Introduction to Color Correction with Adobe Premiere Pro

A number of learning platforms around the world offer courses in color grading. You could try out this very useful course. We suggest this because it familiarizes you with everything that you need to know about color grading. It takes less than 24 hours for you to graduate from beginner to expert. 

A color grader (also called a film colorist, or film corrector) makes an average pay of around $56,000, with a wide variation in between. This variation is attributed to the spread of positions they occupy, and the location they work in. 

Color grading is a very niche specialization. It requires nontechnical talent like that of say, a film director, in the sense that the colorist should have a keen eye for the exact color combinations that go well with a frame, film, or video.

Their work is mostly post-production when they collaborate with the director and the cinematographer of a movie or video, or a photographer of a picture, and use their discretion to make the color aspects of the scene add effect.

This makes them very vital for finessing a project. If color combinations and the way they enhance the aesthetics of a visual object fascinate you, you could consider making a career in it. 

Yes. Like many other professionals, film colorists bring a specific set of skills that they nurture with the necessary training and experience and improve by staying abreast of the developments that happen in the field.

The major, game-changing difference that a color grading software such as Adobe Premiere Pro has brought about to the field of color correction is that to get the image the look they wanted, photography professionals had to first do their work on camera. They then had to choose and render the film stock, and then finally, had to take it to an actual, physical lab to develop the reels in.

With this software, all these steps have been eliminated. Photography and videography professionals don’t need anything more than their fingertips for all this work. The software gives the image the desired look.

All these mean that the color grader is going to be needed as long as imagery is going to be around. So, we can say with certainty that the film colorist has a long road ahead as far as a career in this skill is concerned.

Yes, for the reasons listed above.

A university or any equivalent academic degree is not asked for by those who want to become video colorists. However, a close educational effort could be a certificate or more formal and deeper learning in the areas of film production.

The normal route to becoming a colorist is to take up a basic qualification, and then roll up the sleeves to get hands-on training and work under experts. So, if you are contemplating a career in color correction, you should be prepared to work for less or no pay initially, a period you should consider your apprenticeship for the career ahead.

The growth curve is gradual in this profession. It is unrealistic to expect your career or pay graph to shoot up meteorically. It stabilizes after a while. Film colorists also seldom become household names like actors or directors, although a handful has gone on the become big names.

So, when considering a career in this field, assess if your situation permits this relatively long wait for success.

The pay for a colorist is in the region of $56,000. When charging, you can keep a ballpark of the national average hourly wage for this professional in mind, which is $60.

This pay can come down to $56 if they engage you for a week’s work or more.

Freelance colorists make a decent earning, charging anywhere between $700 and $1000 a day, depending on the spread of work, experience, and location in which you would want them to work.

Earning a certificate that will put you on the road to a career in color grading does not take beyond a few months. But this is a very elementary first step towards embarking on a career. Becoming an accomplished, full-fledged professional who is sought after for her color grading skills, could take many years.

Learning color grading is more time-consuming than difficult. One of the reasons attributed to this longish learning curve is that leading software for this art, such as the DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, or Adobe Premiere Pro, keeps getting upgraded from time to time, and the practitioner is expected to keep upgrading to catch up with these and other software applications.

There is no requirement for a formal degree or other academic qualification to become a color corrector. After having earned certifications, the colorist usually starts off with field work in the area.

To get a properly color-graded video or film done, it costs in the region of $500 to $2000 an hour. This appears steep, but one has to take into account the complexity and time needed for doing this. This is not a piecemeal job that any untrained hand can achieve.

No, you don’t.

Adobe has its color correction software, and this is part of the Adobe Premiere Pro CC suite. This software enables color correction professionals to use endless varieties of color simulations and combinations to work up stunningly colorful images and videos.

Features and controls such as the color correction interface, Lumetri, and RGB, Saturation Curves, and HSL make Adobe Premiere Pro a very intuitive package for color correction.

Getting started with adding colors in Premiere Pro is easy. You can do it with these steps:

Window > Workspaces > Color. From here, you need to enable the scopes (Vector Scopes) view. For this, click on the Lumetri Scopes tab next to the Source panel.

The color correction and adjusting effects are pins (clip)-based. These are found in the Color Correction bin inside the Video Effects bin. Premiere Pro enables you to apply these effects to multiple clips with the help of nesting sequences.

You can adjust the effect properties in the Effect Controls panel.

The Lumetri Scopes should be used generously for analyzing the color and luminance of a clip. It enables you to view a scope in a separate Lumetri window, within which you can make changes to the video on the go.

Adobe Premiere Pro CC has a major, complete set of color correction features. These have been described above.

The function and purpose of color correction are, in simple terms, one of finishing the film or video. It is one of the last and most vital stages in film production. Any video, be it one that lasts a few seconds, or a full-length movie, requires color grading for giving the work its final look. It is that finished visual that the audience gets to watch. 

The two programs are created to serve different levels of production.

Although both these software applications are from the same company, Adobe, when it comes to their suitability for color correction, Premiere Pro is a better choice, if only because its features are better suited for color correction.

Having said this, After Effects is still the industry leader when it comes to visual effects and motion graphics for video.

A color grader’s skill lies in leveraging the strengths of the two video editing software applications. The two can be used in tandem for certain functions to greatly enhance the video.

Using the Lumetri Color panel is the easiest and most effective way of color grading using Adobe Premiere Pro. It can be found in the Color workspace tab on top of Premiere. You can select the required clip and use this feature to make almost any kind of color grading in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

Raw file format, because this format helps you color grade a video without altering its quality.

That depends on your work requirement and need. Many software applications can be found for color grading, such as Adobe Premiere Pro CC, DaVinci Resolve, Vegas Pro, MAGIX Video Pro X, Final Cut Pro X, Wondershare Filmora, Lightworks, etc. 

Correcting color on Premiere Pro is not really difficult, but is very detailed, with multifold steps that need to be carried out making use of many of the tabs. You can get a complete heads-up on this function by visiting Adobe’s User Guide.

Again, it depends on your color grading needs. If your video needs heavy and extensive coloring, DaVinci Resolve is a better option, because it has more effects and features. Premiere Pro is suited if your color grading needs are relatively limited.

This question does not have a single answer. It depends entirely on when the colorist wants to get started with color correction, how urgent it is, and how much needs to be done. It can start as soon as the video is completed, or can be done weeks later.

It is, because, without color correction, a video will not look polished. This kills the visual effect of a visual.

Various factors go into color correction. These include the extent of coloring, the length, the budget allocated for color correction, and many more. So, there have been instances when video coloring has been done for any length of time from 50 to 100 hours.