COLOR-GRADING VIDEOS TAKES A GIANT STEP FORWARD

[Michael Erlewine]

COLOR-GRADING VIDEOS TAKES A GIANT STEP FORWARD

Perhaps the most difficult part of video post-production is color grading. Like so many things in the digital workspace, color grading started out very difficult to do for most people. In fact, many very sophisticated software applications exist that are over the heads of most regular users.

Adobe’s Speedgrade color-grading software has been an entirely separate application, one not “that” difficult to use, but, like Adobe “After Effects,” probably too complex for the average user. In the last couple of days, all that has changed!

Adobe has added the essential elements of Speedgrade to its flagship video application “Premiere Pro CC,” and best of all for those of us who use Adobe Lightroom, to my amazement, they have implemented almost all of the controls and sliders that we now use to develop color in Lightroom to Premiere Pro CC.

This means that if we know how to develop color in Lightroom we can now easily correct color on our video footage. This is IMO a huge step forward for grading video color, which has been a closed-door for most folks until now.

Here is a short video that makes this very clear, for those interested:

http://nofilmschool.com/2015/06/premiere-pros-new-lumetri-color-panel-super-powerful-intuitive

[pluton]

This sounds like good news.  It seems that the gap between the million-dollar pro software and what you can do at home without being a career post-production specialist is narrowing.

[Michael Erlewine]

Adobe Premiere Pro CC is not inexpensive, but it has steadily gained on the competitors This particular new feature makes it as easy to grade film as it is to grade stills in Lightroom, which is pretty easy. Adobe's Speedgrade application, which I use to grade video is not easy to learn for people who do not do this all the time. But the Lumetri addition to Premiere Pro CC of a few days ago opens up a whole new door for users to grade their video. I used to upgrade the Adobe Master Collection, which was expensive and a hassle. This new Abobe Creative Cloud is so easy to use and stay updated. Plus they have added a De-Haze command to Lightroom (and PS) that is incredibly valuable, not for de-hazing as much as for adding contrast in a more subtle manner.