Q: (I use) photoshop on a powerbook. …. how does it differ from what I've been doing up until now?

Hi, I'm a dp from Israel. I've been previewing colorcorrection/grading on the set for a good number of years using a digital stills camera and photoshop on a powerbook. …. how does it differ from what I've been doing up until now? Please get back to me.

Thanks,
Tobias Hochstein

A: Tobias,
Thank you for your interest in 3CP. Our software has been created as an answer to the particular workflow used in production of TV and feature films. 3CP bridges the communication gap between DPs and telecine colorists.

In Hollywood these days, very few productions see dailies on the big screen; video dailies have become a norm. While production of print dailies is strictly standardized and provides repeatable results in terms of contrast, color and tonal characteristics -- all very important for DP -- in production of video dailies, with different video color spaces, coding, etc. no such standards exist. This leads to a situation when scenes shot with the same exposure, light ratio, etc., often look differently when transferred on different days - a very uncomfortable situation for everybody involved (director, DP, editor, producer, leading actors...).

Unlike Photoshop, our software not only modifies still digital images to emulate film stock and film processing characteristics, but also creates a very precise electronic characteristic of the shot in the form of waveform monitor and vectorscope representations.

The 3CP-color corrected still images are seen by a telecine colorist on the same monitor that he or she sees the neg image on. Mind you, all technical information, a.k.a. metadata (waveform monitor and vectorscope graphs) is also available to the colorist. This combination of an image and data very precisely conveys the DP's intentions. What's more, the colorist can store the transfer information and easily recall the necessary setting as needed.

Needless to say, to achieve the results we produce, we very calibrate the on-set monitor to very closely match the monitor in the telecine suite where the actual transfer is to take place.