2.1 VIDEO COLOR PROCESS How to pick your picture profile First things first. Choose your picture profile. If you are shooting in RAW format, you will have a large amount of control over the characteristics of your image. Beyond general quality, this is one of the attractive advantages of RAW, but it eats up a lot of storage (This is because RAW images, captured unprocessed by the camera with no set parameters, are uncompressed). If you are not working in RAW, chances are that you will want to record in a flat picture profile, or Log profile, to give yourself more opportunities when it comes to coloring and enhancing your footage.

COLOR SPACE DEFINITION What is a picture profile? A picture profile refers to a set of parameters that determine the characteristics of your footage. Popular picture profiles for professional video are ‘C-Log’ (Canon) or ‘S-Log’ (Sony), but there are many others.

What does a picture profile do? Establishes baked-in parameters for your footage.

Specific profiles give you a more obedient image.

Maintains consistency across your footage.

See how important it is to establish color profile first? You can’t go back on your picture profile because it is baked into your footage (unless you’re capturing images in RAW). Your picture profile can be whatever you want it to be, but generally if it is more "flat" it will give you the best chance to pull out some extra steps of dynamic range, and keep your footage out of trouble. This is where you hear the term “Log,” and more specifically “C-Log” (Canon) or “S-Log” (Sony). These are essentially neutral picture profiles (but not RAW!), giving you the best chance for controllable images.

2.2 color correction guide How to color correct video Now we can begin to color correct. Color correction methods have changed since entertainment production switched to digital footage, but it is still just as important for professional images. You’ve established your picture profile, so now let's talk about one of the most important steps in any post production workflow.

COLOR CORRECTION DEFINITION What is color correction? Color correction refers to adjusting white and black levels, exposure, contrast, and white balance to give you an image with accurate, unprocessed-seeming colors. The point of color correction is to ensure that subsequent color adjustments have more precision, and don’t yield unintended results. The other purpose of color correction is to create visual consistency for your footage and scenes. You want them to match for better flow.

What does color correction do? Establishes true levels and colors.

Allows for accurate and effective adjustments.

Creates visual consistency throughout scenes.

If your white isn’t really true white, but rather more of a beige, any adjustment you make to your image will be incorrect. If you go rogue, something that looks good to you may look odd to someone else. It’s like trying to write a great song with an out-of-tune guitar. Color correction eliminates visual inconsistencies. You’ll need to go through this process if you hope to cut together footage that may not look exactly the same, but needs to be in the used in the same scene. Check out this Adobe Premiere color correction tutorial:

Color Correction in Adobe Premiere Pro

If your color profile is flat, desaturated, and has less contrast, it will allow these additions to have a more positive outcome, and give you a bit more control when coloring your footage. It also helps you to squeeze out some extra information in between your maximum and minimum values. Think how easy it would be to color the art at the museum if it was flat, desaturated, and had less contrast. They’d be more like coloring books. Let’s get into the micro-steps of color correction. 1. Apply your input LUT The LUT (which stands for look up table) that you apply in this case will shift the colors in your footage to the standard values of HD broadcast television, and we referred to it as an "Input LUT." The LUT (which stands for look up table) that you apply in this case will shift the colors in your footage to the standard values of HD broadcast television, and we referred to it as an "Input LUT." This means that we intend to send our footage through this predetermined adjustment so that we may accurately adjust colors during our correction and grade phase, but … You output LUT (if you choose to apply one) is intended to achieve a cinematic look, or sometimes a "film" look. The Rec. 709 LUT will make your color correction sliders, curves, and scopes all work the way they should so that you can get the most out of your creative LUTs later on. What's the difference between a Log LUT and a Rec. 709 LUT? Check out this video for a quick primer.

Log vs. Rec. 709 explained

Here’s a fun (and odd) metaphor. When you make coffee in the morning, you pour hot water over ground up beans to get … coffee! You don’t, however, pour coffee over ground up beans to get coffee. Log footage is your hot water, and the coffee beans are your input LUT. Don’t put already "brewed" footage with harsh characteristics through an input LUT because you’ll end up pushing values to extreme levels. Rec. 709 allows you to work from a place of accuracy, but it is not necessarily going to give you the look you hope to achieve, and that’s where additional LUTs and color grades come into play. Watch this quick study in color grading with a variety of footage types:

Color grading a variety of footage in Adobe Premiere: RAW, Log, and Rec. 709

Applying a LUT is also an opportunity to white balance your footage, either via the Auto White Balance or manual temperature adjustments. Your camera should have been white balanced before hand, but there are some picture profiles that slightly push the color temperature one way or another, so you’ll want to rebalance regardless. Don’t apply any tint at this point. Not yet. You just want to get as close to true white as you can so that each step works correctly. Unless your footage was shot in a way that the tint helps, chances are you should avoid it altogether. 2. Choose a "home base" clip The best way to attain visual consistency across a bunch of footage is to look at your clips and to find one that has average exposure and levels when compared to the rest of your footage. That way, you can try to match everything to a place that is, at the very least, able to be achieved with all of your footage. If you pick a clip that has an extreme exposure when compared to the other footage you got on the day, you may not be able to adjust those clips to match one another, thus eliminating options from your cut. 3. Adjusts white and black You’ll want to use your scopes here, and you need to do each one at a time. Adjust the colors and levels to find true black or true white. Make your video look properly adjusted for white and black using any number of tools. Here's how to do it with Adobe Premiere's Lumetri Color tool:

How to get a cinematic look

Your scopes will let you know if you’ve gone too high or too low with your levels, and you may need to adjust your RGB curves as well. Use the scopes for precision. 4. Adjust overall gamma This is where you adjust each section of your image, which includes the highlights, shadows, and midtones. Again, at this point we are still in the color correction phase and not stylizing or grading phase. Remenber with gamma adjustments and color correction in general, you are NOT trying to make your image look “cool” or “how you want it to look” but rather "correct" in terms of color fidelity and the relationship between each level’s light intensity in the image.

Video gamma explained

Later, when we get to color grading, you can crush your blacks and blow out the whites, but during this phase you just want to make them coordinate with one another. 5. Basic secondary correction In primary color correction, you adjust and correct the entire image. Secondary color correction involves isolating specific parts of the image, or objects within the video frame, and correcting only those. The same way we’ve created archetypes for characters, so it goes for color schemes and color identification of objects and imagery. We all know that the sky is blue, or that a stop sign is red. These are colors that everyone knows, and will expect to register if say … you have a stop sign in your footage. If the color of your stop sign looks weird, that means two things: Your color correction is probably off by a bit.

Viewers will subconsciously question your story. This means that skin tones need to look like real skin tones, blades of grass need to look like blades of grass, and the world has to appear real. This video explains it well:

Secondary color correction in Adobe Premiere PRO CC

That way, when you do adjust something later you can be sure that it works correctly so that you achieve your intended look. Your imagery also feeds the willing suspension of disbelief so crucial in narrative filmmaking, all because you followed the "rules." 6. Advanced secondary correction This is where you begin to adjust specific colors toward your desire, while still keeping in mind that they still need to be "correct." You might want to boost the yellow of a bright-yellow sports car. You’re not altering the overall yellow in the total image, but rather boosting a very narrow hue to make specific imagery — the yellow car — pop.

Advanced secondary color correction

We still want things to look the way they should, but you can begin to use your taste a little more during this section. Just know that you may bump values later in your color grade, so do so accordingly to avoid backtrack. Looking good? Everything's correct? Great. Now let's make the grade.

2.3 digital color grading How to color grade video When you begin color grading, you will of course need to start with some software. This can be an NLE (non-linear editor) like Adobe Premiere or it can be a program created specifically for color control like DaVinci Resolve. It's also likely you'll be using the same platform to color grade as you used for your color correcting — but many video color correction and color grading pros like to use different software for each process.

COLOR GRADING DEFINITION What is color grading? Color grading refers to the stylized color scheme of your footage. This can be super extreme like you see with many popular films, or it can be rather subtle so as to achieve color fidelity like with nature documentaries.

What does a color grade do? Stylizes the color scheme of your footage.

Evokes specific emotions from your viewer.

Transforms footage for the final look.

Every piece of footage that has ever been recorded has a color grade, regardless of any adjustments that might be applied. This is different from color correction, because clips that aren’t adjusted to the correct levels are NOT color corrected, but any footage you capture has a color grade — and it is your job to adjust that grade to display your desired look. It's what turns film and video makers into artists. Take a look at director Denis Villeneuve's color schemes in this video:

How to use color like director Denis Villeneuve

Your color grade is where your footage begins to look stylized, but it won’t look the way you want unless you follow the first 2 steps correctly. This is where you get to make your own creative decisions. Using the same tools you've used to color correct, now you can add another layer, and paint your masterpiece. This is the moment where we have to explain that the process of coloring video is additive. That means we are adding color information to something that already has baked in color values. We are not changing the digital values of color, but rather adding values on top of the existing values. It is similar to going to a museum with some paint, and adding more color to art on the walls. You can also enable a creative LUT to your color corrected footage, which will apply your entire color grade literally with a single click. In our post on LUTs, we go over different kinds of LUTs and give you a free pack of Ridley Scott LUTs. Check out how Ridley Scott uses color here:

Mastering the movie color palette of Ridley Scott