Video color correction

To truly elevate your video footage and make it visually stunning, mastering video color correction is paramount.

This process involves adjusting the overall color, contrast, and brightness of your video to ensure it looks consistent, professional, and reflects the desired mood or aesthetic.

Think of it as painting with light, transforming raw footage into a polished masterpiece.

Here’s a quick guide to getting started with video color correction:

• Understanding the Basics: Begin by learning core concepts like white balance, exposure, contrast, saturation, and hue. These are the fundamental elements you’ll manipulate.
• Essential Tools: Most video editing software, from user-friendly options like the highly recommended 👉 VideoStudio Ultimate 15% OFF Coupon Limited Time FREE TRIAL Included to professional suites like Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, offer robust color correction capabilities. You can even find decent video color correction online free tools, video color correction apps, and video color correction free software for quick adjustments on the go.
• Workflow:
  1. Correction First: Always start with color correction fixing inaccuracies like white balance, exposure issues. This is about making the image look “correct” and natural.
  2. Grading Second: Once corrected, move to color grading applying creative stylistic choices like a warm, cinematic look or a cool, desaturated feel. This is about enhancing the mood.
  3. Consistency is Key: Ensure your video’s color scheme is consistent across all clips, especially if they were shot in different lighting conditions. Tools for video color correction ai are emerging to help automate this, but a human touch is often still best.
• Platform Specifics: Whether you’re doing video color correction Android or video color correction iPhone, dedicated apps offer simplified interfaces for mobile editing. For desktop, video color correction Premiere Pro and video color correction After Effects provide the most comprehensive control. Look for a reliable video color correction tool that suits your needs.

Color correction is not just about making things look good. it’s about telling your story more effectively.

A well-corrected video can evoke specific emotions, draw the viewer’s eye to important details, and significantly enhance the overall perceived quality of your production.

Without it, your footage can appear flat, unengaging, and amateurish, regardless of the quality of your camera or content.

The Foundation of Visual Storytelling: Understanding Color Correction

Video color correction is the technical process of adjusting the colors, contrast, and exposure of your video footage to achieve a natural and accurate representation of what was recorded.

It’s the essential first step before any creative grading, ensuring your whites are white, blacks are black, and colors are true to life.

Think of it as optimizing the canvas before you start painting your masterpiece.

Without proper color correction, any subsequent color grading efforts will be built on a flawed foundation, leading to inconsistent and unappealing results.

This crucial step is often overlooked by beginners but is a hallmark of professional video production.

Why Color Correction is Non-Negotiable

Effective color correction fixes issues that arise during shooting, such as incorrect white balance, under or overexposure, and color shifts caused by different lighting conditions or cameras. For instance, a common challenge is matching footage shot at different times of day or in various indoor environments. Data from a 2022 survey by the Content Marketing Institute indicated that 79% of video marketers believe video has a direct positive impact on sales, underscoring the importance of visual quality. Poor color can instantly undermine credibility and viewer engagement. A video with accurate colors feels more professional and trustworthy, leading to higher audience retention and better communication of your message.

Core Concepts of Color Correction

• White Balance: This is perhaps the most fundamental aspect. White balance adjusts the color temperature of your footage so that white objects appear truly white, not tinted yellow, blue, or green. Incorrect white balance is one of the most common issues in raw footage. Tools like the white balance eyedropper in most video editing software allow you to click on a neutral gray or white area in your frame to automatically correct the color temperature.
• Exposure: Refers to the overall brightness or darkness of your image. Underexposed footage looks too dark, losing detail in shadows, while overexposed footage looks too bright, “blowing out” highlights. Adjusting exposure involves manipulating the ‘Luminance’ values. Many tools offer ‘Levels’ or ‘Curves’ adjustments, allowing precise control over shadow, midtone, and highlight areas.
• Contrast: Defines the difference between the brightest and darkest parts of your image. High contrast images have distinct whites and blacks, appearing punchy. Low contrast images have a narrower range, appearing softer or flatter. Adjusting contrast helps your image ‘pop’ or feel more ethereal, depending on the desired outcome.
• Saturation: Controls the intensity or vividness of colors. Desaturated images look muted or even black and white, while oversaturated images have colors that appear artificially vibrant. Finding the right balance prevents your video from looking either dull or garish.
• Hue: Represents the pure color e.g., red, blue, green. Adjusting hue can shift specific colors within your video, for example, making a green shirt appear more teal or a red car more orange. This is particularly useful for fine-tuning specific elements without affecting the overall color scheme.

Choosing the Right Video Color Correction Software

The market is flooded with options for video color correction, ranging from beginner-friendly apps to industry-standard professional suites. Your choice largely depends on your budget, skill level, and the complexity of your projects. While some free video color correction tools offer basic functionalities, investing in a robust software can significantly enhance your workflow and results. Data from a 2023 Statista report indicated that the global video editing software market is projected to reach USD 3.8 billion by 2027, highlighting the widespread need for quality tools.

Professional-Grade Software

For serious video editors and filmmakers, professional software offers the most comprehensive control and advanced features.

• Adobe Premiere Pro: A cornerstone of the video editing industry, Premiere Pro offers powerful color correction tools through its Lumetri Color panel. This panel includes everything from basic corrections white balance, exposure, contrast to advanced tools like HSL Secondary for targeting specific colors, Curves, and Color Wheels for precise adjustments. Many professionals use it for video color correction Premiere Pro due to its robust integration with other Adobe applications like After Effects.
• DaVinci Resolve: Originally a dedicated color grading software, DaVinci Resolve is now a full-fledged non-linear editor that is highly acclaimed for its unparalleled color correction and grading capabilities. Its node-based workflow allows for incredibly complex and precise adjustments. The free version of DaVinci Resolve offers almost all the core features, making it an excellent choice for those looking for powerful video color correction free.
• Final Cut Pro for Mac users: Final Cut Pro provides intuitive and powerful color correction tools, including color wheels, color boards, and various scopes to monitor your adjustments. It’s known for its seamless integration with the Apple ecosystem and its efficient performance on Mac hardware.
• Adobe After Effects: While primarily a motion graphics and visual effects software, After Effects also possesses strong color correction capabilities, particularly useful for compositing and advanced visual effects workflows. Video color correction After Effects is often used when combining multiple elements that need consistent color grading.

Accessible and Free Options

Not everyone needs a professional suite, especially for personal projects or quick edits.

• Free Online Tools: Numerous websites offer video color correction online free services. These are typically simple interfaces for quick adjustments like brightness, contrast, and saturation. While convenient, they often lack the precision and advanced features of desktop software and may have limitations on file size or duration.
• Mobile Apps Video Color Correction App, Android, iPhone:
  • CapCut: A very popular and powerful video color correction app available on both iOS and Android. It offers a surprising array of adjustment tools, including HSL, curves, and various filters, making it a strong contender for video color correction android and iPhone users.
  • InShot: Another widely used mobile editing app that provides good basic color correction features, filters, and effects for quick mobile edits.
  • LumaFusion iOS only: Considered a professional-grade mobile editor, LumaFusion offers extensive color correction capabilities, rivaling some desktop software, for iPhone and iPad users.
• Built-in OS Tools: Basic video editors in operating systems like Windows Photos or macOS Photos offer limited color adjustment options for simple video enhancements.

The Workflow: Correcting Before Grading

A common mistake for beginners is to jump straight into applying creative “looks” or filters without first performing proper color correction. The professional workflow always dictates that correction comes before grading. This ensures that your foundation is solid before you start building the aesthetic layer. Free graphic design software for mac

Step 1: Color Correction – Achieving Technical Accuracy

This phase is about fixing problems and making the image look “correct” and natural, as it was intended to be seen. It’s about objectivity.

• Analyze Your Footage: Before touching any sliders, observe your footage critically. Are the whites truly white? Are the skin tones accurate? Is there any color cast? Use scopes histograms, waveforms, vectorscopes in your editing software, which provide objective data about the color and luminance distribution, to identify issues. A 2021 study by HubSpot found that 50% of consumers prefer video over other content formats from brands, underscoring the importance of visually appealing and accurate content.
• Set White Balance: This is your starting point. Use the eyedropper tool on a neutral gray or white area, or manually adjust temperature and tint until the whites look neutral. If you shot with a grey card, this is where it pays off.
• Adjust Exposure Luminance:
  • Black Point: Set your black point so that the darkest parts of your image are true black without crushing shadow detail.
  • White Point: Set your white point so that the brightest parts are true white without clipping highlights.
  • Midtones: Adjust the overall brightness of your image, often using a gamma or midtone slider, to ensure details are visible without appearing flat.
• Refine Contrast: Increase or decrease contrast to bring out detail and give your image depth, ensuring shadows aren’t too deep and highlights aren’t blown out.
• Correct Saturation and Hue: Make subtle adjustments to saturation to ensure colors are natural and vibrant but not oversaturated. If specific colors are off, use HSL Hue, Saturation, Luminance sliders to target and correct them without affecting other colors. For example, if a specific red object looks orange, you can adjust its hue.

Step 2: Color Grading – Applying Creative Style

Once your footage is technically perfect, you can move on to the artistic phase of color grading.

This is where you infuse your video with a specific mood, tone, or aesthetic. It’s about subjectivity and creative expression.

• Define Your Look: Before you start, consider the emotional impact you want to achieve. Do you want a warm, inviting feel? A cold, sterile look? A vintage aesthetic? Think about the narrative and how color can enhance it. For instance, a documentary might benefit from a natural, desaturated look, while a promotional video might use vibrant, punchy colors.
• Use Color Wheels: Color wheels allow you to add color tints to shadows, midtones, and highlights independently. For example, adding a touch of blue to shadows can create a moody feel, while adding warmth to highlights can make a scene feel sunnier.
• Apply LUTs Look Up Tables: LUTs are pre-set color profiles that can instantly apply a specific look to your footage. They are a great starting point for grading, offering cinematic looks, vintage styles, and more. Many video color correction tools offer a library of LUTs. However, remember that a LUT is applied after correction. Applying a LUT to uncorrected footage can yield unpredictable and often undesirable results.
• Targeted Adjustments HSL Secondary: Use HSL Hue, Saturation, Luminance secondary corrections to isolate specific colors and adjust them. For instance, you can make a red car pop by increasing its saturation and luminance while leaving the rest of the image untouched. This is incredibly powerful for drawing viewer attention or fixing problematic color elements.
• Consistency Across Shots: Maintain a consistent look across all clips within a scene and throughout your entire video. This often involves copying color settings from one clip to another or creating global adjustment layers. This is crucial for seamless viewing experience.

Advanced Techniques in Video Color Correction

Once you’ve mastered the fundamentals, exploring advanced color correction techniques can unlock even greater control and creative possibilities. These methods allow for highly precise adjustments, pushing your video’s visual quality to the next level. Research from Dell and Intel in 2022 highlighted that 82% of all internet traffic will be video by 2025, indicating the growing importance of high-quality visual content.

Using Scopes for Precision

Professional colorists rely heavily on scopes, which are graphical representations of the color and luminance information in your video.

They provide objective data that eye can sometimes miss, especially on uncalibrated monitors.

• Waveform Monitor: Shows the luminance brightness distribution in your image from left to right. It helps identify overexposed highlights peaking at 100 on the scale and underexposed shadows crushing at 0. It’s invaluable for setting correct exposure levels.
• Vectorscope: Displays the hue and saturation of colors in your image. The center represents no saturation, and as colors move outward, they become more saturated. Color bars within the scope indicate where primary and secondary colors should ideally fall, helping with white balance and ensuring skin tones are accurate.
• RGB Parade: Separates the red, green, and blue channels and displays their luminance levels. This is excellent for identifying color casts and ensuring each color channel is balanced, particularly useful for precise white balancing.
• Histogram: Shows the distribution of pixels across different brightness levels. Peaks on the left indicate a lot of dark pixels, while peaks on the right mean many bright pixels. It helps you see if your image is mostly dark, bright, or has a good tonal range.

Understanding Log Footage

Many professional cameras can shoot in “Log” profiles e.g., S-Log, C-Log, V-Log. Log footage is designed to capture the maximum dynamic range of the camera sensor, resulting in a flat, desaturated image directly out of the camera.

• Why Shoot Log? It preserves more detail in both shadows and highlights, giving you significantly more flexibility in post-production for color correction and grading.
• Working with Log: Log footage must be corrected and graded. It typically requires applying a “conversion LUT” or manually expanding the dynamic range to bring it back to a standard Rec.709 broadcast standard or Rec.2020 HDR color space before applying any creative grades. Failing to process Log footage properly will result in dull, low-contrast video.

Mastering Curves

Curves are one of the most powerful tools for granular control over color and luminance.

They allow you to remap the input values to new output values. Painting from photographs

• Luminance Curve Luma Curve: The most common use is an S-curve for contrast, where you deepen shadows and brighten highlights. You can also target specific tonal ranges e.g., only brightening the midtones.
• RGB Curves: Similar to the luminance curve, but applied independently to the Red, Green, and Blue channels. This offers incredibly precise control over color casts. For example, if your shadows have a green tint, you can pull down the green curve specifically in the shadow region without affecting the rest of the image.

Video Color Correction Tools and AI Integration

Dedicated Color Correction Panels and Hardware

While software sliders are effective, many professional colorists use dedicated hardware control surfaces like Tangent Elements or Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel.

• Tactile Control: These panels offer physical knobs, dials, and trackballs that provide a much more intuitive and tactile way to manipulate color parameters compared to using a mouse. This allows for faster adjustments and a more organic feel.
• Precision: The fine motor control offered by hardware panels often leads to more precise adjustments, allowing colorists to achieve subtle nuances that are difficult to achieve with a mouse.

Video Color Correction AI Tools

AI is increasingly being leveraged to automate repetitive or complex color correction tasks.

• Automated White Balance and Exposure: Many newer software versions and video color correction online free tools now include “auto” buttons that use AI algorithms to attempt to correct white balance and exposure. While not always perfect, they can provide a good starting point, especially for quickly processing large volumes of footage.
• Color Matching: AI can analyze the color characteristics of a reference clip and automatically apply similar adjustments to another clip. This is a must for matching footage from different cameras or shot in different lighting conditions. Some advanced tools can even match colors between entirely different scenes.
• Scene Detection and Correction: AI can identify different scenes within a video and apply specific corrections to each, ensuring consistency even if your footage was shot in a disorganized manner.
• Smart Denoising and Sharpening: While not strictly color correction, AI-powered denoising and sharpening tools often work in conjunction with color adjustments to improve overall image quality. They can reduce grain and enhance detail more effectively than traditional methods.
• AI-Powered Grading Suggestions: Some cutting-edge AI tools are even starting to suggest creative color grades based on analyzing the content of your video or your desired mood. This is still an emerging area but shows promise for future workflows.

Video Color Correction Tool for Every Need

Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned professional, there’s a video color correction tool out there for you.

• Beginner-Friendly: For those just starting, look for software with intuitive interfaces and auto-correction features. Many mobile apps video color correction app for Android and iPhone fall into this category, offering quick and easy adjustments for social media content.
• Intermediate: Software like Filmora, Corel VideoStudio which we recommend with a 👉 VideoStudio Ultimate 15% OFF Coupon Limited Time FREE TRIAL Included, or the free version of DaVinci Resolve provide a good balance of ease of use and powerful features.
• Advanced/Professional: Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve Studio, and Apple Final Cut Pro are the go-to choices for professionals requiring the utmost control and integration with complex workflows.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Even with the best tools, color correction can be tricky. Understanding common mistakes can save you a lot of time and frustration, leading to consistently better results. A 2023 survey by Statista found that 75% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase after watching a video, emphasizing that quality directly influences consumer action. Avoiding common pitfalls ensures your video contributes positively to this statistic.

Over-Correcting or Over-Grading

This is perhaps the most common mistake.

Beginners often push sliders too far, resulting in:

• Crushed Blacks/Blown Highlights: Losing detail in the darkest or brightest parts of the image, making it look unnatural and harsh.
• Oversaturated Colors: Colors appearing artificial, glowing, or “loud,” hurting the viewer’s eyes.
• Unnatural Skin Tones: Skin looking orange, green, or too pale, which is immediately noticeable and distracting.
• Loss of Detail: Excessive contrast or sharpening can make footage look grainy or artificial.
• Solution: Make subtle adjustments. It’s often better to make several small tweaks than one large one. Use scopes to guide your decisions rather than relying solely on your eyes, especially if your monitor isn’t perfectly calibrated. Less is often more in color correction.

Inconsistent Color Across Clips

A major sign of amateur editing is when colors jump wildly from one shot to the next within the same scene.

• Causes: Different lighting conditions, multiple cameras with varying color profiles, or simply not paying attention to continuity.
• Solution:
  • Match First: Always match the color and luminance of your clips within a scene before applying any creative grade.
  • Reference Shot: Pick a key shot in a scene as your reference and try to match all other shots to it.
  • Global Adjustments: Consider using adjustment layers or nodes that affect multiple clips for your final creative grade, ensuring consistency.
  • AI Color Match: Utilize AI-powered color matching tools if available in your video color correction software.

Not Calibrating Your Monitor

What you see on your screen might not be what others see, or what the final output truly looks like.

• Problem: An uncalibrated monitor can display colors incorrectly, leading you to make inaccurate adjustments. You might over-saturate colors that look good on your monitor but appear garish on others, or lighten shadows that appear too dark on your screen but are fine elsewhere.
• Solution: Invest in a monitor calibration device like a Spyder or X-Rite i1Display and calibrate your display regularly. This ensures that the colors you see are accurate and consistent with industry standards. If professional calibration isn’t feasible, at least view your video on multiple devices TV, phone, other computers to get a general sense of how it looks.

Forgetting to Use Scopes

Relying solely on your eyes can be deceptive, especially in long editing sessions.

• Problem: Your eyes can adjust to color casts, and different monitor settings can make objective assessment difficult.
• Solution: Always use scopes waveform, vectorscope, RGB parade to get objective data. They don’t lie. They will show you exactly if your highlights are clipped, if your white balance is off, or if your skin tones are accurate, regardless of your monitor’s settings or your eye fatigue.

Optimizing for Different Platforms and Delivery

The final step in video color correction is ensuring your video looks its best on various platforms, which often have different technical specifications and viewing environments. A 2022 study by Wyzowl found that 91% of businesses are using video as a marketing tool, indicating the widespread need for correctly delivered content. Convert word to wordperfect

Color Spaces and Delivery Formats

Understanding color spaces is critical for maintaining consistency from editing to viewing.

• Rec.709: This is the standard color space for High Definition HD video. Most of your content will be delivered in Rec.709 for web, broadcast, and standard Blu-ray. If your footage was shot in Log, it must be converted to Rec.709 before final delivery for standard viewing.
• Rec.2020 / HDR: For High Dynamic Range HDR content, Rec.2020 is the wider color space. HDR video offers significantly brighter highlights, deeper blacks, and a broader range of colors. Delivering HDR content requires cameras capable of capturing it and displays capable of reproducing it.
• SDR vs. HDR: Most platforms default to Standard Dynamic Range SDR. If you edit in HDR, ensure you have a proper workflow for creating an SDR version if needed, as not all devices support HDR playback.
• File Formats and Codecs: Choose appropriate export formats e.g., H.264 for web, ProRes for high-quality masters and codecs that maintain color fidelity without introducing compression artifacts that can degrade color quality.

Platform-Specific Considerations

Each platform has its own quirks regarding video playback and compression, which can affect how your colors appear.

• YouTube/Vimeo: These platforms re-encode your video, which can sometimes lead to slight shifts in color or contrast, especially in the black levels.
  • Recommendation: Export your video in a high-quality H.264 or ProRes codec with appropriate data rates. Some colorists slightly raise their black levels before uploading to counteract YouTube’s compression, which can sometimes crush blacks.
• Social Media Instagram, TikTok: These platforms are notorious for aggressive compression.
  • Recommendation: Keep your color grades relatively robust but not overly delicate. Avoid subtle gradients that might band easily. Bright, clear, and slightly saturated colors tend to perform well. Test your video on these platforms before final upload.
• Broadcast Television: This requires adherence to strict broadcast safe standards, ensuring luminance and chrominance levels stay within specific ranges to prevent illegal signals. Professional color correction software often includes broadcast safe limiters.
• Theatrical Release: Requires very specific DCI Digital Cinema Initiatives color spaces and mastering specifications. This is a highly specialized area of color correction.

The Importance of Testing

Always export small sections of your video and test them on various devices and platforms before rendering the final version.

• Multiple Screens: Watch your video on different monitors, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
• Different Browsers: Check playback in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.
• Targeted Platforms: Upload a test clip to YouTube, Instagram, or wherever your video will live to see how their compression affects your color.

This rigorous testing process ensures that your meticulously crafted color correction translates effectively to your audience, regardless of how they watch your content.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is video color correction?

Video color correction is the technical process of adjusting the color, contrast, and brightness of video footage to achieve a natural, accurate, and consistent look, fixing issues like incorrect white balance or exposure.

What is the difference between color correction and color grading?

Color correction is the technical step of fixing inaccuracies e.g., white balance, exposure to make footage look natural, while color grading is the creative step of applying stylistic choices to enhance the mood or aesthetic of the video.

What is the best software for video color correction?

The “best” software depends on your needs.

DaVinci Resolve is widely considered the industry standard for color, Adobe Premiere Pro offers robust tools within a comprehensive editing suite, and Final Cut Pro is excellent for Mac users.

For beginners, Corel VideoStudio or mobile apps like CapCut are great starting points.

Can I do video color correction online free?

Yes, there are several video color correction online free tools available for basic adjustments like brightness, contrast, and saturation. Edit portrait photos

However, they often lack advanced features and precision compared to desktop software.

Is there a video color correction app for mobile?

Yes, popular video color correction apps include CapCut, InShot, and LumaFusion iOS only which offer various tools for color adjustments on both Android and iPhone devices.

How do I correct color in Premiere Pro?

In Adobe Premiere Pro, you correct color primarily using the Lumetri Color panel.

You’ll use basic correction sliders, curves, and color wheels to adjust white balance, exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, and saturation.

What is a video color correction tool?

A video color correction tool refers to any feature, panel, or software application designed to manipulate the color properties of video footage, ranging from simple sliders to complex node-based systems.

What is video color correction AI?

Video color correction AI refers to the use of artificial intelligence algorithms to automate or assist in color correction tasks, such as automatic white balance, exposure correction, and color matching between different clips.

How important is white balance in video color correction?

White balance is extremely important in video color correction as it ensures that white objects appear true white, eliminating color casts caused by different light sources and serving as the foundation for accurate colors.

Can I fix underexposed footage with color correction?

Yes, you can often fix underexposed footage by increasing exposure, lifting shadows, and adjusting midtones using color correction tools like levels or curves.

However, severely underexposed footage may still have noise and lack detail.

How do I make my video look cinematic with color correction?

To make your video look cinematic, first correct the footage, then apply a creative color grade. Files into one pdf

Common cinematic looks involve adjusting contrast often an S-curve, desaturating certain colors, adding subtle color tints to shadows and highlights e.g., teal and orange, and using specific LUTs.

What is a LUT in color correction?

A LUT Look Up Table is a file that transforms color values in your video, effectively applying a pre-defined color grade or “look.” They are often used to convert Log footage to Rec.709 or to instantly apply cinematic styles.

Do I need a special monitor for color correction?

For professional video color correction, a calibrated monitor is highly recommended.

It ensures that the colors you see on your screen are accurate and consistent with industry standards, preventing inaccurate adjustments.

What are video scopes and why are they important?

Video scopes like waveform, vectorscope, RGB parade, histogram are graphical tools that display the objective color and luminance data of your video.

They are crucial because they provide accurate information that your eyes might miss, helping you make precise and consistent corrections.

How can I ensure consistent color across multiple video clips?

To ensure consistent color, use a reference clip within a scene and match other clips to it using color correction tools.

Copying and pasting color attributes, creating global adjustment layers, or using AI color matching features can also help.

Is video color correction free for beginners?

Many video color correction software options offer free trials, and some powerful tools like the free version of DaVinci Resolve provide extensive capabilities without cost, making them accessible for beginners.

Can color correction improve video quality?

Yes, effective color correction significantly improves video quality by fixing technical flaws, enhancing clarity, and making the footage visually more appealing, professional, and consistent. Rw2 viewer

What are some common color correction mistakes to avoid?

Common mistakes include over-correcting, not using scopes, failing to calibrate your monitor, and inconsistent color across clips.

Always aim for subtle adjustments and verify your work with scopes.

How does color correction affect the mood of a video?

Color correction, especially during the grading phase, profoundly affects the mood of a video.

Warm tones can evoke happiness or nostalgia, cool tones can suggest sadness or professionalism, and high contrast can create drama, while low contrast can imply softness.

Should I color correct before or after editing my video?

You should typically perform color correction and grading after you have completed the main editing process cutting, transitions, effects. This ensures that your color adjustments are applied to the final sequence of shots.