Judging color and saturation is mostly subjective. Some people feel that less color-saturated video images look more "film-like" when transferred to film or projected digitally.

A larger screen exaggerates everything - including color. Most television color timers (colorists) tend to saturate color quite a bit because on a small TV screen, highly saturated colors "jump out" more and make images seem more vibrant. However, the effect on a big screen can be a bit overwhelming – especially in skin tones.

Before shooting your project, test short examples of different levels of color saturation and have Central record them on film so you can get a feeling for the color saturation. Remember, even extremely experienced colorists may have only done color timing for TV and may have little or no experience with coloring for film output or digital projection.

There are many special considerations for timing for film or digital projection and color saturation is just one of them. Central's Digital Film Specialists can guide you through the testing of your saturation levels as well as the many other potential issues discussed here.