The Luma (whitest areas) and primary composite colors (red, blue, and green) can be adjusted separately. Colour CurvesĬolor Curves are great if you’re familiar with advanced image editing software, like Adobe Photoshop. The digital option also allows for setting overall color temperature, on the same degrees Kelvin scale your camera will reference (from 2500-10000K).
These offer the combined features of the Color Board, but with subtler levels of control. The first recent edition is Color Wheels. These are great if you want to bring more contrast to your shots and make certain colors more vibrant or muted.
You can also control Saturation and Exposure. Going above the horizontal line increases it and going below the line reduces it. Moving a node to a different color space directly affects that portion of the image. These represent the Highlights, Midtones, Shadows, and Master ranges of the clip. The Color Board displays a vertical color spectrum, crossed by a horizontal line with four nodes. Let’s look at each of the four color correction options. Once a clip is on the Timeline the ‘ Show the Color Inspector’ option becomes available. Manual Colour Gradingįor manual adjustments, Final Cut Pro X comes with a range of tools. These are visual representations of color data and help you to fine-tune things.Īs you make corrections, they update in real-time, which is a great way to learn more about the scientific nature of color and its application in the grading process. Histogram, Vectorscope, and Waveform monitors. There is an option under the View menu, to display Video Scopes. No one tool or setting is necessarily going to fix a problem or achieve a certain look, but rather a combination of effects might be needed.Īs with other visual effects in Final Cut Pro X, all layers you add to a clip can be toggled off and on inside the Inspector window. It’s worth noting that when color grading in Final Cut Pro X effects can be layered upon each other. When you are more confident with manual grading, you can still use these options as shortcuts before making finer adjustments yourself. First, select the clip you want to change, choose Match Color, and then click on the clip with the desired look. This feature will attempt to copy the look of one clip with another. Match ColourĪnother option under the enhancements menu is Match Color. Playing with these settings can show what footage looks like. The Effects pane will list the Balance Color application, where it can be disabled, or have the Method adjusted. If you’re unsure of what the difference is, you can turn off the automatic balance under the Inspector. How well this works does depend on the overall lighting and general quality of your footage.
Instantly, the clip will take on a new look, depending on the level of adjustment required. Whether a clip is in the Browser or being used on the Timeline, clicking on the enhancement button will show the Balance Color menu option. This is a process that can be done after import, on a clip-by-clip basis. If you want to try it, then test with a couple of clips, as it will slow down the overall import time. This is a useful feature but by no means an exact science. This will also include issues of exposure (the brightest parts of an image) and contrast (how they compare to the darkest regions). Ticking this option means Final Cut Pro X will look at each clip you import and attempt to fix any unbalanced colors. Poor white balancing can lead to a video looking too blue (cool) or too orange (warm.) This means how your camera sees white objects under different lighting conditions and how it subsequently shows all other colors on the spectrum. Essentially, this corresponds to how the footage was originally filmed and if your camera was correctly white balanced. Here, you’ll find the option to Analyze video for balance color. Within the Final Cut Pro X Import window, there’s the Analyze and Fix pane. When working in Final Cut Pro, you can even have the first step of color correction done automatically. Once you become comfortable with those, you can experiment with the more advanced features. If that all sounds a touch intimidating, the good news is that all professional editing software will come with basic tools to get started with color grading. If your films lack color balancing, or if the colors of shots within a scene don’t match, it will be noticeable.Ĭolor grading can be done to balance across footage, or for applying a particular artistic finish to a film. One of the noticeable differences between amateur and professional video editing is in the color grading.