Pictures Instruments, a software company that focuses on color correction and grading tools, releases a new version of Color Cone – available as a stand-alone application as well as an Adobe Premiere and After Effects plugin.



Color Cone has been launched a few years ago as a stand alone color grading software, which allows colorists to grade and export LUTs in a simple and innovative way, by using a bicone instead of the traditional color wheels.

The bicone method


Color Cone was an entirely new concept for color correction as well as the creation of looks. The method is based on an HCL–color model, visualized in the form of a bicone. As explained by Picture Instruments:

The HCL– color model is not as common or as widespread as for example the HSV model, but much more suitable for photo editing. It offers several advantages since shadows and highlights possess almost no chroma in this color model. 100% black and 100% white generally have no saturation even if other models allow for this. Even similar colors in various positions as they occur in the upper and lower part of a color cylinder are excluded in the HCL-model.
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Since this might sound complicated, watch the video below to clear some things up.


The new Color Cone version – Plugin for PP and AE


This new version includes some improvements of the stand alone product, but the main upgrade is that this version can run as a plugin for Adobe Premiere and After Effects.

As stated in the press release:

Not only have color management, ICC-profile support and a very useful undo/redo feature been added to the software; Color Cone is also the first Picture Instruments tool available as an Adobe Premiere and After Effects plugin. The plugin version supports keyframes so that all color settings in Color Cone can be automated over time.
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Screenshots of the new version


Stand alone product


AE plugin


The PP plugin

Pricing


Color Cone Standalone and Color Cone Premiere/After Effects plugins are separate licenses which are available for $88 each.

Final thoughts


First of all, innovation and disruption of commonly used methods in grading are welcome. Picture Instruments offers a totally different approach compared to the traditional color wheels. However, we all remember that FCPX wanted to offer this as well with its “out of the box” color palette, which was not accepted very well by colorists – most of them use Resolve or other plugins (Color Finale) which mimic the old fashioned color wheels.

Furthermore, for grading we all have the almighty professional DaVinci Resolve and it’s free!

Having that said, I think that in order to properly examine Color Cone, you have to download it and actually use it intensively and struggle with it on a project to explore it and see if this it can facilitate your color correction and grading workflows.

The Color Cone plugin demo version runs without any time limitation, but it adds a watermark to all images. Color Cone’s standalone demo version runs 14 days without any limitations. You can download it here and try for yourself.

Would you give Color Cone a try? Let us know in the comments!

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