Gamut
Bit Depth
Color Space
White Point
Wavelength—
Frequency—
Energy—
Hex—
Peak Cone—
Section 02 — Color Gamut
CIE Chromaticity Diagram
The map of all colors perceivable by the human visual system — and the impossibly small triangle where your screen lives.
Click anywhere in the diagram to identify a color's gamut coverage and approximate RGB values.
Legend
sRGB (standard displays)
DCI-P3 (cinema / iPhone)
Rec.2020 (HDR broadcast)
Planckian locus (blackbody)
Most colors in nature cannot be displayed on sRGB screens. The entire horseshoe shape represents perceivable color — sRGB covers only about 35% of it. DCI-P3 covers ~45%. Rec.2020 covers ~75%.
White balance markers D65 (6500K — daylight), D50 (5000K — print standard), 3200K (tungsten) are points on the Planckian locus. Moving between them is what "warming" or "cooling" an image does.
Section 03 — Transfer Functions
Gamma Curve Sculptor
The hidden math that maps camera sensor data to display pixels — and why LOG footage looks "flat."
LOG footage thumbnail preview:
LOG curves compress highlights and shadows — the "flat" look is intentional. The camera records enormous dynamic range into a narrow data range so it survives post-production. A Rec.709 curve bakes contrast in-camera, permanently discarding shadow and highlight detail.
The 45° diagonal is the "honest" line — input equals output, no tone mapping. Any curve above the diagonal lifts shadows. Any curve below compresses them.
Section 04 — Video Scopes
The Scopes Suite
Professional colorists trust the scopes, not their eyes — especially on poorly calibrated monitors.
Reference scene — click a zone to highlight it in all scopes:
Lift raises or lowers the black point. Gamma reshapes midtones without touching blacks or whites. Gain stretches the entire tonal scale from the white end. These three controls appear in every professional grading system.
Waveform Monitor (Luma)
Vectorscope (Hue + Saturation)
RGB Parade
Histogram
Professional colorists trust the scopes, not their eyes on a poorly calibrated monitor. The waveform tells you exact luminance values. The vectorscope tells you color direction and saturation. The parade shows channel balance. The histogram shows tonal distribution.
Section 05 — Log vs. Rec.709
Log Land
Your camera recorded this detail. The LOG curve preserved it. A JPEG would have discarded it forever.
LOG (left): Flat, desaturated, dark. The scene information is all there — compressed into the middle tones. Rec.709 (right): The same data after a LUT is applied — proper contrast, saturation, gamma. The scrubber shows intermediate grades. In the highlight stress test, watch the sky outside the window: LOG preserves it; Rec.709 blows it to white.
Section 06 — LUT Visualizer
LUT Constructor
A LUT is a 3D lookup table. Every possible input color maps to an output color. The cube IS the LUT.
LUT Preset:
Apply in order — order matters:
→
Toggle the order to see how wrong-order grading breaks the result.
The cube IS the LUT. Each dot's position represents an input color (R,G,B axes). Its display color represents the output. When the cube is identity, every color maps to itself. When a LUT is applied, the dots shift — the cube warps. This warp is exactly what happens to your footage.
Apply technical LUT first (LOG→Linear conversion), then creative LUT (look). Applying in the wrong order is like color grading a shadow on the wall instead of the actual scene.
Section 07 — Skin Tone Clinic
Skin Tone Clinic
Human skin tones across all complexions cluster in the same narrow zone on the vectorscope. When skin falls off this line, something looks wrong — even if you can't name why.
The skin line is a diagonal line running approximately from the 10 o'clock to 4 o'clock position on the vectorscope. All human skin tones — across every complexion — cluster near this line. When they stray: too green (sick), too magenta (sunburned), too saturated (cartoon). Shift the hue slider past ±20° to see the uncanny valley effect.
Section 08 — Film Look Generator
The Film Look Generator
Approximately what colorists do in DaVinci Resolve in the first 15 minutes.
LOG Input
Camera LUT
Shadow Lift
HL Desat.
Film Grain
Vignette
Film Look Output:
Pipeline stages:
1. LOG Input — Raw flat footage from camera
2. Camera LUT — Converts LOG to display gamma with correct color
3. Shadow Lift — Film blacks never reach 0 (lifted to ~5%)
4. HL Desaturation — Bright areas lose saturation (film characteristic)
5. Film Grain — Additive noise overlay for organic texture
6. Vignette — Radial darkening at edges, focuses attention
Turn all stages OFF to see raw digital footage. Turn them ON one-by-one to understand what each stage contributes. The difference between "digital" and "cinematic" is this stack of small, precise decisions.
Section 09 — The Craft & Its Practitioners
Artists of Color
The people who built the visual language of cinema — and the vocabulary they speak.
Glossary
20 Terms Every Colorist Knows