Adjusting color and luminance

In video, color correction encompasses adjusting both the hue (color or chroma) and luminance (brightness and contrast) in an image. Adjusting the color and luminance in video clips can create a mood, eliminate a color cast in a clip, correct video that’s too dark or too light, or set the levels to meet broadcast requirements or to match color from scene to scene. Effects can also adjust the color and luminance to emphasize or de-emphasize a detail in a clip.

You can find the color- and luminance-adjusting effects in the Color Correction bin inside the Video Effects bin. Although other effects also adjust color and luminance, the Color Correction effects are designed for making very fine color and luminance corrections.

You apply the Color Correction effects to a clip the same way you apply all Standard effects. The effect properties are adjusted in the Effect Controls panel. The Color Correction effects and other color effects are clip‑based. However, you can apply them to multiple clips by nesting sequences. For information about nesting sequences, see Nest sequences.

Note: For more information, see Broadcast Colors effect.

You can use the Broadcast Colors effect to adjust a clip’s colors to broadcast standards.

When correcting color, it’s useful to use Adobe Premiere Pro’s Vectorscope or waveform scopes (YC Waveform, RGB Parade, and YCbCr Parade) to help you analyze the chroma and luminance in a clip. You can view a scope in a separate Reference Monitor that’s ganged to the Program Monitor so that you can check your video levels as you make adjustments. For information about scopes, see About the waveform monitors and vectorscope. For a video and print tutorial about correcting color, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_dv_tutorial_fastcolor.

Correcting exposure: Overexposed image with the waveform in the upper limits of the IRE scale (left) and corrected image with the waveform within 7.5 to 100 IRE (right)