Natural color matching in a video editing system

1. A method for performing natural color matching, comprising:

receiving an indication of components of a selected destination color having a first luminance and components of a source color having a second luminance;

determining a product of a ratio of the second luminance to the first luminance and the components of the selected destination color; and

adjusting values of components of pixels in an image according to the determined product.

2. A method for modifying colors in an image such that a first color in the image will naturally match another color, comprising:

determining a ratio of luminance of the first color in the image to luminance of the other color;

determining a second color to which to change the first color in the image according to the determined ratio and the other color; and

processing the colors in the image according to a relationship defined by the first color and the second color.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the second color and other color are specified by red, green and blue components, and wherein determining the second color comprises computing, for each component specifying the second color, a value defined by the product of the determined ratio and a value for the component specifying the other color.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the computed value for each component specifying the second color and a value of the corresponding component of the first color defines a control point of a graph that represents color modifications for the component and that maps input values for the component on a first axis to output values for the component on a second axis.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein processing the image comprises:

applying the color modification represented by the graphs for each component to the image.

6. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

displaying, on a graphical user interface, a first swatch representing the first color and a second swatch contiguous with the first swatch and representing the other color; and

displaying, on the graphical user interface, values for components representing the first color on the first swatch and values for components representing the other color on the second swatch.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

displaying, on the graphical user interface, a three-image display, including:

a first region on the graphical user interface, for displaying the image to be modified, wherein the image is from a current segment in a sequence of segments,

a second region on the graphical user interface and adjacent to the first region, for displaying an image from a previous segment in the sequence before the current segment, and

a third region on the graphical user interface and adjacent to the first region, for displaying an image from a next segment in the sequence after the current segment.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

displaying, on the graphical user interface, an interface that simultaneously displays a plurality of graphs, including a first graph for a red component, a second graph for a blue component, and a third graph for a green component, wherein each graph maps input values for a color component of a pixel on a first axis to output values for the color component for the pixel on a second axis, according to the determined second color and the first color.

9. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

displaying, on the graphical user interface, an interface that simultaneously displays a representation of each of the graphs, including a first graph for a red component, a second graph for a blue component, and a third graph for a green component.

10. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer readable medium;

computer program instructions stored on the computer readable medium that, when executed by a computer instruct the computer to perform a method for modifying colors in an image such that a first color in the image will naturally match another color, comprising:

determining a ratio of luminance of the first color in the image to luminance of the other color;

determining a second color to which to change the first color in the image according to the determined ratio and the other color; and

processing the colors in the image according to a relationship defined by the first color and the second color.

11. Apparatus for modifying colors in an image such that a first color in the image will naturally match another color, comprising:

means for determining a ratio of luminance of the first color in the image to luminance of the other color;

means for determining a second color to which to change the first color in the image according to the determined ratio and the other color; and

means for processing the colors in the image according to a relationship defined by the first color and the second color.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

designating a color correction operation defined by the determined product to be applied to all segments in an edited program that reference a same selected source.

13. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

designating a color correction operation defined by the relationship between the first color and the second color to be applied to all segments in an edited program that reference a same selected source.

14. The computer program product of claim 10 , further comprising:

designating a color correction operation defined by the relationship between the first color and the second color to be applied to all segments in an edited program that reference a same selected source.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 , further comprising:

means for designating a color correction operation defined by the relationship between the first color and the second color to be applied to all segments in an edited program that reference a same selected source.

16. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the second color and other color are specified by red, green and blue components, and wherein determining the second color comprises computing, for each component specifying the second color, a value defined by the product of the determined ratio and a value for the component specifying the other color.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the computed value for each component specifying the second color and a value of the corresponding component of the first color defines a control point of a graph that represents color modifications for the component and that maps input values for the component on a first axis to output values for the component on a second axis.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 , wherein processing the image comprises:

applying the color modification represented by the graphs for each component to the image.

19. The computer program product of claim 10 , further comprising:

displaying, on a graphical user interface, a first swatch representing the first color and a second swatch contiguous with the first swatch and representing the other color; and

displaying, on the graphical user interface, values for components representing the first color on the first swatch and values for components representing the other color on the second swatch.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 , further comprising:

displaying, on the graphical user interface, a three-image display, including:

a first region on the graphical user interface, for displaying the image to be modified, wherein the image is from a current segment in a sequence of segments,

a second region on the graphical user interface and adjacent to the first region, for displaying an image from a previous segment in the sequence before the current segment, and

a third region on the graphical user interface and adjacent to the first region, for displaying an image from a next segment in the sequence after the current segment.

21. The computer program product of claim 20 , further comprising:

displaying, on the graphical user interface, an interface that simultaneously displays a plurality of graphs, including a first graph for a red component, a second graph for a blue component, and a third graph for a green component, wherein each graph maps input values for a color component of a pixel on a first axis to output values for the color component for the pixel on a second axis, according to the determined second color and the first color.

22. The computer program product of claim 17 , further comprising:

displaying, on a graphical user interface, an interface that simultaneously displays a representation of each of the graphs, including a first graph for a red component, a second graph for a blue component, and a third graph for a green component.

23. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the second color and other color are specified by red, green and blue components, and wherein the means for determining the second color comprises means for computing, for each component specifying the second color, a value defined by the product of the determined ratio and a value for the component specifying the other color.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 , wherein the computed value for each component specifying the second color and a value of the corresponding component of the first color defines a control point of a graph that represents color modifications for the component and that maps input values for the component on a first axis to output values for the component on a second axis.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 , wherein the means for processing the image comprises:

means for applying the color modification represented by the graphs for each component to the image.

26. The apparatus of claim 11 , further comprising:

a graphical user interface that displays a first swatch representing the first color and a second swatch contiguous with the first swatch and representing the other color and that displays values for components representing the first color on the first swatch and values for components representing the other color on the second swatch.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 , wherein the graphical user interface further comprises:

a three-image display, including:

a first region on the graphical user interface, for displaying the image to be modified, wherein the image is from a current segment in a sequence of segments,

a second region on the graphical user interface and adjacent to the first region, for displaying an image from a previous segment in the sequence before the current segment, and

a third region on the graphical user interface and adjacent to the first region, for displaying an image from a next segment in the sequence after the current segment.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 , wherein the graphical user interface further comprises an interface that simultaneously displays a plurality of graphs, including a first graph for a red component, a second graph for a blue component, and a third graph for a green component, wherein each graph maps input values for a color component of a pixel on a first axis to output values for the color component for the pixel on a second axis, according to the determined second color and the first color.

29. The apparatus of claim 24 , further comprising:

means for displaying an interface that simultaneously displays a representation of each of the graphs, including a first graph for a red component, a second graph for a blue component, and a third graph for a green component.

30. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer readable medium;

computer program instructions stored on the computer readable medium that, when executed by a computer instruct the computer to perform a method for performing natural color matching, comprising:

receiving an indication of components of a selected destination color having a first luminance and components of a source color having a second luminance;

determining a product of a ratio of the second luminance to the first luminance and the components of the selected destination color; and

adjusting values of components of pixels in an image according to the determined product.

31. An apparatus for performing natural color matching, comprising:

means for receiving an indication of components of a selected destination color having a first luminance and components of a source color having a second luminance;

means for computing a product of a ratio of the second luminance to the first luminance and the components of the selected destination color; and

means for modifying values of components of pixels in an image according to the determined product.

32. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer readable medium;

computer program instructions stored on the computer readable medium that, when executed by a computer instruct the computer to perform a method for performing natural color matching on an image comprising pixels defined by components, wherein each component of a pixel has a value, comprising:

receiving an indication of components of a selected destination color having a first luminance and components of a source color having a second luminance;

determining a ratio of the second luminance to the first luminance;

for each of the components of the selected destination color, determining a product of the component of the selected destination color and the determined ratio; and

for each component, defining a graph that maps input values for the component on a first axis to output values for the component on a second axis according to the value of the component for the source color as an input and the determined product for the component as an output; and

adjusting the value of each component of each pixel in the image according to the determined mapping for the component.