 Hello and welcome to another exciting video. Today I will be showing you how I color correct and color grade my footage using the tools provided in Final Cut Pro X. But before we start, hit that intro. If you guys don't know who I am, my name is Bennett Grazer and I create videos here on YouTube, giving you insights on how to create awesome looking videos. So if that's your thing, then keep on watching. Now the goal of this video is to give you a basic understanding of the workflow and the thought process behind color correcting and color grading so that you can make your footage look the best. For example, here is the clip with the color correction and afterwards with the color grading applied. This is the popular orange and teal look and is often used in Hollywood. The reason why it's so popular is it because it has a warm cool contrast that makes the image pop. Color correcting and color grading is key to making your videos look even better and can definitely increase your production value. No matter what type of camera or phone you use. By no means I'm not a professional colorist, but if you understand the basics that I will teach you in this tutorial, then you're on the right track. But it takes time to be very good and develop an eye for color grading. If you're serious about it, then stick with me. So here I am in Final Cut Pro X with my clips imported. Make sure you set the right settings for your project. In this example, I will set the project to 1080p 25 frames per second. It's important to shoot in a flat color profile, so you have more options in post when color grading. In other words, when you shoot in a raw S-Log or Cine4, the footage will look very desaturated and non-contrasting. I personally love to film in a very flat picture profile like S-Log 2 because it gives me more control while color grading so that I can achieve the look I want. If you're the run and gun type of guy that needs to quickly upload a video on YouTube, you might consider setting the colors in your camera first so you just have to make small adjustments in post. So I basically start with the color correcting. When I color correct, I adjust the exposure, contrast, white balance, and saturation. In other words, I fix the problems so that the shot looks the same as it was when you shot it. I hope that makes sense. So let's open up the color wheels to start our base correction. The highlights affect the brightest part of the image, the shadows, the darkest part of the image, and the mid tones, everything in between. Now, I highly suggest you learn how to use different video scopes because it provides you with color information that you can trust. Our eyes trick us into thinking that this clip looks nice even though, for example, the skin tones are off or the footage is overly saturated. I won't go too in-depth on how these different scopes work because it would be beyond this beginner tutorial. Now let's open up the video scopes by pressing command 7. To set our exposure, I use the Luma wave for monitor that shows the brightness and darkness of the image. For a good exposed video, you never want to go above 100 or below zero. The waveform resembles the clip and is red left to right. Also starting from the top, you will see the highlights, mid tones, and shadows. When I adjust the exposure, I start with the shadows control by dragging it down until the lowest point reaches zero. As you can see, the black areas have been darkened. Next, I will adjust the highlights and drag it upwards until the highest points reach 100. Going over to our mid tones, these should be between 60 and 70. So here I will drag it down until I'm satisfied, giving it contrast and making it pop more. Now we have adjusted our exposure and contrast. Now we are going to color balance, also known as white balance, our footage to neutralize any color cast. Now here is a big tip. Most of the color issue can be corrected by just using the highlight control and or by adjusting the tint control. I know that when I film with my Sony a7 III that the clip generally has a greenish tint to it. So I adjust it by dragging the tint control away from green, reducing it. So now the clip looks overall balanced. Now if you are lazy or struggling with color balancing, you can always use the automatic color balancing tool that is provided in Final Cut Pro X. That does a pretty good job. Now for the next step, I will add saturation to give it more color and make the clip look richer. Another tool I like to use is the vector scope. The distance from the center tells you how saturated the colors are. This will show me if my colors are correctly saturated and make my subject appear healthier. A very useful feature is this line here, which represents our skin tones. Skin colors should point in the direction of the skin tone line. If you have done your color balancing right, the skin tones should match up with the line. Now that I base corrected the clip, I will do the same process for the other clips, adjusting each individually again. You don't want to add the same base correction to the other clips because not every clip is exposed to the same. Now I will move on to matching each shot. I will first pick a hero shot that all clips are to be matched. And then I will look which clip has a mismatch issue. In this case, I will pick my girlfriend as the hero shot. So now that we matched all the clips, we can go to the next step by adding a look to it. That is my favorite part of this section. Now, even though the footage looks fine and you could upload it that way, fine is not enough for me. I want to take it further by giving it a cinematic look. So we are going to add a custom LUT to the adjustment layer and add an orange and teal look to all of the clips. Now you want to make sure you adjust the intensity of the applied LUT. You don't want to make it look oversaturated. LUTs are not filters like Instagram. If you don't want to use a LUT, you can also create an orange teal look by adding a new color wheel to the adjustment layer, pushing the shadows into the blues and mid tones into the oranges. Again, you want to adjust the intensity by dragging back the mix tool and there you have it. Alright, so I really hope you find this tutorial helpful. If you have any further questions, please let me know in the comment section below. If you haven't subscribed yet to my channel, please do so because I would greatly appreciate that. Before I end this video, keep in mind that it takes practice. In time, you will soon realize that color correcting and color grading can be really fun. Once again, thank you for watching and see you the next time.