Creatively Manipulating Node-Based Color Space and Gamma Tags

I think that if using these techniques and saving to a lut for display purposes that ( in my testing ) changing single nodes actually doesn’t transfer to the lut – I just tested the offset and the ACEscc and the shadow change doesn’t get sent to the lut. I am going to test some things but – I know I had previous problems with LAB before that raising the lift or gamma with the LAB gave a teal/blue to the shadows, but again in a LUT from that – the LAB didn’t seem to transfer.
All this is fine, as long as people are aware of it. I think the different color spaces and gammas doesn’t transfer.

Thanks, Cullen! So much fun under the node hood. I am going to need to try ACEScct and LAB contrast.

One that is quite common and worth mentioning for new colorists is using HSV color space saturation (disable channels 1 and 3 and using the Gain slider). For added effect, HSV saturation in combination with a commonly sold density DCTL (adjusting red and yellow) is a great combo – at least for the film I just finished.

Nice summary Cullen. Just a little side note for everyone – remember that if you ‘reset node’ it will wipe out any changes you have made to the colorspace/gamma/channels options for that node. It’s a bit of a gotcha if you forget!

Are the primary wheels actually color space aware? I thought ACEScc worked so well with offset because it is built so that offset operations worked cleanly with it, so to speak by definition.

Great question Simon! Short answer is no, but it’s worth noting that Color Space Aware can be a bit of a confusing term. Essentially Color Space Aware means you’ll get the same results regardless of your operational color space, whereas “Color Space Unaware” means you’ll get different results depending on your operational space. That’s why offset behaves in differently in (for example) ACEScc vs LogC3. Hope this helps!

The LAB space for Y only adjustments just solved an issue I’ve been having. I love SAT adjustments in HSV. I love the density, but sometimes the exposure shift makes things a bit darker than I want. I can tweak that with this adjustment in an adjacent node. There may be a simpler way to do this, but this is really working for me right now. Thanks, Cullen, for demystifying these very cool features. I was always put off by the Color Space and Gamma pulldown menus. They’re not so scary now!

Yeah, I like this HSV for Sat, I’d only really messed with HSL sat before. Thank you for this. With all of these, you’ve got to keep a keen eye out for enhanced noise. Interestingly, I found that pulling the gamma down a little in the 2nd channel (where G=S now) actually desaturated the mid/high and helped a bit with the noise from the shadows.

Thanks for this insight! I was playing around and it seems to me that offset in ACEScc and the offset in the HDR panel are the same. From a color science standpoint, is that correct?