Math & Colour Science for Colourists (MCSC)

2026‑03‑03

OUTLINE

The material will be presented in 12 sessions, roughly as follows:

FUNDAMENTALS

  • questions & axioms: Dirk [most important piece of equipment], Charles [Axiom Zero, “reproduction”], Troy [stimulus, sensation, cognition; image formation]
  • fundamentals & terminology; radiometry & photometry; units of light;
  • RGB/CMY mixtures (why the usual colour mixing diagrams are wrong); idealized additive RGB; mosaic & Bayer [RGB cube; visualization]
  • photon path; sensels, pixels, subpixels; perceptual uniformity;
  • the “‑nesses”; CIE metric lightness \(L^*\); bit depths

CLASSIC COLORIMETRY

  • from spectral distribution to tristimulus values;
  • LMS, CIE XYZ, [x, y] chromaticity (why the classic CIE [x, y] plot is misleading)
  • RGB; white point, CCT; affine transforms (eg between primary systems);
  • colourspaces; luma; colour difference systems; LAB;

MATH (I)

  • notation; functions; linearity & nonlinearity; \(y = A·x + B\)
  • vectors; 3×3 matrices; introduction to linear algebra (“channel mixer”)
  • computing fundamentals & tools (W|A, python);
  • algebraic & numerical approaches; estimation/optimization

DISPLAY TECH

  • various display technologies including LCD, OLED, QD‑OLED, Xe and laser projectors;
  • display signal processing; EOTF
  • CONTRAST & BRIGHTNESS (and a 75‑year‑old terminology problem)

IMAGE SIGNAL CODING

  • digitization; sampling & quantization;
  • full/legal range;
  • SDI, HDMI;
  • luma & colour differences; chroma subsampling; 4:2:2; \(Y’C_{\mathrm B}C_{\mathrm R}\), \(I’C_{\mathrm T}C_{\mathrm P}\)
  • LUTs: 1D, 3D; technical & creative LUTs; interpolation (eg, trilinear, tetrahedral)

MASTERING, METADATA, DISTRIBUTION

  • fundamentals of HDR & WCG; colourspace summary
  • colour calibration;
  • metadata (incl. colr, nclc/nclx, gama, and “Rec. 709‑A”); delivery

MATH (II)

  • perceptual uniformity refresher;
  • log, exponential, and power (gamma) functions;
  • bit depth; stops & density units; LV & EV; optical density; Beer’s law;
  • gamma & log coding; OpenEXR; floating point; Barten’s “curve”; PQ; HDR10; HLG;

PHOTOCHEMISTRY & DENSITOMETRY

  • photochemical film: H & D, D-log E;
  • classic colour timing;
  • OCN//IP//IN//RP; printer lights (“points”);
  • Cineon/CPD/DPX;

SENSOR & CAMERA TECH

  • OETF; camera spectral constraints, Luther/Ives condition; introduction to metamerism
  • gamut, gamut mismatch, gamut mapping;
  • IDTs/CFMs; why “colour correction”/CCM is the wrong terminology for cameras

COLOUR APPEARANCE

  • appearance attributes;
  • Axiom Zero; classic HD pipeline;
  • chromatic adaptation (eg, Bradford); hue uniformity;
  • colour appearance models including CAM16, T-CAM, \(J_{\mathrm z}a_{\mathrm z}b_{\mathrm z}\), OpenDRT;
  • display mapping, \(I’C_{\mathrm T}C_{\mathrm P}\)

COLOUR PIPELINES & ACES

  • HD; scene referred and display referred pipelines;
  • modern cinema pipeline;
  • ACES 1.x & 2.0 (OETF//OETF⁻¹//LMT//DRT//EOTF⁻¹//DM//EOTF)

COLOUR GRADING

  • modern grading: “video” and “film” grading;
  • grading controls (lift-gamma-gain-offset; exposure, saturation, “temperature”);
  • node graphs; LUTs; formula transforms; ctl, OpenColorIO

For registration details, see the main masterclass page.