Silly doubt

[fredjeang]

Hi,

Maybe you'll find that silly, but I post it anyway.

I wonder if the color of the application windows affects the perception of the image, specially when grading.
I've just asked myself this question tonight while passing from RedCineX, wich is totally black, to a NLE with 50% grey.
The perception changes and I tend to be less agressive when the app windows and bg are blacks.
I tend to have all my softwares with 50% neutral grey.
 
Do you think that the color of the application influence the way we grade?

Is it according to you something to take into consideration?
 

[Christopher Sanderson]

Not so silly!

Undoubtedly the immediate area surrounding the monitor where you are grading, affects your perception of colour and relative brightness. Necessarily the window of the application should follow the same rules.

In the old days of CRTs, the grading room was necessarily very dark and the surround black. This compensated for the relative lack of brightness of a CRT.

However today with good RGB LCD or plasma screens which are very much brighter, a dark room with a black surround is much too dark. Many would argue for low ambient daylight (no direct light) and a neutral gray surround to the monitor. Thus a 20-40% neutral gray for app windows is also optimal.

Video is today little different from photography in this regard. Coincidentally to your question, I am about to add a segment to Camera To Print and Screen on exactly this topic. I should have it available this weekend

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Video color grading is usually done full screen - with two monitors - one for the software and one full screen.

Black or grey backgrounds are okay - some companies make monitors that have black borders, others are grey (different tones and texture) - the important thing is to have a room that does not have varying light throughout the day, or from cheap lighting sources, fluctuating voltage, etc. The difference between these backgrounds is within the acceptable range in the video and film world. The reason for this is that the delivery viewing atmosphere+space+device+gamma is wildly varying - one of the reasons HD video was 'happy enough' with Rec. 709 (which is close to sRGB and PAL).