Based on past experience, I was expecting a fat book with big margins and big type and loads of anecdotes and callouts with a blank page on the other side, so when it arrived, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that it was small and densely-packed with info. It isn't necessary for the reader to filter very much noise in order to get the signal.

Color Correction starts off with the history of the technology and then gives an overview of color theory and the science of perception, which I found relevant and smoothly written. If you are more how-oriented than why-oriented, you may not appreciate this use of such a big chunk of the book, but I appreciated it. The anecdotes from the pros are there, and they are fluffy (different clients have different working styles and you have to stay open-minded? You don't say!) but it doesn't get out of hand. There is a good overview of the scopes and monitor calibration (as good as the FCP manual), and some background about Ansel Adam's Zone system, from which so many ideas about the representation of light levels in photographic reproduction have evolved, and then the remainder of the book consists of precise explanations of color correction techniques in a way that can be applied to the user's own platform. It is charmingly and clearly written, covers almost everything that I was personally wondering about (secondary, washes, spot correction, "pushed" looks, keying effects, exposure fixes, etc.) and it has pretty good color pictures. You may occasionally find yourself peering at two of the color prints and wondering what subtle difference they are meant to illustrate, but for the most part the color printing is up to the task at hand. There is a useful glossary and the indexing is sufficient.

So what wasn't ideal? I think this book would be enhanced by one long chapter consisting of nothing but recipes for different popular secondary looks. Yes, I want theory and technique, and yes, if I understand theory and technique I will be able to make my own looks and to reverse-engineer any look I see. For me, that's a completely unrelated issue to whether it would be great to be able to occasionally open up a book and read a one-page-long step-by-step to a particular secondary look. If I was working with a pro, I would have an opportunity to watch her apply her preferred color corrections to footage and ask practical (rather than theoretical) questions, and having access to that kind of immediate "here's what I'd do" info is one of the reasons that people buy these books. On the whole, it is a good reference and an enjoyable read. If you don't care about getting secondary correction recipes and can live with its inflated price, there is a lot here to appreciate.