by Color correction—also known as color grading or color timing—is the process of altering the brightness and color values of an image or video. While many of today’s modern video cameras (and still cameras that shoot video) can produce great-looking shots automatically, sometimes you’ll still want to manipulate the color “in post.” Common reasons for doing so include:
Correcting for mistakes you made during the shoot, such as over- or underexposure or incorrect white balance.
Matching shots taken at different times and/or locations so that they look as if they were captured at the same time and place.
Creating a particular look or style to support a mood, such as making a scene appear bright, warm, and cheery, or dark, cold, and foreboding.
Regardless of your goal, Final Cut Pro X includes powerful tools for grading your video. Let’s get familiar with them as we explore the basics of color correction.
Tools: Color Board and Video Scopes
The primary tool for correcting video in Final Cut Pro X is called the Color Board. With the playhead over a clip in your project that you want to correct, open the Inspector (press Command-4 or click the Inspector button in the toolbar) and select the Video pane if necessary.
The color tools in the Video Inspector.
The Color section contains three tools for adjusting the color of a clip. The first, Balance, attempts to fix the brightness and color values of a clip automatically. To try it, just click the box to the left to enable it. The next tool, Match Color, is great for matching one shot to another. All you need to do is click the Choose button and then click a clip you want to match to. Both of these tools are simple and useful, but they are also one-trick ponies—either they work or they don’t.
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