Get to Know Color Grading in Video Editing (Comprehensive Guide)

Not everything can be fixed in post-production, but some things, like color, can be adjusted. To ensure your footage has the right feel and look, you need to understand the essential tricks and skills of color grading. Every piece of footage in a production undergoes both color grading and color correction, which are actually two different processes. Here's everything you need to know about color grading in video editing.

What Is Color Grading?

Color grading is a crucial post-production process in video production that enhances the visual appeal of a video. It involves modifying and improving the colors in your footage to create a specific aesthetic or mood. This can range from subtle tweaks that make colors more vivid to significant changes that completely transform the look and feel of a scene.

Consider the stark, desaturated colors in a dystopian film or the warm, vibrant hues in a summer rom-com—these effects are achieved through color grading. This process helps set the tone and mood of the story and ensures consistency across different shots and scenes. Whether you're aiming to create a dreamy flashback sequence or a high-contrast action scene, color grading gives you the tools to bring your vision to life on screen.

Color Grading vs. Color Correction

Color Correction: This is the first step in the post-production process. It involves adjusting the exposure, white balance, ISO noise, and contrast of each clip to achieve a natural, realistic look. The goal is to ensure all shots in a scene match and there are no jarring visual inconsistencies. It's about fixing issues like a shot being too dark, too light, or having an unwanted color tint. Essentially, color correction is about making your footage look as it should have when it was filmed.

Color Grading: After color correction, we move on to color grading, where creativity truly shines. Color grading involves adding filters and adjusting the shades of the footage to create a specific mood or aesthetic. This could mean making a scene look warmer or cooler, desaturating colors for a bleak look, or enhancing certain colors to make a scene pop. While color correction aims to achieve a natural, balanced look, color grading is about stylizing your footage to enhance the storytelling.

What Is Color Grading Used For?

In visual media, color grading is the process of adjusting and enhancing images and footage to create consistent color tones. It can be applied to both photos and videos to improve imagery, create moods, and shape the viewer's perception of the stories you want to tell. For short-form content on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts, color grading helps maintain consistent branding and boost brand awareness.

File type plays a crucial role in color grading. RAW files are large and contain a lot of information, making them ideal for color grading due to their data-rich color logs that can be easily manipulated to create different color palettes. When RAW footage doesn't match your desired palette, photo and video editing tools can be used for color grading.

In contrast, shooting photos or videos in compressed formats like JPEG or MPEG results in smaller file sizes with less data, limiting your ability to manipulate colors as effectively as with uncompressed RAW files. While many smartphones lack RAW functionality, some higher-end models, such as the iPhone 13 Pro and newer, do offer this feature.

Also read: How to Hire a YouTube Video Editor: A Complete Guide

How to Do Color Grading

Color grading can be a challenging skill to master, especially for newcomers to editing and color theory. Here’s a simplified guide to help you navigate the color grading process:

1. Start with Color Correction

Begin by performing color correction to establish a solid color foundation for your footage. This involves adjusting key parameters:

• Curves: Use curves to control the brightness and contrast of your video, enhancing its overall look.
• White balance: Adjust white balance to ensure colors appear natural and true, without unwanted tints.
• Brightness and contrast: Fine-tune the brightness and contrast levels to achieve the desired visual impact.
• Highlights and shadows: Adjust these settings to balance the lightest and darkest parts of your footage, enhancing detail and dynamic range.

2. Ensure Consistency Across Shots

Use lookup tables (LUTs) to match colors across different shots, creating a consistent color palette throughout your project. This ensures that elements like clothing and backgrounds maintain a uniform appearance across scenes. While presets and built-in LUTs can be convenient, customizing them for your project may be necessary for optimal results.

3. Perfect Skin Tones

Pay special attention to skin tones to ensure they appear natural and consistent throughout your video. Adjust lighting and color settings to maintain lifelike skin tones, which are crucial for maintaining viewer engagement and realism.

4. Set the Mood and Atmosphere

After correcting colors, apply artistic adjustments to enhance the mood and atmosphere of your scenes. Adjust hues and tones to evoke specific emotions or convey narrative themes, whether it's creating warm, inviting tones for a tranquil setting or cool, desaturated colors for a somber mood.

5. Review and Refine

Carefully review each shot after initial grading to ensure consistent color treatment across your entire video. Make final adjustments as needed to align with your color palette and maintain visual continuity. Remember, effective color grading enhances your footage but cannot compensate for poor cinematography.

By following these steps and experimenting with different techniques, you can enhance the visual appeal of your videos and create impactful storytelling through color grading.

Also read: How Much Does a Video Editor Cost? (2024 Updated Rates)

Color Grading Tips

Here are some simplified tips for color grading in video editing:

1. Utilize color wheels and curves — These tools found in video editing software offer precise adjustments for shadows, midtones, and highlights, enhancing control beyond basic sliders.
2. Experiment with LUTs — Test and adjust pre-set LUTs (Look-Up Tables) to find ones that match your desired visual style, saving time and providing a starting point for further adjustments.
3. Check on different screens — Review color-graded videos on various devices to ensure consistency across different displays. Using a color-accurate monitor during editing can help maintain natural colors and reduce post-production adjustments.
4. Plan your color palette — Decide on color schemes and editing approaches before filming to streamline the editing process and bring your vision to life more efficiently.

Simplify Your Color Grading with LeoModo's Unlimited Video Editing Service

Color grading is a crucial aspect of video production that requires precision, expertise, and the right tools to achieve the desired visual appeal. While you can learn to do it yourself, mastering the art of color grading takes time and effort. Instead of spending countless hours tweaking your footage, consider using LeoModo's Unlimited Video Editing Service. At LeoModo, our team of skilled editors excels in all aspects of video production, including color grading. We ensure your footage looks professional and visually stunning, allowing you to focus on your creative vision without worrying about the technical details. With LeoModo, you get the benefit of expert color grading, seamless integration with your overall project, and a hassle-free experience that guarantees satisfaction. Let us handle the intricacies of color grading so you can bring your story to life with perfect visuals.