have adapted their approaches accordingly. It is common,
for instance, to simply work with a wide-gamut display, like P3, in order to create a film
deliverable. In this case there is usually a requirement for a colour transform for rendering
a secondary deliverable (like HD video).
Video grading, by definition, means grading in a display-referred colour space. Nowadays,
cinematic cameras can capture more dynamic range than a typical display can represent
(which is why they are called HDR cameras). When grading in a display-referred colour
space the DRT is applied on input conversion, reducing or compressing the dynamic range.
If you work with an HDR wide gamut cinema camera, we recommend that you use one of
the other two grading workflows (Film grade or Telecine grade). If the input is already in a
low dynamic range display state, the video grading workflow should be considered.
If you still want to grade in a display-referred colour space in combination with high
dynamic range cinema cameras, FilmLight has developed a special Display Rendering
Transform (Truelight Video 1), which brings the material into a display-referred image
state but still maintains a sensible range of contrast and saturation range, suitable for
further colour grading.
Grading workflows
Video grade
Truelight Video 1 video grade

Data colour space:
Various scene and display-referred
Same as grading display (e.g. Rec.709: 2.4 Gamma/Rec.709 or

ACES: 2.6 Gamma/P3 D60)
Display Rendering
Transform:
Truelight Video 1
Using no DRT is also a valid approach to converting source data and can be seen as a simple
enhancement to the tone-mapping methods afforded in previous Baselight versions (as
described in Chapter 1). This will not provide any highlight roll-off but because the
underlying transforms are fully invertible there is no loss of information. In other words,
any data that appears to be clipped initially can be recovered with a suitable grade.
No DRT video grade
Data colour space:
Various
Same as grading display (e.g. Rec.709: 2.4 Gamma/Rec.709 or

ACES: 2.6 Gamma/P3 D60)
Display Rendering
Transform:
None
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20
Grading workflows
ARRI, Sony and RED have adopted a methodology with their RAW data packages whereby
the colour space of the data, once it is available to a subsequent process, is effectively
determined by the selected decoding parameters. Baselights Sequence operator cannot
automatically work out the correct colour space to assume with an arbitrary set of decode
options, but considering that the operator subsequently converts to the output colour
space (normally the working colour space) Baselight can automatically force an
appropriate decode.
For instance, suppose Sony F65 RAW data is brought into a scene with the working colour
space ACES: Cineon Log/ACES. We could choose to decode as ACES/Log and declare the
input space to be ACES: Cineon Log/ACES, or we could decode as S-Log3/S-Gamut3 and
declare the input space to be Sony: S-Log3/S-Gamut3. In the first case the Sequence
operator does not invoke a conversion since the input and output spaces are the same,
while in the second case the decoded data is subsequently converted to ACES: Cineon
Log/ACES. Nevertheless, in both cases the values output from the Sequence operator are
the same, so there is little merit in having the freedom to choose the decoding parameters.
From Baselight 4.4, the Sequence operators input colour space includes a convenient
Automatic option that effectively takes control of the decoding (the parameters become
disabled in the Decode operator) in order to output the data directly in the sequences
output colour space.
This option is generally advised for all workflows.
Grading workflows

Mixing scene-referred and display-referred data in a scene can produce unexpected
results because of a mismatch of the display rendering treatment. For instance, you may
have a Rec.709 video grade scenario with some ARRI LogC material and some Rec.709
video material from a different camera. The display rendering treatment for the LogC data
is determined by your DRT Scene Setting, but the video material will not invoke a
transform as it is already in the working colour spaceits display rendering has already
been done by the camera that shot it and it is likely to be different to the ARRI Photometric
approach. In other words the shots will probably not appear to be balanced. In the vast
majority of cases, the display rendering treatment for source data that is already in a
display-referred space cannot be known so the shots must be balanced in the grade.
The problem is more pertinent in a film grade or telecine grade scenario since it is easy to
allow Baselight to convert any display-referred source material to the scene-referred
working space in the Sequence operator. Not only is it unlikely that the scenes DRT (which
is used in the computation) matches that used in the cameras processing, but also the
application of an inverse DRT can sometimes cause artefacts. With Truelight Colour
Spaces, the inverse DRTs have been improved to minimise this problem. If you consider
that the forward function (used to convert high dynamic range data to a limited range
display space) usually involves some degree of highlight compression, the function is lossy
and you cannot expect to be able to recover 100% of the high dynamic range data from
the compressed form. When including display-referred data in a film grade it is therefore
worth considering changing the grading colour space for the display-referred shots only by
setting the sequence stack colour space to be the same as that of the primary grading
device (usually the cursor colour space). That way, you are effectively reverting to a video
grade for just those shots.
21
22
Grading workflows
Grading with Truelight Colour Spaces

3 - Grading with Truelight Colour Spaces

The following sections describe how to set up a new scene in Baselight and bring footage
into the timeline with the correct colour space(s), as well as how to view your grade on a
specific type of display.
Note that there are many different ways to set up a colour grading workflow; this chapter
explains how to select the options that correspond with your chosen workflow, as
described in Chapter 2 starting on page 9.

The following steps will ensure that you have considered all the initial settings:
1
Open the Job Manager and create a new scene.
When the New Scene window opens, type in a name for it.
Working colour space setting
Figure 3-1: New Scene window

3
If the default Working Format is not what you want to use for this scene, tap the
Working Format list and select one of the available formats.
Select a format with an appropriate frame size and frame rate for your project.
If the default working format does not specify the colour space you want to grade in,
tap the Working Colour Space list and select your preferred grading colour space.
The choice of working colour space affects several aspects of the sceness colour
treatment so it should be selected carefully according to your preferred workflow; see
Chapter 2 for information about selecting the right working colour space.
Baselight 4.4m1 introduces scene templates, which allow you to pre-define the scene
settings including the input and working formats and colour spaces. This makes it easy
to be consistent with the choices that your chosen workflow requires. For more
information, see the Baselight User Guide.
5
Once the new scene has been created, close the Job Manager.
23
24

Before you add any footage and start grading, you need to set up your display rendering
treatment (as described in Chapter 2):
6
Open the Scene Settings View by selecting it from the Views menu or pressing
<Ctrl><S> on the keyboard.
Select the Format & Colour tab.
Check the Display Rendering Transform setting near the bottom of the panel. If
necessary, tap the list and select the one you want to work with.
Figure 3-2: Display Rendering Transform button in Scene Settings

The Display Rendering Transform (DRT) is used in conversions between scenereferred colour spaces and display-referred colour spaces (see From camera to
screen on page 4 for more details).
If you created the scene using a template, Baselight makes an initial assumption
about the DRT to use. For example, if you select the ACES Setup template, the DRT is
automatically set to ACES RRT 1.0; if you select the Telecine template, the DRT is set
to None.

Baselight currently supplies the following DRT options:

Option
Description
None
No DRT is applied.
ACES RRT 0.1.1//1.0
Specific versions of the ACES RRT.

The Academy has introduced a render intent in RRT 1.0 for dim surrounds and dark
surrounds; for this to be fully compatible with Truelight Colour Spaces, Baselight includes
two DRTs to accommodate both of these intents:
ACES RRT 1.0 Dark Surround

This DRT should be used in combination with theatrical display colour spaces like
DCI: 2.6 Gamma/DCI P3, ACES: 2.6 Gamma/DCI D60 or DCI: 2.6 Gamma/X'Y'Z'.
ACES RRT 1.0 Dim Surround

This DRT should be used in combination with video display colour spaces like
Rec.709: 2.4 Gamma/Rec.709 or Rec.2020: 2.4 Gamma/Rec.2020.
ARRI Photometric v2
This DRT is derived from ARRIs Photometric conversion LUT.
Truelight Film 1
This DRT is based on a generic print emulation.
Truelight Video 1
This DRT brings the material into a display-referred image state but still maintains a
sensible range of contrast and saturation range.
If you have had a custom DRT created for you, it will also appear in this list; contact
FilmLight Support for assistance if you need a custom DRT.
25
26


To ensure that the correct colour space conversions are applied in your chosen workflow,
it is important that your cursor view colour space corresponds to the behaviour of your
grading display.
To set up your viewing colour space:
1
By default, the Colour Space in the Cursors panel will be set to the scenes working
colour space, selected when you first created the scene.
Cog menu
Figure 3-3: Viewing Colour Space settings in Cursor settings panel

2
If you are using a video grade workflow (as described in Chapter 2), then the
Colour Space should already match your grading display and it should not need to
be changed.
Otherwise, tap the Colour Space list and select the colour space of your display
device.
When working with a video display, you should also take into account your combiner
setting when you choose your viewing colour space.
For example, if your combiner is set to scale your output to video-legal then select
Rec. 709 Video.
4
To use this colour space settings every time the scene is opened, tap the cog menu
at the top right of the Cursors panel and select Use these colour settings when this
scene is opened.
Note that the Colour Space, like the Viewing Format, is set independently for each cursor.


Now that you have created a new scene and set up the grading display you can start to add
footage to the timeline, either manually using the Sequence Browser or via an
EDL Conform.
First, you should take a look at the options available for the data colour space in the
Sequence operator.
The data colour

space
Each input sequence is assigned an appropriate input format and colour space when it is
added to the timeline.
To view the colour space that has been assigned to a sequence, select the input layer in
the timeline. The Sequence operator is usually selected by default as it appears first in the
layer. TheInput list is in the Colour Space section of the operator.
Input colour space list
Figure 3-4: Input sequence colour space options

As well as the colour spaces, this list has several other options that you should understand.
Option
Description
Automatic
This option is only available if the input is either R3D, ARRIRAW or Sony RAW.
If this is the case, then the image data is decoded directly into the colour space of the
declared output format for the sequence (usually the same as the scenes working colour
space). As a consequence, the colour space controls in the RAW Decode operator are not
available. See Special considerations with ARRI RAW, Sony RAW and RED R3D on page 20
for more information.
27
28

Option
Description
From Metadata
This option is only available if the colour space is included in the metadata in the source
material; for example, ARRI ProRes, Sony XAVC and OpenEXR file types all contain colour
space information within their metadata.
No Conversion
The data colour space is assumed to be the same as the output colour space, which
means that no colour management conversion is applied.
The default option that is applied to sequences as they are added to the timeline is
specified in the Scene Settings View; the option that is assigned to each sequence can be
changed later in the Sequence operator. The following sections explain how to perform
these actions.
Setting the default

data colour space
strategy
The default data space for each input sequence is determined by the Default Input Colour
Space option in the Scene Settings View:
1
Open the Scene Settings View by selecting it from the Views menu or pressing
<Ctrl><S> on the keyboard.
Select the Format & Colour tab.
From the Default Input Colour Space list, select one of the following options:
Option
Description
Automatic/
From Metadata
This option makes a best guess at the appropriate colour space, depending on your
source material:
No Conversion
If the input sequence consists of raw digital camera footage such as R3D, ARRIRAW
or Sony RAW, then the Automatic treatment is applied (described above).
If the input sequence contains colour space information within its metadata (for
example, ARRI ProRes, Sony XAVC, Canon RAW and OpenEXR file types), then the
From Metadata treatment is applied.
For all other cases, the No Conversion treatment is applied.
The No Conversion treatment is always applied.

Changing the data

colour space of
sequences
Once you have imported footage into your timeline, you can change the data colour space
manually from the Sequence operator.
1
Select the input layer in the timeline. The Sequence operator is usually selected by
default as it appears first in the layer.
Tap the Input list in the Colour Space section and select the colour space you want
to identify with this sequence.
The options are described in The data colour space on page 27.
To change the data colour space of multiple sequences at the same time:
1
Position the cursor within one of the shots you want to modify and then select all
the input sequence strips to modify.
Enable Grouped Grading by pressing the

button on the Blackboard, <Ctrl><G>
on the keyboard or selecting Grouped Grading from the Edit menu.
Select the Sequence operator in the shot that contains the cursor.
Tap the Input list in the Colour Space section and select the required colour space.
Note that the Automatic and From Metadata modes are only available if they are
applicable to all selected sequences.
The colour space of all selected input sequences is updated.
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30

More information
4 - More information
There are several resources available on our web site to help you find out more about
Truelight Colour Spaces:
Video tutorials
Improvements in Baselight 4.4m1
Effective Colour Management from Production to Distribution
Baselight 4.4: Truelight Colour Spaces & ACES
White paper
Grading Workflows and Truelight Colour Spaces
31
32
More information
www.filmlight.ltd.uk

FL BL QG 0663 ColourSpaces

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Baselight

Grading Workflows with

Colour management in grading

Chapter 2 - Grading workflows

Chapter 3 - Grading with Truelight Colour Spaces

Chapter 4 - More information

Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces

Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces

Colour management in grading

Balancing shots from different source (usually camera) types.

Choosing the right grading environment (to accommodate a specific grading

Creating deliverables for different displays.

Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces

was particularly convenient as there was no requirement to externally construct a LUT or

Source A code values

Choosing the right

Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces

Grading display code values

Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces

Source code values

Source code values

e.g. ARRI LogC

Grading display code values

Deliverable display code values

From camera to screen

Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces

Source code values

Scene-referred colour space

Display code values

Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces

Colour space conversions from Baselight 4.4 onwards

The colour space definitions are generalised to three-dimensional functions, which

Scene-referred colour space

Display-referred colour space

Figure 1-5: Icons for scene-referred and display-referred colour spaces

The internal implementation of Baselights colour conversions, which is now based on

Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces

Truelight Colour Spaces

LUT-free GPU render

Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces

Grade result colour

Legacy colour space

Working colour space

The colour space in which grading operations are applied.

Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces

Between the sequence input and the working colour space.

Between the working space and the render output space.

Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces

Figure 2-1: Colour space transforms (shown in green) in a grading workflow

Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces

Data view transform

Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces

ARRI: LogC/Wide Gamut and various scene-referred

Working colour space:

ARRI: LogC/Wide Gamut

Working colour space:

ACES RRT 1.0 Dark Surround or Dim Surround (depending on

FilmLight: Printing Density Log/~ADX

Working colour space:

FilmLight: Printing Density Log/~ADX

Baselight Grading Workflows with Truelight Colour Spaces

If the working colour space is...

...use this Display Rendering Transform

ARRI: LogC/Wide Gamut