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Aphelion

Colour correction and grading in Aphelion Editor

Colour work in Aphelion is node work. A correction is a node you can place anywhere in the graph, so you can grade one branch of a composite while leaving another untouched, key off a corrected signal instead of the raw plate, or apply the same look to several sources by feeding a single corrector.

Primary correction

  • Exposure and contrastLift or lower a shot without clipping highlights, and set the black and white points with a levels control when you need the range pinned exactly.
  • White balanceNeutralise a colour cast by shifting along temperature and tint, which is the usual first move on footage that was shot under mixed light.
  • Hue and saturationRotate hue globally, or push and pull saturation on its own. Vibrance is available separately for the case where you want the muted colours left alone.
  • Shadows and highlightsRecover detail in the ends of the range independently, so a blown sky and a crushed foreground can be dealt with in one node.
  • MonochromeCollapse to greyscale with control over how each colour contributes, rather than a flat desaturation.
  • PosteriseQuantise the tonal range into a fixed number of steps, either as a stylisation or as a diagnostic for banding.

Why grading as nodes matters

In a layer-based editor, a correction applies to a stack, and its position in that stack is the only thing controlling what it sees. In a graph, the correction sees exactly what is wired into it. That difference is what makes it possible to grade a foreground element against the background it will be composited over, rather than grading both and hoping.

It also means a grade can be reused. Because a node's output is an ordinary frame, one corrector can feed several downstream branches, which is how you keep two elements matched without duplicating the settings that matched them.

And because effects accept a mask input, a correction can be limited to part of the frame without a separate node — including a mask produced by a keyer or a roto shape.