How to Color Grade Video: Correct First, Then Build a Look
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- You need
- Editing or grading software with scopes
- Works with
- Log, standard and phone footage
On this page
To color grade video, correct before you create. First normalize log footage with the right conversion. Then set exposure and contrast on the waveform, neutralize white balance and match every shot in a scene. Check skin tones on the vectorscope and fix problem areas with masks. Only then build the look, and review the export on real screens. This guide is part of our video production guide.
You'll need editing or grading software with video scopes, the right conversion LUT for each camera, and ideally a calibrated monitor in a dimly lit room.
Color correction vs color grading
People use the two terms loosely, but they're different jobs done in a fixed order.
Color correction makes footage accurate and consistent. Exposure is right, whites are white, skin looks like skin and every shot in a scene matches the next. Color grading is the creative step on top: the look that gives a piece its mood, like warm and gentle for a family business story, or cool and contrasty for a tech launch.
The order matters because a look applied to unbalanced shots carries their differences forward. Balance and match first, and one grade can then flow across the whole sequence.
The scopes you need
Your eyes adjust to whatever is in front of them, and the light in your room changes what you see. Scopes measure the image itself, so they don't drift.
| Scope | What it shows | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| Waveform | Brightness across the frame, 0 to 100 | Set exposure; avoid crushed blacks or clipped whites |
| RGB parade | Red, green and blue levels side by side | Spot and remove color casts |
| Vectorscope | Hue and saturation on a circle | Check white balance, saturation and skin tone |
Steps
- Set up the room and the monitor.
Grade on a calibrated monitor if you can, in a room with dim, neutral light and no colored walls in your eyeline. Turn off night modes and automatic brightness on the display. Open the waveform, parade and vectorscope beside the viewer. Gather two or three reference stills that show the look the client approved, so you're matching a target rather than drifting.
- Normalize log footage first.
Footage shot in a log profile looks flat and gray on purpose: it keeps more highlight and shadow detail for later. Convert it to a standard color space, such as Rec. 709, using the technical LUT or color space transform made for that exact camera and profile. Don't grade on top of raw log. Standard-profile and phone footage can skip this step.
- Set exposure and contrast on the waveform.
Adjust exposure so the image sits comfortably between the bottom and top of the waveform, then set contrast with highlights, shadows, whites and blacks. Avoid pressing the trace flat against 0 or 100, because detail crushed or clipped there usually can't be brought back. Expose for what matters most in the shot, which is usually the subject's face.
- Neutralize white balance.
Use the temperature and tint controls to remove color casts. On the RGB parade, something white or gray in the scene should show red, green and blue at the same height. On the vectorscope, a neutral image keeps most of its trace near the center. If the shot has a white or gray object, many tools let you click it with an eyedropper to balance automatically.
- Match shots within each scene.
Pick one well-lit hero shot in each scene and correct it first. Then match the other shots to it: same brightness on the face, same white balance, same contrast and saturation. Compare them side by side, and use the scopes to see differences your eyes miss. Matching is what makes cuts between angles invisible, so take your time over it.
- Check skin tones on the vectorscope.
Isolate a patch of skin with a small mask or window, so the vectorscope shows only skin. Many tools draw a skin tone indicator line. Use it as a guide to spot an obvious green or magenta shift, not as a target to force every face onto. People's skin differs, and the light in the scene should still show. Make small hue adjustments.
- Fix problem areas with secondaries.
Secondary corrections change only part of the image. Use a qualifier to select a color range, such as a sky or a brand color, or a mask to isolate an area, such as a bright window or a face. Then adjust just that selection. Keep secondaries light and track masks when the camera or subject moves, or the edge of the adjustment will show.
- Build the look.
With every shot balanced and matched, add the creative grade across the scene or the whole piece. Shape it with color wheels or curves, or start with a creative LUT and lower its strength. Check that a creative LUT doesn't also contain a log conversion, or you'll convert twice. Keep skin believable and brand colors recognizable, and compare against your reference stills.
- Review on real screens and export.
Watch the whole piece through in one sitting, looking for shots that jump. Then export a review file and watch it on a laptop, a phone and a TV, because screens differ. For standard dynamic range delivery, keep the timeline and export in Rec. 709. YouTube, for example, recommends BT.709 for SDR uploads. Make final tweaks, then export the masters.
If you'd rather have the grade done for you, our in-house video production team shoots, edits and grades every project, with no handoffs.
For codec, bitrate and color space by platform, see export settings for web and social .
Grading for consistency, not just looks
A striking look gets attention, but consistency is what makes video feel professional. Viewers rarely notice a good grade. They notice when a face changes color between two angles, or when a cutaway is brighter than the shot around it.
That's why most grading time goes into correction and matching rather than the look itself. It also explains why grading starts on set. Footage lit with matched color temperatures and exposed carefully needs far less fixing. We cover that in how to light an interview. Camera moves add their own challenge: a shot that pans from a window to a wall can change exposure mid-shot, so plan those camera movements with the grade in mind.
For brand work, agree the reference look before the edit starts, and keep brand colors close to their true values. A logo or product in the wrong shade is the kind of error clients spot first.
To hand graded files back to the edit cleanly, see our video editing workflow .
Troubleshooting
Shots in one scene don't match
Cause: the shots were filmed at different times, on different cameras or with different settings. Daylight may have shifted between takes, or one camera used a different white balance or picture profile. Each shot may also have been corrected separately, without a common reference, so small differences pile up across the scene.
Fix: choose one hero shot and correct it carefully, then match every other shot to it rather than to each other. Compare them side by side with the waveform and parade, matching the face brightness first and then the white balance. If two cameras were used, build a correction for each camera and apply it to all of its shots before fine-tuning. Then apply one shared look across the scene.
Skin looks orange, green or magenta
Cause: the white balance was off when shooting, mixed light sources hit the face, or the grade pushed saturation or warmth too far. Fluorescent and some LED lights add a green or magenta tint. A strong creative look can also shift skin away from natural tones, especially in the shadows.
Fix: go back to the correction layer and neutralize white balance first. Then isolate the skin with a mask and check it on the vectorscope against the skin tone indicator, making small hue adjustments only. Lower overall saturation if faces look sunburned. If the cast is only in shadows or highlights, adjust those ranges separately. Keep the look's strength low enough that skin stays believable.
Log footage looks wrong after the LUT
Cause: the conversion doesn't match the footage. The LUT may be for a different camera or log profile, the clip may already have a conversion applied automatically, or a creative LUT that includes its own log conversion may have been stacked on top. The result is crushed shadows, harsh contrast or oversaturated, strange color.
Fix: check the camera's metadata or the shoot notes for the exact log profile and color space, and use the conversion made for it. Look in your software's clip settings for an automatic camera LUT, and remove duplicates. Apply the technical conversion once, before any creative grade, and read the specifications of any creative LUT to see whether it expects log or Rec. 709 input.
Common questions
What is the difference between color correction and color grading?
Color correction makes footage accurate and consistent: correct exposure, neutral white balance, natural skin and shots that match. Color grading is the creative step that follows, where you give the whole piece a look, such as warm and soft or cool and contrasty. Grading on top of uncorrected footage usually exaggerates the problems, so correction always comes first.
Do I have to shoot in log to color grade?
No. You can grade any footage, including standard profiles and phone video. Log records a flatter image with more exposure latitude, which leaves more room to adjust highlights and shadows later. The trade-off is extra work: log needs normalizing before it looks right, and it's less forgiving of a wrong conversion. For quick-turn projects, a well-exposed standard profile is often enough.
Can I just use a LUT to color grade?
A LUT can be part of a grade, but it's rarely the whole job. A technical LUT converts log footage to a standard image, and a creative LUT adds a look. Neither one knows how each shot was exposed or lit, so you still need to balance and match shots first. Apply creative LUTs after correction, and adjust their strength to taste.
Why does my grade look different on my phone?
Screens differ in brightness, color and contrast, and many phones adjust the image automatically. That's why graders work on a calibrated monitor and check scopes rather than trusting one screen. Before delivery, watch the export on a few common devices. If it looks extreme on all of them, adjust the grade. If only one screen looks off, the problem is probably that screen.