› ›kelbyone.com123Advanced Color Control and Color Toning
Review by Steve Baczewski
Four Reference Color Targets in a Clamshell
Review by Erik Vlietinck
X-Rite ColorChecker Passport Video
Early HDR software gave photographers a process to combine
bracketed exposures of a scene and maximize the dynamic range
otherwise too wide to be captured by a single exposure. Sadly,
the results were often garish, lacking subtlety, and left a vacuum
for a more photorealistic look.
A collaborative effort between Macphun and HDR maven
Trey Ratcliff, Aurora HDR Pro has arguably the most powerful
comprehensive toolset on the market, providing users with a cre-
ative license to roam from the otherworldly to photorealistic. This
Mac-only Pro version works as a standalone and as a plug-in for
Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, and Elements.
Much of the Aurora interface will look familiar. The slider
names are appropriately descriptive; however, some sliders have
levels of complexity with fine distinctions, so I’d suggest users
might benefit by reading the manual and watching website video
tutorials, including an hour-long video with Trey Ratcliff.
Aurora Pro supports all the popular proprietary RAW formats,
and you can drag-and-drop files on Aurora’s splash screen or
export them from your image editor. Initial processing includes
options for ghost reduction, alignment, and chromatic aberra-
tion. Five 42-megapixel Sony RAW files took two minutes to
In December, X-Rite released its ColorChecker Video range of
products, including the ColorChecker Passport Video, which uses
a clamshell design with four targets rolled into one. It integrates
with Color Finale, a professional color grading plug-in for Final Cut
Pro X by Denver Riddle.
The ColorChecker Passport Video has a white balance target,
a 40 IRE midtone gray patch, a color target, and a focus target.
The color target has six chips specifically designed to align with the
color axis on a vectorscope.
The workflow is simple. Before you start your actual take or
shot, you place the ColorChecker for a couple of seconds some-
where in the frame facing the camera, making sure the reflective
black patch doesn’t reflect into the lens.
When everything’s been done correctly, you can shoot your
clip as usual. In postproduction you can now correct colors using
the card as a reference tool. The card makes the correction pro-
cess a lot easier because you’re dealing with primary colors.
The whole process becomes really efficient when it’s inte-
grated with your video editor, such as with the Color Finale plug-
in for Final Cut Pro X. In color grading apps, such as Adobe’s
SpeedGrade, you miss out on this user-friendly integration. Even
process. There are 38 wide-ranging presets for use as a point
of departure, but Aurora’s power is in its vast toolset. Edits can
be done globally or selectively. Key features include luminosity
masks, advanced tone mapping, a sophisticated layers section,
blend modes, masking, brushes, and image detail enhancement.
A histogram tracks your every move.
Although I found using the split screen before-and-after mode
very practical, I hope the next version of this software will include
a history feature or an option to save snapshots for versions worth
further exploration. While you can dial it way up stylistically, Aurora
HDR Pro is great with creating a balanced, natural HDR look. If you
create HDR images, Aurora Pro is well worth looking into. ■Macphun’s Aurora HDR Pro
then, it’s easier to get colors right using the target and the soft-
ware’s vectorscope.
For DaVinci Resolve (Blackmagic Design), a Color Match feature
will soon integrate with the ColorChecker, while other apps will
integrate the ColorChecker in their correction workflow as well.
The white balance and 40 IRE patches allow you to improve
the color preview on your camera’s display so your histograms are
more reliable. The focus target helps with edge focusing; how-
ever, users of cheaper lenses will benefit less with this target than
others because of moiré problems.
The company also offers a large ColorChecker Video for stu-
dio work. ■› ›^ GET THE SCOOP^ ON THE LATEST GEARCompany: X-Rite, Inc. Price: $149
Web: http://xritephoto.com/video-targets Rating: ◆◆◆◆◆
Hot: Form factor; lightweight; 4-in-1
Not:Company: Macphun Software Price: $99
Web: http://www.macphun.com Rating: ◆◆◆◆
Hot: Multiple export options including social media
Not: No history or snapshot feature