How to color correct footage in Premiere Pro
Use Lumetri and scopes to balance individual clips, match adjacent shots and keep shared scene treatment separate from each clip's correction.
To color correct footage in Premiere Pro, select a timeline clip, open Lumetri Color, and use Basic Correction for white balance, exposure and contrast. Read Lumetri Scopes as you work and match each shot to a useful reference. I would keep the correction on each clip because a shared adjustment layer affects the shots beneath it; add that layer for the scene's common treatment.
Start this color finishing pass after picture and timing have mostly settled. Correction normally comes before creative grading: first make the shots consistent, then decide on their look.
Check which color workspace you have
The steps below use Lumetri in the shipping 26.x desktop release, with English menu names. Adobe describes the new Color Mode as a beta workflow and places the Lumetri panel's retirement in the upcoming 27.0 release. A tutorial showing Color Mode's heads-up displays is teaching a different interface.
For an unfinished Lumetri project, Adobe recommends staying with shipping 26.x until it is finished. Explore Color Mode beta with a duplicate or fresh project: Adobe's beta project guidance cautions against critical client work and freely moving projects between beta and 26.x. Color Mode beta also drops Lumetri's Clip Match and the Edit-mode comparison view, so the matching steps below belong to the shipping Lumetri workflow.
Verify the image before correcting it
A flat log shot is not automatically a shot that needs more Contrast. Premiere's color-management pipeline converts the identified source color space into the sequence's working space, processes adjustments there, then converts to the output space. Check that setup before compensating for an unexpectedly flat or harsh image.
For missing or incorrect source metadata, Adobe identifies Modify Clip > Color as the place to verify and correct the clip's color-space tag. Use the recording profile the footage was shot in. Then inspect the sequence's Color tab in Sequence Settings, or the Sequence section of the Lumetri panel's Settings tab. Confirm the working and output spaces for the intended delivery before making corrections.
Keep that working space fixed during the pass: the same Lumetri adjustments can look different in another working space. A LUT also expects a particular color space. Check what any existing LUT is intended to do; adding an arbitrary look or disabling color management is not the first repair for an unidentified input.
Check the viewer too. In Color preferences, enable Display Color Management to show colors more accurately on a supported screen. Keep that viewing setup consistent while judging white balance, contrast and the match across a cut.
Open the scopes and select one shot
Open the sequence, select the clip to correct and park the playhead on a representative frame. Choose Window > Lumetri Color, then expand Basic Correction. Open Window > Lumetri Scopes; right-click inside the scope panel to choose the displays you need.
Start by asking the scopes three different questions. Adobe's scope descriptions distinguish their jobs:
- Waveform, Luma: how are brightness and contrast distributed? This display uses IRE values.
- Parade, RGB: how do the red, green and blue components compare? It can help identify a cast.
- Vectorscope YUV: which hues are present, and how saturated are they? Hue runs around the circle; saturation extends outward from its center.
Use the scope mode appropriate to the footage, especially for HDR. Do not stretch every scene to the edges of a scale: a night interior and a sunlit exterior need different tonal decisions. Also, Clamp Signal changes only the scope display. It does not limit the timeline signal or exported file.
Balance the clip, then shape its tones
Remove the unwanted cast
In Basic Correction, use the White Balance eyedropper on something you know should be white or neutral. Then fine-tune Temperature and Tint. Temperature left makes the image cooler; right makes it warmer. Tint left adds green; right adds magenta.
Read the RGB Parade alongside that neutral reference, then judge the subject under the scene's intended light. Do not force the whole frame's red, green and blue traces to match: colored objects and colored lighting belong in the image. If no trustworthy neutral surface is visible, use Temperature and Tint manually and compare with a reliable shot from the same scene.
Set brightness before tightening contrast
Adjust Exposure while watching the Luma waveform and the subject. Move right to brighten the shot or left to darken it. You can enter a value in the box beside a slider when a small move is easier to control that way. There is no exposure number that repairs every underexposed clip.
Next separate the areas that need attention. Highlights and Shadows adjust the bright and dark regions. Lower Highlights when bright areas need to come down; raise Shadows when dark regions need to come up. Watch whether useful texture becomes visible, rather than assuming a darker highlight or brighter shadow is automatically an improvement.
Use Contrast for the overall separation, which Adobe describes as mainly affecting the midtones. Then refine the ends with Whites and Blacks. Moving Whites left reduces highlight clipping; moving Blacks left increases black clipping. Check those ends while keeping the important subject readable.
Judge saturation after the tonal correction
The Basic Correction Saturation control affects all colors equally. Watch the vectorscope as you adjust it, then look at faces and familiar objects. Do not desaturate an entire shot to hide one troublesome hue. If the intended treatment is black and white, make that a deliberate look after the correction.
For a starting point instead of a manual first pass, select the clip and choose Auto in Basic Correction. Its individual adjustments remain editable, and Intensity changes their overall impact. Judge the result with the same scopes and reference shot.
Play from a little before the preceding cut. If the face suddenly becomes brighter or a neutral wall changes color, return to the individual clip correction before adding any common scene treatment.
Match the next shot to a useful reference
Choose a corrected shot that represents the scene's intended light. With the playhead over the next shot, open Comparison View from the Program Monitor or Lumetri Color panel. Pick the reference frame with its slider, timecode field or edit-point arrows. Compare corresponding subjects and neutral surfaces, not the average brightness of two different compositions.
Before using automatic matching, save a separate project copy if you need to retain a carefully adjusted version. Adobe warns that matching can override previous changes and reset some altered Lumetri parameters. Review the match before keeping it, especially when the clip already has a finished correction.
- Position the timeline playhead over the target clip and make sure that clip is selected. Use a frame representative of its overall color and brightness.
- In Lumetri, open the Color Wheels & Match section before you compare the shots and choose a reference frame.
- For faces, consider the Face Detection option. It is on by default and gives detected facial regions more weight; disable it when the whole frame should be evaluated equally.
- Choose Apply Match. Premiere updates Color Wheels and, when needed, Saturation. Inspect those changes and refine the shot.
You can also leave Apply Match unused and adjust the target manually while Comparison View stays open. Play through the cut, then inspect another part of the target shot. A match chosen from one frame still needs to hold when the subject moves or the composition changes.
Put only the shared treatment above the scene
Correct the clips separately first. An adjustment layer is useful when those corrected shots need the same further treatment. Adobe's layer instructions make its reach clear: effects apply to all clips on tracks below it.
A simple stack, from top to bottom, is V3 titles, V2 common color treatment, V1 individually corrected shots. If a title must keep its original palette, leave it on V3 above the shared layer. Graphics below it receive the treatment too.
- Choose File > New > Adjustment Layer. Check its Video Settings and select OK.
- Drag the layer from the Project panel to the track above the footage. Set its start and end to cover only the intended scene.
- Click the adjustment layer's body to select it. In the Effects panel, search for Lumetri Color and double-click the effect to add it to that layer.
- Adjust the shared treatment, then play across the underlying cuts. Check that the same treatment is useful on every affected shot.
If one shot still needs a different exposure or white-balance correction, return to that clip. Changing the common layer changes its neighbors as well.
Play through the cuts before adding a look
Run a continuous section from before the first corrected cut to after the last. Watch the scopes for sudden changes, then watch whether the subject's brightness, neutral surfaces and color intensity hold together. Preserve changes that belong to the scene, such as moving into different light; fix jumps that come from inconsistent correction.
After a late trim or added shot, check the common layer's start and end again. Once the sequence reads consistently across its cuts, grade a look and replay the same section to judge what that look does to the scene.
