The workflows we all use vary over time, as we learn more about what we want to do, gain experience, and of course … as the tools we use change. For the major color corrections that I do in Premiere Pro’s Lumetri panel, the projects that require more of a full “grade” rather than a few minor corrections or tweaks, I’ve recently changed my order of work. It’s better and faster now.
This entire grading process series is going to be a several-part series. If you haven’t looked at them, also look at my posts on the specific results from using the tools in each section of the Lumetri control panel. That series works at getting used to what the tools do. This one will focus on what you’d want to do with those tools.
For a quick summary, I start in the Creative tab (!) and zero Saturation; then I go to Basic to make the tonal (luma) changes so the part of the clip that is critical to see is easy to see; back to Creative … zero the Saturation, use Shadow/Highlight tint controls for basic white balancing, adjust sharpness, vibrance, and saturation to (again) just get clean & neutral. Then finish in the Curves tab if I need a quick change especially to the individual color saturation using the Hue Sat circle. Total time using a control surface, 30 seconds to a minute for most clips, no more than five for a nasty one. By mouse/pen control, a bit more time, as in double or triple.
Read through the details below to see if any part is useful for you.
Before I even start Color work, I set the scopes I need at the moment. For some steps, I work totally from the reading on the scopes. For all others, I use both scopes and “perceptual” (the Mark I eyeball/brain combo) to evaluate the image. But I always have at least one scope showing! For different steps, I like different combinations of scopes; normally I have two or sometimes three visible. For neutralization, there’s a wide range of controls that different editors/colorists prefer. Suit yourself. I’ll use the Parade/RGB and Waveform in Luma mode for the tonal work, like this example.
A bit of scopes setup might be wise … note that I’ve set the bottom right settings to “Clamp” unchecked mode to “float”. I want to see all the signal, and know if there’s material I’m clipping on either end. “Clamp” locks the visible signal to the 0-100 of the left-hand scale. Not very useful for me. And I wish we could save our own scopes presets, it would save me so much time!
For the first step of neutralization, I start in the Creative tab … yes, the Creative tab! Two reasons really. For those who need or choose to use a Tech LUT/Look to ‘normalize’ LOG encoded media, the LUT/Look selection slot at the top of the Creative tab (see red bar at top of image) is the proper place to apply any camera-corrective LUT or Look. This is so that the tonal controls are processed before that LUT/Look to fit the field-produced media into ‘technically correct’ tonal range. As taught by master colorist Alexis Van Hurkman and many others, and as “practiced” in all grading programs that I know of, including the biggie, Resolve.
I don’t work much log media, though I do get some now and then. But I have produced LUTs to quickly match a couple cameras that I use a lot. If I’m using them both, I use that slot. If not, I skip it.
Either way, I do always go to the next step, which will be the first for much of my work, and for many other users.
I set the Creative Tab’s Saturation slider to 0 … yes, 0! (See red bar at bottom of image above right.) This removes all color from the displayed image, so you only see the tonal range of the media. This, for many colorists, is the only way to view and neutralize the Luma … the brightness tonal ranges of the media, in gray scale only. We’ll change this later, but it’s the fastest way to work the next steps.
With the scopes set, and color removed from the display, now I go to the Basic tab. Of course, with no color, there’s no reason to pay attention to the Temp/Tint controls so fuhgedabout ’em. Useless, actually.
Start by getting the Black & White points where they should be for the clip. Lumetri doesn’t have a “great!” black point control in my opinion. The Black control works only in a very small bit of the range, without affecting anything above it. It’s almost like a swinging flap with the “top” of the flap at about a value of 20 so be gentle with this! It can remove the contrast between close points of detail.
I tend to barely nudge Blacks while working with Shadow to lift or drop the darkest values, and often will leave an ‘imperfect’ setting that I’ll correct later in Curves or Color Wheels work. You want values (left-hand scale) from a point or two above 0 for very full-range scenes to somewhere around 15-20 for a very low contrast, foggy-day scene.
Setting the white point is easy! Using the Whites control/slider, which is (in colorist terms) a straight Gain control. Higher values lift whites and maintain a straight line clear to Black point. Lower values drop whites and keep that straight line to black points. Very predictable. And proper.
Depending on the scene, this can be “proper” at any place between (left-hand) values of 60 to 100. For most scenes, expect to start somewhere between 80 and 92 or so. Just under 90 seemed fine for this winter gray day.
If you’ve got some sort of control or “surface”, such as the Tangent Ripple, and set it like I show in an earlier post to work the Basic tab controls, this is a two-handed and fast job. Work both ends at the same time! Get either that or a Palette, get AWAY from the mouse or pen-tab for this!
With Shadows and Whites where they look clean and “appropriate” for a neutral view of that clip, use the other tonal controls to get that best view … the visual clarity … of the all-important middle tones, so your viewers can see into the clip.What’s so important about this clip that it needs to be seen? That important bit needs to be clearly visible. We can use some judicious color work later to help with that, but if you don’t check your tonal controls first, you 1) leave half your tools on the table unused and 2) place a higher demand on the other half of your tools … and skills. Not wise.
To really see this, work the controls against each other, Shadows vs Highlights, or Exposure; Whites vs Highlights/Exposure/whatever … even maybe barely adjust the Black control. And it’s very important to see what changes you’ve done are doing to the original media: click the little box to the upper right of the Basic tab (surrounded in red here!) to turn off what you’ve done to see the original tonal values, on to see progress, and judge whether what you’re doing is helping the clip or not. It may take several takes on a clip to really improve it.
Watch the scopes, especially the Waveform, while you work. Try to stretch out sections, compress others … see what it does to the image. After some practice, you will learn to use the scopes to guide what you try to do. Most of the time, working shadows/highlights simultaneously gives me a quick trip to a clean, clear image. Quick to clarity is good!
Once you’ve got the best tonal clarity, it’s time to move on. Back to the Creative tab to neutralize color! And as you do, you’ll probably wish to change the scopes. I tend to like Parade in RGB and Vectorscope YUV for this part. After re-setting the scopes, I’ll double-click on the slider for the Saturation to re-center or neutralize that control.
If you used a normalization LUT of some sort, now’s a great time to adjust the “Intensity” slider below the preview window in the Creative tab to see how much of that you want dialed in. This is a very useful tool.
Next up, is to neutralize the white balance of the image. If you get everything neutral first, then it’s far easier to both match the cameras and clips of the sequence then take a number of clips to a particular feel or look. So … we just want to get close to neutral … grays and low-saturation tones as close to neutral gray as possible quickly.
Start with the Shadow Tint control … and watch the bottom of the Parade scope. Select some obvious shape that is mirrored on all three channels, and adjust the control to get that shape as even across the scopes as possible. Then do the same with the Highlight Tint control, watching some shape near the top of the three channels. Don’t worry about a spike in one or two channels, choose a shape that’s in all three. With a surface/panel, you do both at the same time … saving time!
When they are pretty even, spend a moment watching the image while moving the Tint Balance control. If there’s a spot where the mids look more neutral than others, that’s the setting. And you’ve probably got by now a rather neutral image, more neutral in tone than you’ll probably choose to end up with. But a great starting place.
Now … work the Saturation and Vibrance controls against each other. Saturation is the ‘gross’ saturation, think the full extension of the trace in the Vectorscope. Vibrance is the amount of saturation of the colors on the inner half of the Vectorscope, the less saturated colors. I typically adjust the Vibrance to get skin tones and other low saturation hues looking … again, neutral. “Normal”. Then I set Saturation until the intense colors are full, but not overly intense. Remember, Neutral! (With experience, you’ll learn to set the Saturation knowing you can pull a problem child spike or two back in the next step.)
You might even choose to apply a bit of Sharpening at this stage. I did.
Now, note the bright yellow strip on the pavement? A bit too intense when the rest of the colors are looking good. Easy fix … head to the Curves tab!
Still using the Parade RGB and Vectorscope UV, I’m going right to the Hue circle. I’ll click that offending color as there’s a handy yellow circle, and Lumetri nicely puts three points on the Hue line, one at each end of the main yellow hue section. You can of course slide those manually to adjust, or click to set your own. Pull that center point in, and voila, that overly saturated yellow is now back in line with the other colors. I could go back to the Creative tab and increase gross Saturation without over-pushing yellow now.
But one other thing I noticed … there’s a slight green/cyan “push” or tint in some of the pavement and locomotive tones. So while here in the Curves tab, I’ll click the Cyan circle, and then pull slightly pull back on some of the points in that area, until the pavement and train panels look “clean” neutral. Done!
You can of course use the RGB Curves if needed, but I’m not a fan of this tool in Lumetri … I like a much bigger Curves panel to make small adjustments as it is way too easy to go too far with curves.
And now … I’ve a clean clip, ready to join others as part of a much larger project. In reality, the above takes me under five minutes for a troubled clip, not more than a minute for most. Time is crucial. Get close and move on!
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