Color Correction

[Media Editor]

In the Lumetri Panel what is a good starting point?  There are so many options to choose from,

[R Neil Haugen]

The work of correcting video images and giving a useful "feel" to them is deep and dense. But to start, learn the basic steps:

• Neutralization: getting the tonal range within visual and technical reason, and color values 'neutral', without apparent color cast;
• ShotMatching: getting clips next to each other to be close enough visually so the viewer does not "see" a difference between cameras or shots, and this may involve setting a 'look' over a scene or close group of clips;
• Fixing notable problems: working the things that distract the viewer from concentrating on what you want them to look at. This often has to be done very judiciously, as ... it can take an immense amount of time to fix every potential issue ... so prioritize, and hit clips according to the time/budget available;
• Finishing a 'look': applying an overall look to the main project.

It takes just doing it over and over. It also takes learning how to use your scopes! The Mark I Eyeball is a magnificent relative device, but it's absolute capabilities are very limited. Blacks and Whites, contrast gradients, color saturation and specific hues ... these things need scopes to be sure you are doing things correctly.

I work mostly with the RGB Parade, Waveform in Luma/No Chroma mode, and Vectorscope YUV.

I did a series of blog posts a couple years back on the process of basic color correction and what some of the Lumetri tools do. They might help.

This first one is on what the first step of color correction, neutralization, is ... I show how I'm using a Tangent Ripple while doing so, but that just uses the same Lumetri controls from the Lumetri panel as shown in the post.

Neutralization

Then ... how to use the Basic tab controls, and what they do demonstrated precisely ...

Basic Tab

And another on using the Creative tab ...

Creative Tab

Another look at starting neutralization ... and you can see how much Lumetri has changed ... that ring of color Saturation tool is thankfully long-gone, replaced by the wonderful new Hue/Saturation curves ...

Re-Looking at Neutralization

And a bit on shot-matching.

ShotMatching

Neil

[Media Editor]

Thank you for the detailed instructions.

[Jim Curtis]

Hi Neil,  I just found this post and the link to your site and tutorials.  Yours are the best tutorials I've yet found for the Lumetri panel, and have given me some excellent insight and new tricks to try.  I'd never have thought to start in the Creative section and ignoring the Temp and Tint sliders in favor of the Shadow and Hightlight Tint wheels to white balance, but I just tried it on a few clips and I love the results.  Thanks for posting the tutorials and sharing your knowledge.

[R Neil Haugen]

Jim,

Thanks for the comments. I'm about to go remake some new posts with the vastly updated capabilities.

Especially the HSL curves in the Curves tab. Because of them, I don't do nearly as many HSL Secondaries anymore. You just have to be careful with them as they are rather touchy. I like the Lumetri panel on-screen large so the curves tools are big in screen-space, then use my Elements panels with mouse-emulation for the track balls, I've got one setting with a very fine cursor movment so I can easily make minute adjustments.

Neil

[R Neil Haugen]

Color correction/grading is nearly as dense as color managment ... which is to say, wowza.

Start simply ... learn to do tonal corrections to get the image "clean" and with the part you want viewers to see presented clearly. For a lot of people, that means turning saturation down to off at first.

Then after the "gross" tonal work is done, bring Sat back up, and work with Sat, Vibrance, and Hue controls (in the Curve's tab controls) for getting color doing the same as tones ... clean, natural, and letting the important part be seen.

This makes shotmatching a lot easier ... and when starting out, that is often the hardest part. Getting shot-to-shot-to-shot looking smooth and natural.

Once you've done that ... you can do more as you learn how and more importantly, why ...

 Neil