sometimes i see online footage that is
not properly color corrected
in my opinion so this week's episode is
about color correction
and i want to talk about a specific
situation when you are color correcting
videos
in fact after watching this video you
will think
more before doing this task color
correcting your footage is very
important because it's the first step
before doing the color grading this way
you ensure that all the clips from a
specific sequence
have proper white and black levels
exposure contrast
and of course white balance but not only
that you will need to think more
about how you color correct depending on
the brightness
of that specific scene if there are
objects that are supposed to be white
or black if there are hard shadows or
soft shadows and so on so this video
will be focused more on choosing the
correct
white and black levels of a clip in
premiere pro you have this
awesome tool called lumetri scopes that
helps you visualize the brightness
and contrast of the clip that is
selected if you don't see lumetri scopes
at the moment
just head over to window and choose
lumetri scopes
also make sure you right click on the
scopes area and make sure
luma is selected under waveform type
the lumetri scopes panel has some
indicators that help you see much
easier if the image is overexposed or
underexposed
so basically you need to avoid having
pixels peaking at the
100 mark for the highlights or the zero
mark
at the bottom for the shadows if some
pixels reach one of these values
it's not really a big deal but if you
can
you should avoid this situation during
this video i will work with a few
different examples of clips
that i recorded specifically for this
video
let's take the first example that was
recorded here in my room
in this scene i have a desk that is
almost white in the real world
and a speaker that is also very close to
white
i also have a keyboard and a mouse that
are very close to black so in this case
i will need to have pixels close to the
100 mark
in the scopes as well as pixels that are
close
to the zero value on the scopes you can
see that i
already have some pixels that are very
close to 100 and that's because i have a
reflection
on the speaker right here in this area i
first bring down the black point using
the slider
and you can see how the dark pixels are
getting closer to the zero value
i also take the shadow slider and bring
it to the left
and i'm constantly checking the scopes
in real time
on the left side of the screen but also
the image preview
to see what i'm doing now let's push up
the white parts using this slider
until on the scopes i see pixels coming
pretty close to the
100 mark just make sure you don't push
it too hard because
you'll start peeking in the highlights i
could just
let this clip as it is with a neutral
contrast
but i like a more contrasty look it's a
personal preference by the way
so i can just take the contrast slider
and push it to the right you can
instantly see
that the objects stand out more and you
also start to see more saturation in the
colors in this case
in the greens so if you like this look
you can go with this procedure
in this scene pushing the pixels close
to the 100 mark
in the highlights was justified because
those objects are
white in the real world and the same
thing with the black objects
here you can see a before and after i
made the correction of this clip
and now before we continue if you feel
some value in this video make sure you
hit the thumbs up because that will help
me
and also tell me in the comments if you
usually spend time
or not with the color correction let's
go to the next example now as you can
see in this shot we don't have any white
or black objects
and this thing is reflected in the
scopes as well
all the information is somewhere in the
middle between 30
and 70. i recorded this shot in the
shade and this is why i need to think
more now before adjusting the blacks and
especially the whites
i need to create contrast but i don't
need to get close to 100 for the
highlights
so let's adjust the black point first
and then the shadows
as you can see i stopped around the 10
value on the scopes and that's because
the shadows
are softer and i don't necessarily need
to have very dark shadows in this case
and because i don't have white objects
in the scene like i said before
i don't need to push the whites and the
highlights until they reach 100
because that would be unnatural for this
scene
so i will bring back these sliders to
zero and then push them
gently to the right until the footage
looks natural
if i feel that i need more contrast i
can use the designated slider to make
the image more saturated
and create let's say a more punchy look
a more contrasty look for this image
here is the before
and here is the after again a pretty
significant difference
okay the third example is with these
leaves that are
in focus and the blurred background with
other trees
behind but also the sky is visible and
some white clouds between
those branches so in this case i will
think again
look at the scopes and ask myself do i
have to push
some pixels close to the 100 mark and
the answer is yes
because the clouds are supposed to be
almost white
it was a sunny day with a very bright
light and i want to create contrast
while still maintaining a natural look i
tried to think back to the moment when i
recorded this footage
and then try to replicate that look
using the scopes
and sliders i'm adjusting the blacks the
shadow slider
and then i only need to adjust the
highlight slider to
insert some more brightness in the scene
i am not touching the white slider
because if i choose to push it to the
right you can see on the scopes on the
left side of the screen
that i start to see more and more pixels
peaking in the highlights
and i want to avoid that so i will bring
this slider
back to zero let's increase the contrast
a bit more
and at this point i really like it here
is the before
a very washed out look if you want and
here is the after
a natural and pleasing scene so you just
have to think more before
starting to do the color correction
because this way
you will train your eyes and obtain
better results in the future
and now after you learned how to color
correct i recommend you to watch this
video next to me
where i explain how to color grade your
footage to obtain
a more cinematic look so thank you so
much for watching i'm Criss
and see you in the next video
