How do you colour grade in Final Cut Pro?
So you've been out filming in London and have captured some beautiful footage for your video production. You've edited the video into a visual masterpiece. Your job as a videographer is almost complete but what about colour grading? In this article we'll look at how you can colour grade like a pro in FCP to elevate your work.
Why colour grade at all?
Colours can change the mood and feel of a video. They offer a subtle nod towards a certain vibe or feeling. More than this, they really help elevate your video footage and give your video a consistent and complete look.
Colour grading in FCP
Final Cut Pro, also known as FCP is a fantastic video editing suite from Apple. In my opinion it offers more modern features and experience than the Adobe equivalent. If you're not doing any heavy motion graphics work where you need integration with After Effects then it's probably the best choice for your video editing needs.
Most experienced videographers in London will be filming in what's called Log. Every camera brand has a Log profile on offer. For Canon its C-log, Sony is S-log and Panasonic is V-log. The advantages for filming in Log are numerous but essentially it gives you more flexibility when it comes to colour grading. That brings us nicely into starting to colour grade in FCP.
Assuming you've filmed in a Log profile, we'll now go through my personal process for colour grading in FCP.
The colour grading process
So we have your footage on your timeline in FCP, ready to colour grade.
The first step is to add a LUT to your footage. FCP already has built in LUTs. These can be accessed by clicking on the clip, selecting the information tab and clicking extended. However, it's far more beneficial to use your own custom LUT plug in in FCPX (we'll come to why later). There are plenty of these LUT plugins for free which you can easily find through a quick Google search.
So let's assume you've downloaded a plugin to add LUTs. Firstly start by adding the correct 709 LUT for your camera. This will bring the colour back into the image. If you have View Log Assist turned on when filming on your camera, it will now look the same as when you were filming. The next step is to add the Color Wheel to the clip. You want to position this before the custom LUT plugin. This is because it gives you way more control over reducing the highlights and bringing them back if you need to.
Using the Color Wheel, I usually start by using the colour temperature function at the bottom of the tool. You can push it higher for a warmer look or lower for a cooler look. Usually I'll white balance it perfectly at this point. I'll then look to adjust contrast and exposure using the 4 wheels in the Color Wheel plugin. You can use the highlights to being back detail in the highlights and the darks to add more contrast to the image. If you've underexposed your shot you can use the universal wheel at the top to bring the exposure up.
Your image should now be looking pretty good. If you don't want to give the film a specific look then you may be done at this point. However if you want to make things look a little more cinematic, if you were working on a documentary for example, then there is a final step.
The final step
The final stage to giving your film a look is to add another LUT onto the image. You can download some LUTs with specific film looks from subscription websites such as Motion Array or Envato Elements. These usually come in packages with 10 to 20 different looks. I would experiment with these as this point. You will likely add another LUT on and it will make your image blow out or look intense. The key here is to dial down how much of this LUT you add on. I might add 20% to 30% of another LUT which is enough to give the colour a certain look but without the entire image feeling overwhelming.
So there you have it, my personal method of colour grading in Final Cut Pro. Hopefully this is a useful tool for other videographers working across London and can help elevate the look of your work.