Effects and transitions

4Select the White Balance eyedropper and click to sample an area in the Program Monitor. It’s best to sample an area that is supposed to be white.

If you only want to affect one color or a specific range of colors in the clip, use the Secondary Color Correction controls in the Three-Way Color Corrector.

5 (Optional for the Three-Way Color Corrector only) Do any of the following:

•To color balance by neutralizing a medium-gray area of the image, select the Gray Balance eyedropper and click an area that’s supposed to be a medium gray.

•To color balance by neutralizing a black area in the image, select the Black Balance eyedropper and click an area that’s supposed to be black.

The Gray Balance control adjusts the sampled area to become a neutral gray and the Black Balance control adjusts the sampled area to become a neutral black. Like using the White Balance control, these adjustments affect all the colors in the clip.

Note: You can also click the color swatch next to the eyedroppers and use the Adobe Color Picker to select a sample color.

More Help topics

“Specify a color or range of colors to adjust” on page 324

“Fast Color Corrector effect” on page 356

“Three-Way Color Corrector effect” on page 363

Make quick luminance corrections

The Fast Color Corrector and the Three-Way Color Corrector effects have automatic controls for making quick adjustments to the luminance in a clip. For a video on correcting color and luminance with the Fast Color Corrector, see the Adobe website.

1Select the clip in a Timeline panel and apply either the Fast Color Corrector or the Three-way Color Corrector. See also “Apply effects to clips” on page 279.

2In the Effect Controls panel, click the triangle to expand the Fast Color Corrector or the Three-way Color Corrector controls.

3(Optional) Select the Show Split View option if you want to view a before and after comparison of your adjustment in the Program Monitor. You can specify whether the split view is horizontal or vertical by choosing from the Layout menu. You can also adjust the relative proportion of the before and after views.

4Click any of the following buttons to quickly adjust the luminance to broadcast standards:

Auto Black Level Raises the black levels in a clip so the darkest levels are above 7.5 IRE. A portion of the shadows is clipped and the intermediate pixel values are redistributed proportionately. As a result, using Auto Black Level lightens the shadows in an image.

Auto Contrast Applies both the Auto Black Level and Auto White Level simultaneously. This makes the highlights appear darker and shadows appear lighter.

Auto White Level Lowers the white levels in a clip so the lightest levels do not exceed 100 IRE. A portion of the highlights is clipped and the intermediate pixel values are redistributed proportionately. As a result, using Auto White Level darkens the highlights in an image.

More Help topics

Correct video color, easily

Last updated 1/16/2012

Effects and transitions

Color balance, angle, and saturation controls

The Fast Color Corrector and the Three-way Color Corrector effects offer Hue Balance and Angle color wheels and a Saturation control for balancing color in your video. Color balance is just what its name implies, balancing the red, green, and blue components to produce the desired color of white and neutral grays in the image. Depending on the desired effect, you may not want the color balance in a clip to be completely neutral. Perhaps you want an intimate family scene to have a warm (reddish) color cast or maybe the scene in your crime documentary requires a cool (bluish) color cast.

When making adjustments with the color wheel and Saturation control, it’s useful to open a Reference Monitor to view the Vectorscope ganged to the composite video in the Program Monitor.

The color wheel adjustments offer the following adjustments:

Hue Angle Rotates the color toward a target color. Moving the outer ring to the left rotates the colors toward green. Moving the outer ring to the right rotates the colors toward red.

Balance Magnitude Controls the intensity of the color introduced into the video. Moving the circle out from the center increases the magnitude (intensity). The intensity can be fine-tuned by moving the Balance Gain handle.

Balance Gain Affects the relative coarseness or fineness of the Balance Magnitude and Balance Angle adjustment. Keeping the perpendicular handle of this control close to the center of the wheel makes the adjustment very subtle (fine). Moving the handle toward the outer ring makes the adjustment very obvious (coarse).

Balance Angle Shifts the video color toward a target color. Moving the Balance Magnitude circle toward a specific hue shifts the color accordingly. The intensity of the shift is controlled by the combined adjustment of the Balance Magnitude and Balance Gain.

A B

C D

Color correction adjustments using the color wheel

A. Hue Angle B. Balance Magnitude C. Balance Gain D. Balance Angle

The Saturation slider controls the color saturation in the video. Moving the slider to 0 desaturates the image so only the luminance values show (an image made up of white, grays, and black). Moving the slider to the right increases the saturation.

Last updated 1/16/2012

Effects and transitions

Desaturated image (left); Saturated image (right)

More Help topics

“Vectorscope” on page 131

Adjust color balance and saturation

Although the following procedure uses the color wheel adjustments. The same adjustments can be made by entering numeric values or using the slider controls in the Fast Color Corrector and Three-way Color Corrector effects.

1Set up your workspace for color correction.

2Select the clip in a Timeline panel and apply either the Fast Color Corrector or the Three-way Color Corrector effect. See also “Apply effects to clips” on page 279.

3In the Effect Controls panel, click the triangle to expand the Fast Color Corrector or the Three-way Color Corrector controls.

4(Optional) Select the Show Split View option if you want to view a before and after comparison of your adjustment in the Program Monitor. You can specify whether the split view is horizontal or vertical by choosing from the Layout menu. You can also adjust the relative proportion of the before and after views.

5(Optional for the Three-way Color Corrector only) Do any of the following:

•To restrict your color correction to a specific tonal range, choose Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights from the Tonal Range menu. Choosing Master applies color correction to the entire tonal range of the image. If necessary, use the Tonal Range Definition controls to define the different tonal ranges. You can choose Tonal Range from the Output menu to view a tritone preview of the tonal ranges in the Program Monitor.

•To restrict your adjustments to a color or range of colors, click the triangle to expand the Secondary Color Correction controls. Define the color or color range using the Eyedropper tool, slider controls or enter numeric values. See also “Specify a color or range of colors to adjust” on page 324.

6 To adjust the color balance, do any of the following using the color wheel:

•To change all the colors without affecting the gain or magnitude, rotate the outer ring. Rotating the ring to the left, rotates all colors toward green. Rotating the ring to the right, rotates all colors toward red.

Rotating the outer ring of the color wheel (left) changes the hue angle (right).

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Effects and transitions

•To shift the colors toward a target color with gain and magnitude adjustment, drag the Balance Magnitude circle out from the center toward the color you want introduced into the image. The farther you drag the Balance Magnitude from the center, the introduced color is more intense. Drag the Balance Gain handle to fine-tune the intensity of the Balance Magnitude adjustment. You can make the adjustment very subtle.

Adjusting the Balance Gain to fine-tune the Balance Magnitude setting.

Note: The Three-way Color Corrector effect lets you make separate adjustments to the three tonal ranges using individual wheels for the shadows, midtones, and highlights.

7Use the Saturation control to adjust the color saturation in the image. Moving the slider to the left (lower value) desaturates the colors. Moving the slider to the right (higher values) increases the color saturation.

More Help topics

Editing and color correcting video

Adjust color and luminance using curves

The curves adjustment of the Luma Curve and the RGB Curves effects, like the Levels sliders in the Fast Color Corrector and the Three-way Color Corrector effects, let you adjust the entire tonal range or just a selected range of colors in a video clip. But unlike Levels, which has only three adjustments (black level, gray level, and white level), the Luma Curve and RGB Curves let you adjust up to 16 different points throughout an image’s tonal range (from shadows to highlights).

Opening a scope in a Reference Monitor that’s ganged to the Program Monitor lets you view the luminance, chrominance, or both values as you make the curves adjustments. If you’re using the Vectorscope, there should be

minimal green shading in the areas outside of the center of the scope. Areas outside the center define the level of color saturation.

1In the Effects panel, click the triangle to expand the Video Effects bin, and then click the triangle to expand the Color Correction bin.

2Drag one of the following effects to the clip in a Timeline panel:

Luma Curve Adjusts primarily luminance. Keep in mind that adjusting the luminance does affect the perceived saturation of the colors.

RGB Curves Adjusts both color and luminance.

Note: If a clip is selected in a Timeline panel, you can drag the effect to the Video Effects section of the Effect Controls panel.

3 In the Effect Controls panel, click the triangle to expand the Luma Curve or RGB Curves controls.

Last updated 1/16/2012

Effects and transitions

4 (Optional) Do any of the following to set preview options:

•To view only the luminance values in a clip, choose Luma from the Output menu. This option affects only the preview in the Program Monitor; it doesn’t remove the color from the video.

•To display a before and after view of the clip in one monitor, select the Show Split View option. You can specify whether the split view is horizontal or vertical by choosing from the Layout menu. You can also adjust the relative proportion of the before and after views.

5(Optional) Click the triangle to expand the Secondary Color Correction controls if you want to correct the exposure for a specific color or range of colors. Use the Eyedropper tool or the other Secondary Color Correction controls to specify the colors to correct.

6Do one of the following to make curve adjustments:

•To adjust the luminance, click to add a point on the Luma or Master graph and drag to change the shape of the curve. Bowing the curve upward lightens the clip and bowing the curve downward darkens the clip. The steeper sections of the curve represent portions of the image with greater contrast.

•To adjust both the color and luminance using the RGB Curves effect, click to add a point on the appropriate graph to adjust all color channels (Master), the red channel, the green channel, or the blue channel. Drag to change the shape of the curve. Bowing the curve upward lightens the pixel values and bowing the curve downward darkens the pixel values. The steeper sections of the curve represent portions of the image with greater contrast.

You can add a maximum of 16 points to the curve. To delete a point, drag it off the graph.

As you make adjustments, watch carefully for banding, noise, or polarization in the image. If you notice any of these, reduce the value you are adjusting.

Jeff Sengstack explains how to adjust color channels using RGB Color Corrector and RGB Curves effects in this lynda.com video from his tutorial -- Premiere Pro: Color Correction and Enhancement.

Original image (left), adjusting luminance (center), adjusting color (right)

More Help topics

“Specify a color or range of colors to adjust” on page 324 “Luma Curve effect” on page 359

“RGB Curves effect” on page 361

“Set up a Color Correction workspace” on page 312

Last updated 1/16/2012