Black point
Also known as: black level, shadow point
The darkest value in a graded image, set deliberately so that shadows look solid without swallowing the detail inside them.
Updated
What it means
Every image has a floor. Where that floor sits decides whether the picture reads as contrasty and deliberate or as flat and unfinished. Nothing else changes a mood so quickly.
Footage from a Log profile arrives with a raised floor on purpose, so setting the black point is the first move of a grade rather than a refinement at the end. Judging a log clip before that is judging nothing.
The reference is a Histogram or a waveform rather than an eye. A screen in a bright room lies about shadows in both directions, and measurement is the only way to stay consistent.
How it works in practice
Standard delivery wants the floor at zero with a small amount of detail above it. Rec. 709 expects that, and anything mastered darker will be crushed again by a platform. There is nowhere below zero to recover from.
Curves are the usual tool. Lifting the very bottom of a Curves adjustment by a few points gives shadows air, which suits aerial and forest footage where the dark areas are large.
Matching it across cameras comes first. Two bodies with different floors cut badly whatever else is done, so the black point is where Color matching starts.
What to watch out for
Pulling it too far is irreversible. Crushed blacks throw away shadow detail at the point of export, and no later adjustment brings a rider out of a dark treeline. The information is gone from the file rather than hidden in it.
Noise lives in the floor. Lifting it reveals grain from a high sensitivity clip, which is why Denoise runs before the grade rather than after it.
Mixed sources are the quiet failure. A mounted camera and a drone with different floors read as two cameras at every cut, even when the colour is otherwise identical. The eye notices depth before hue.
How RawClip handles it
Clips from different cameras are reconciled while the sequence is assembled, with the shadow floor brought into agreement so neighbouring shots do not read as separate recordings. Material shot in a flat profile keeps the room that step needs, since a raised floor can be lowered and a crushed one cannot be lifted.