Curvemeister > Color pinning
The Perfect Pin Tool - Part 1
Clyde:
I just spent some spare time and money over several weeks making my own tool to quickly and easily get good color pins in my photos and videos. My NLE video editing software (Sony Vegas Pro 8) uses color correction for the highs, mids, and lows. This is pretty normal for NLEs. It's not as easy as CM in Photoshop and I miss it.
I got some Golden paint in neutral gray N5: http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/color/heavybody/colors/1445infopg.php
I also got some of the matt heavy body acrylics in Carbon Black and Titanium White: http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/color/heavybody/mattehb.php
They turned out to be just a bit heavy for painting things. The thick paint leaves brush strokes in it that make for uneven pinning. I had to mix it with the medium and some water to get it thin enough to paint smooth. In hindsight I would get the black and white in this in the future: http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/color/fluid/matfld1.php
As a test, I painted the inside of some oatmeal lids. I glued strips of thin leather between them so they fold up and transport easily. It works pretty well, but I've only done a little testing. It makes it easy to pin the highlights, shadows, and neutral in any kind of lighting. So far I'm very happy with this and a I was going to do a full report. Until...
Clyde:
Today I got a news item on the perfect pinning tool: http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-cb-SpyderCube.php#
This has everything I'm looking for and more. It has the neutral middle gray, the white, the shadow black, and deep black. It even has specular highlight in the chrome ball. It can hang or stand up on just about anything. Something flat would fit in my camera bags a bit easier, but this is small enough that it shouldn't be a problem in just about any bag.
I guess the only thing I don't like is the $59 price. Oh, I know I'm going to buy it anyway; I've been looking for this for awhile now. With CM or even in my NLE, this will make color and exposure correction a snap for any lighting. Before I test it, it sure looks like the perfect compliment to CM.
Thanks,
Clyde
Clyde:
I should have told you that you can get free shipping. Just put "CUBENEWS" into the coupon code when you are ordering and you will get that $15 discounted. Sorry about that - if you've already ordered. Oh, that's only good until April 30th.
I've ordered mine. It's due to ship 03/30/09. The order form says "Country of Origin: China". I don't know if that is just where it was made or if it's being shipped from there. We'll see.
Clyde
Greg Groess:
yikes..!
Don't go licking the paint Clyde...
Clyde:
I got my SpyderCube yesterday and ran a quick test today.
A couple of notes:
* It is pretty small. The cube sides only measure 1.5". It shouldn't be any trouble carrying. It also comes with a nice soft carrying bag. However the specular highlight is pretty small.
* The stand has a female tripod mount in it.
* The absolute black spot is really a hole to the hollow inside. The whole inside appears to be in some flat black paint. It really does stay black at any angle.
Here is my test file:
http://lugh-clyde.home.comcast.net/pictures/Clyde's_Color_Test.psd
I left the layers in a Photoshop file so you can play with it too. If you want the pins for the Golden paints, they are here:
http://lugh-clyde.home.comcast.net/pictures/Other.txt
OK, there is also a pin to a Pantone thumbdrive that I have.
Keep in mind that I shot these all in JPEG; that is all the Canon HV-20 will do in still photo mode. My experience with JPEG capture is that you can't quite get all your colors as accurate. If you pin all those B-M paint chips, it just doesn't look right. For JPEG capture, you need as few pins as possible. Otherwise, the curve gets too crazy and the colors go off. That's one reason why I'm trying to work with just a black, white, and neutral gray. That's also why the pinning in the lower right has off colors in the paint chips.
I really like it so far. I think this will be the perfect pinning tool. Well, for me anyway. I'll edit my video test tomorrow.
Clyde
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