Overview

This article aims to provide general knowledge about Color Control Surfaces. 

If you are looking for more specific instruction on the set up or use of control surfaces in the DPL Suites, please reference the following articles:

Tangent Control Surfaces: Setup in the DPL Suites

Tangent Control Surfaces: Use in the DPL Suites

General Information

Color Control Surfaces aim to make the color correction and color grading experience easier and faster. 

When color grading, we are faced with many different settings and buttons in our color interface that control specific portions of our image. Color Control Surfaces typical feature a combination of trackballs, knobs, and buttons that mimic the settings and buttons in our interface. With a control surface, we can manipulate these settings without having to click around on the software interface. That also means that you can manipulate multiple settings at the same time, which would be impossible with just a mouse. 

Controls

Different manufacturers create different color control surfaces with different layouts and options. In general, most will feature the following elements

Trackballs

Trackballs are rollable balls on the control surface that are designed to mimic the hue settings of the shadows, midtones, and highlights of your image. Underneath these trackballs, optical sensors pickup the movement and send a signal to your software to adjust the hue setting in your software accordingly.

Dials

Dials are larger wheels or knobs that spin on the control surface. Typically, these are designed to control the brightness or darkness of the shadows, midtones, and hightlights. Turning these dials to clockwise will increase brightness and turning these dials counter-clockwise will decrease brightness.

Knobs

Some color control surfaces feature smaller knobs that effect additional values or settings in your software. For example, one knob may turn to adjust the overall color temperature or white balance of your image. Another knob may turn to increase the overall contrast of your image. These knobs vary by manufacturer but can often be customized depending on the device you are using. 

Buttons

Buttons vary greatly by device and manufacturer. Most color control surfaces will feature reset buttons, which allow you to reset the hue and luma changes you've made using trackballs and dials back to the original setting.  Other buttons are often customizable based upon the device you are using. 

Conclusion

Color Control Surfaces are a great investment if you are looking to speed up your Color Correction or Color Grading workflows. In the DPL Suites, we use the Tangent Wave2 surface because it is compatible with both DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro.