Enter the World of the Colorist

Color correction is the art and process of enhancing the video image. Sometimes called finishing or color grading, it's the last and arguably the most important step in the post production workflow. Color correction enhances or creates the overall "look" of your film or video. In other cases it is used to fix exposure and lighting problems on the set. In either case, the recipe for success is entirely dependent on the skills of the color correction artist or colorist.

In this tutorial, Cinematographer and Editor Andrew Balis will help you see your next project through the eyes of a colorist. In a short time you will be confidently evaluating your images, adjusting contrast and color balance and if you've done your job correctly, enhancing the emotional impact of your story.

Color Correction in Final Cut Pro is presented in 10 easy-to-follow lessons covering the entire color correction workflow. For full descriptions of each lesson, see the table of contents below.

Experience our Training on the iPad

The iPad is revolutionizing the way people access and interact with media. Video training is therefore a natural fit for people who want their training on the go or on a separate device from their main system. Because of the limited storage capacities of the iPad, we have labored to keep the movie sizes as small as possible while maintaining our high standards of image and sound quality. And perhaps best of all, you don't need to be connected to the internet to watch our tutorials on your iPad.

How Does it Work?

We realize you may have a question or two, so we created a short FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page to answer them.

Click here for FAQ

Learn How To See color

Get Good "Grades"

Color Correction, also called grading, can be broken down into two stages: primary and secondary. Primary color correction involves enhancing contrast and color balance to achieve an overall look or mood. In other cases, if the look is unintended, color correction can be used to rebalance an image to bring it back to a neutral color balance.

Secondary color correction involves selecting specific colors within the frame to enhance or manipulate. In the images below, secondary color correction was used to change the color of the couch.

Add a Touch of Magic Hour

Color correction can also be used to alter the mood of a shot. Here is a beach scene that was shot at midday then graded to look as if it was shot at twilight.

Learn From Our Mistakes

Like photography or painting, color correction is an art form that is best learned by doing. That's why we provide all the necessary media files (in both SD and HD formats) for you to follow along with in Final Cut Pro. However, we've gone one step further; the clips you will be working with were actually shot with deliberate errors in exposure, lighting and color balance. In short, the footage you'll be correcting will be similar to the footage you will encounter in the real world.

Our approach

One final point. We created this tutorial because we strongly believe that color correction cannot be effectively learned from a book. You may learn the theory and the tool sets but you won't necessarily learn the approach. That said, we strived to present color correction as primarily a creative process and less as a technical one.

But most of all, color correction is just plain fun allowing you to affect your audience in ways that you may not have known were possible.

Table of Contents

Evaluation

Contrast and Color Balancing Basics

Contrast Control

Creating Natural Color Balances

Creating Stylized Looks

Scene to Scence Color Correction

Additional Tools

Secondary Color Correction

Grad Filter Effects

Quality Control

System Requirements