 If you have the iPhone 14 Pro, chances are you've used cinematic mode before. It is one of my favorite features to use as it allows me to record my videos with a shallow depth of field, resembling a similar look to shots taken on a DSLR camera. However, it doesn't stop there. By applying a color grade, you can take your cinematic mode footage from looking average to looking professional. And in this video, I will walk you through my color grading workflow, which I have optimized for speed while still having a polished cinematic look. This way you can implement those techniques for yourself, save time, and make your footage stand out. Now, not too long ago, I released my LUT pack specifically made for smartphone users. I've made 10 LUTs that I use when color grading my smartphone footage. And my favorite one is the blockbuster look, which creates this nice orange and teal look in my videos. However, the other nine LUTs look really awesome too. So if you guys are interested, you can check them out using the link in the video description below. For this tutorial, I will be using Final Cut Pro, which is my main editing software, as it provides advanced color grading tools and allows me to edit cinematic mode footage, such as changing the focus point and adjusting the level of background blur. Now, Final Cut Pro does offer a 90 day free trial if you're interested in testing it out. You can, of course, color grade your footage using an editing app like Luma Fusion. And I also cover this in my course. However, you are limited. And the goal here is to make your footage look as best as possible. Color grading is not as scary as you might think. Once you get the hang out of it, it's quite fun. And actually, this is my favorite part of the editing process. Now, in this video, I will try and explain it as best as I can so that you can achieve the same results for yourself. The color grading process consists of three steps. The first step is color correcting our image, where we adjust the exposure, white balance and saturation. Step number two is secondary corrections. This is where we refocus the light in a scene. Then number three is applying our color grade, which is the look of our video. And guys, if you stick till the end, I also have a pro tip for you that will literally save you hours of having to color grade your footage. So with that said, I'm quite excited. Let's get right into it. I'm gonna hop onto my computer and we're gonna start color correcting our footage. So before we head over to Final Cut Pro, when it comes to air dropping your cinematic mode clip, make sure to enable all photo data so that the metadata will also be air dropped onto your computer. So once you air dropped it, this is how it would look like. You can click on it and then you will have two clips and you wanna make sure to import the clip that doesn't have an E in it because this will allow you to make your focus and background blur adjustments. So we're now inside Final Cut Pro and I've already dragged the clips onto my timeline and these clips were shot on the iPhone 14 Pro in 4K 30 frames per second. And the reason why I shot it in 30 frames per second and not 24 frames per second is because I can slow it down 80% in the edit to make it look smoother. So the first thing I'm gonna do is convert this HDR clip into SDR and you can do that easily by heading over to the search tab and typing in HDR. And then I'm gonna drag the HDR tool onto the clip and then I'm gonna head over to the inspector. I'm gonna select show and then in the mode section I can select HLG to Rec 709 SDR. And now our image looks normal again just how we shot it. And I will be working with this clip because we have our subject, we can see our skin tones and we also have the surrounding like the forest and the lake that we can work with. So this is gonna be our hero shot and once we applied all of the color correction on this clip we can then copy it and paste it onto the other clips. So since this is a cinematic mode clip I now have the ability to change the depth of field. So I can head over to cinematic and you will quickly notice that the background gets blurry which I really like. This really helps focus the attention on the subject. And over here you have a slider where you can adjust the amount of background, the blur. So this would look really nice but because it's also blurring out his nose I'm gonna increase the number to around let's say four. And the great part about filming in cinematic mode is that I can also adjust the focus. So I can, for example, drag the timeline all the way to the left and then I can select this camera icon over here and maybe I want the beginning of the clip to focus on the forest. So I can just click over here and I want to create a focus pool on his face right at this point. So I'm gonna select this face and when I now play it back you will see that it will create this natural focus pool which looks really nice. So now that you know that let's start with the first step which is color correcting our image. So the first thing I'm gonna do is adjust the exposure. I'm gonna head over to this triangle up here and open up the color wheel and I'm also gonna open up the Luma waveform and this will help us to expose our image correctly. Important to remember is that you don't want the information to go above 100 or below zero. Otherwise, if the information is above 100 you'll see that it's overexposed over here and if you go below zero over here you will see that the image is under exposed. So the first thing I'm gonna do is drag the highlights down a little bit and I'm also going to lift up the shadows a little bit to reveal some of the detail in the shadow areas and then I'm gonna add contrast by dragging the mid tones down. And if we look at the before and after you'll quickly notice the change and this already makes a huge difference and makes the image really pop more. The next thing I'm gonna do is correct my white balance. I want to make sure my whites in the image look white and the blacks look black. I wanted to make it look the way I've shot it when I was there and most of the time you can just use the highlights to correct your white balance. Now I find the image looks a bit too green. Grab the highlights and then I'm gonna drag it away from green just a little bit, just like that. And if we look at the before and after you'll quickly notice the difference, the skin tones look also better and the image overall looks a bit more natural looking. And that is basically it for the white balance. These are just minor adjustments. The next thing I'm gonna do is adjust the saturation. And for that I'll be using the vector scope. This shows me exactly which part of the image is overly saturated or under saturated. So you'll quickly notice that the yellow part over here has a lot of color in it. So we're gonna reduce it so that our colors are more balanced. And in order to just reduce the yellow part we're gonna head over up here. We're gonna select hue saturation curves. And then with the hue versus saturation I can select a specific color and reduce or increase the saturation of it. Select the color picker and then I'm gonna select this yellow area over here and you'll quickly see that it created a point which we then can drag down to reduce it. All the way over here. Okay, so now our colors are even but it doesn't have a lot of saturation. So we're gonna add saturation back to the overall image. So I'm gonna head back to the color wheel and then I'm gonna drag this slider to add more saturation around here. And this already looks much better. Now the next thing I'm gonna do is make the subject pop more. And in order to do that I'm gonna head over up here and then I'm gonna select another color wheel and then I'm gonna create a color mask. So I'm gonna head over up here and then select add color mask. And then I can select his skin tones and mask that out. And then if we view our mask, we can further qualify it by making these adjustments using the HSL. So I want to make sure to only select his skin. Okay, just like that. And then I can add another shape mask to just have his skin selected. Then when I remove the mask, select the highlights and add a little bit of warmth to his face. So I'm gonna drag it towards orange and I'm also gonna add a little bit of mid tones to it just to make it a bit warmer. And this affects the inside of the mask. And now we can select the outside of the mask and make it cooler by selecting the shadows and then moving it towards teal. And this again creates a nice separation between the subject and the background. So here's the before and after which does make quite of a difference. So now that we have that, let's move on to our secondary correction which is refocusing the light. So I'm gonna create another color wheel and then I'm gonna choose the shape mask and then I'm gonna drag it around the subject's face. Just like that, do a sit. And then I'm gonna feather it like that. All right. And what I'm gonna do is select the outside of the mask and then reduce the highlights and mid tones. And you can see that we've refocused the light on to his face. So if we now look at the before and after, you'll see that we can really help the audience focus their attention on the subject. Now this clip looks really good already but we can take it a step further and create our look which is step three of our color grading process. So what I'm gonna do is add a custom LUT from my premium LUT pack. So I'm gonna head down here and then I'm gonna type in LUT and I'm gonna add the custom LUT on to this clip. Then I can head over to the inspector and then I'm gonna drag the custom LUT right below the HDR tool clip. And then I'm gonna select show and then in here, these are all my 10 premium LUTs. So I will go for the blockbuster look which is my favorite LUT and then I can reduce the intensity by dragging the slider down. So I'll reduce it to around, let's go for 35. This looks really great. And if we look at the before and after, you'll see that we have this orange and teal look in our image. The next thing I like to do is clean up the image a bit. We can see that his hair is blue. I don't want that. So I'm gonna head over to the hue versus saturation curve. And I'm gonna head over to Luma versus saturation. I'm gonna create a point over here and a point over here. So this point over here affects the darkest part of the image and by dragging this point down, it reduces the saturation of the darkest part of the image. And this point affects the brightest part of the image and by dragging it down, I can reduce the saturation on the brightest part of the image. So if you look at the before and after, you can see that we've cleaned up the image and it looks even better. Now you could export this clip this way. It would look totally great in your videos, but as a bonus tip, we're gonna take it even further. We're gonna add some film grain, some sharpening and blur and a vignette to it. For that, I like to use the M film plugin by Motion VFX, which has everything in one place. If you're interested, I will leave a link to this plugin in the video description below and this plugin really helps take my mobile footage to the next level, making it look as cinematic as possible. So let's do that right now. I'm gonna select M film and I'm gonna drag this onto the clip and then I'm gonna head over to the M film look and then you can see we have these parameters over here. So the first thing I'm gonna do is add a subtle blur to it. So I'm gonna select this drop over here and I can adjust the aspect like that. I'm gonna make it a little bit smaller, make sure his face will stay in focus and then I'm gonna reduce the outer ring a bit more. Let's look at the before and after. So it adds that subtle blur on the outside of the ring, which looks, again, very nice. And what I like to add is this aberration effect, which gives it a unique look to it. So if we look at the before and after, you'll see that it creates a sort of additional blur to it. I don't want it to be too strong, so I'm gonna reduce the intensity just a little bit. The next thing I'm gonna add is a vignette, which will reinforce the attention on the subject. So I'm gonna click over here and you'll see that it darkens the outer part of the image, helping the viewer focus their attention even more onto the subject. What I'm also gonna add is some film grain, just to let the colors blend in better. And if you want, you can also add a letterbox to it, which makes the image look even more cinematic. The last thing I'm gonna do is add some sharpening to his face. I'm gonna type sharpen and I'm gonna add it to the clip. I'm gonna create a shape mask. And again, I'm just gonna select his face. I'm gonna actually reduce it to one. Now the last thing I'm gonna do is actually add a subtle glow into the highlights. Usually you can achieve this with a mist filter, but if you don't have a mist filter, we can also do that in the edit. So what I'm gonna do is duplicate this clip. And I've actually created my own glow preset, which I'm gonna add to it. And you'll quickly see over here that it sort of softens the highlight, which makes the video look more dreamy. And I'm gonna reduce the opacity amount for 40. And if we look at the before and after, you'll see that it adds a subtle glow to it, which looks really nice. Okay, and there you have it guys. That is my full color grading a process. Now I know there are a lot of steps to it, but I'm now gonna give you a pro tip and show you how you can save these color effects as a preset so that you can apply them to your next project to save time. So in order to do that, head over to the clip below and then we're gonna select save effect preset. And I'm gonna name it cinematic preset and I'm gonna save it into my custom folder. Make sure everything is selected and then I'm gonna hit save. And then once I head over to my custom presets, I have it saved over here. And then I can easily apply it onto this clip by dragging it on top of it. And then I only have to do some minor adjustments. So I'm gonna start with the color wheel and I'm gonna drag the mid tones all the way up. I'm also gonna increase the highlights a bit more just like that. Everything else looks good. I'm gonna move on to the second one. I'm gonna look at the before and after. This looks great too. Gonna move on to the next one, the color wheel. So I'm gonna check out the mask. This doesn't look good. So I'm gonna select the shape mask. Make sure my subject is selected. Okay. Move the mask, look at the before and after. Gonna move on to the next one, which is the color wheel. Again, I'm gonna take the shape mask, drag it onto the subject. All right. And the glow I have to add separately. So I'm gonna duplicate it, add my glow preset. And then I can just reduce the opacity again. Let's go for 10. Then if we look at the before and after, that's this nice dreamy look to it. And then also I'm gonna head over to the sharpening tool. It's like the mask. All right. And same goes for the first shot over here. I can select it and just drag the cinematic preset on top. And voila, I just have to do some minor tweaks and then just export the clip. Okay folks, that is how I color grade cinematic mode of footage shot on the iPhone 14 Pro. And like I mentioned, by saving your color grades as a preset with little effort, you can apply it to your footage the next time you work on a new project. It is really important that you don't neglect the color grading process as this will make your footage truly shine. Now, color grading is one aspect that can really turn an ordinary video into something more cinematic and professional looking. However, if you don't shoot the video properly to begin with, no amount of color grading will save the footage. I see too many people get it wrong with their smartphone because of the lack of knowledge and understanding they have. And I've been there myself too, which can be really frustrating and time consuming. Filming on a smartphone really doesn't have to be hard. If you feel stuck and have difficulties figuring out how to make your footage look professional, I highly recommend you check out my comprehensive smartphone filmmaking course, which is really designed to make filming on a smartphone easier and faster. I walk you through every step of the process from filming to editing to exporting your final video so that you have the confidence to start making great looking videos on your own. So if that sounds good to you, head over to smartphonefilmmaking.com and join our awesome community of mobile creators worldwide. So I hope this tutorial helped you. If you have any questions, guys, let me know in the comments below. Until then, thank you so much for watching and I'll catch you guys later.