Tutorial Lengkap Color Grading (Premiere Pro)

Summary

This step-by-step Adobe Premiere Pro tutorial demonstrates color correction and grading on a flat-looking clip. Using the Lumetri Color panel, the presenter moves from basic correction to creative grading and finishing.

Tutorial workflow and key concepts

1. Set up the workspace and inspect the image

   • Open the Lumetri Color workspace and use color scopes and graphs to evaluate the image.
   • Shadows and blacks, as well as highlights and whites, affect different tonal ranges and are not interchangeable controls.

2. Correct exposure and contrast

   • Adjust contrast, shadows, blacks, highlights, and whites to balance the clip.
   • The demonstrated adjustments deepen the blacks while keeping bright areas from becoming too strong.
   • Correct the image before grading it: first fix the image, then create a look.

3. Create a teal-and-orange look

   • Use the color wheels to push shadows toward teal or blue and midtones or highlights toward orange.
   • Adjust saturation and individual colors with HSL controls—for example, shift greenish foliage toward a warmer hue or strengthen the blue sky.
   • Use curves to adjust shadows, midtones, and highlights.
   • Choose a grade that suits the video’s mood and story. A sad scene, for instance, might call for darker or less saturated colors.

4. Brighten a subject with a mask

   • Duplicate the clip and draw a mask around the subject.
   • Add feathering to soften the mask’s edges.
   • Adjust the duplicate’s Lumetri settings to brighten the subject without making the effect excessive.

5. Refine skin tones

   • Duplicate the clip again and use HSL Secondary to select the face or skin color.
   • Refine the selection, then use denoising and blur to smooth the result.
   • Make restrained adjustments toward a natural, slightly warmer skin tone so the teal-and-orange grade does not make the skin look unnatural.

6. Apply LUTs carefully

   • Avoid applying a LUT at full strength without further adjustment.
   • Correct exposure and other basic issues first, then reduce the LUT’s intensity. The presenter suggests roughly 50–60% as an example, not a universal rule.

7. Add finishing touches

   • Create an adjustment layer for final overall tweaks, such as contrast, color, and shadows.
   • Add a vignette for a more dramatic effect.

Guide covered

The tutorial covers basic correction, teal-and-orange grading, masking, skin-tone refinement, LUT use, and final adjustments in Premiere Pro.

Main speaker and source: Ismail Rajo, the tutorial presenter.