Five Color Grading Mistakes to Avoid in Your Video Work

The color grade is one of the most essential aspects of any bit of video work. Not only does it help provide the finishing touch that makes your work look professional, it's a chance for you to really add your style to your work to develop a signature look that's more memorable. This helpful video details five mistakes to be wary of when you're working on a color grade.

Coming to you from Travel Feels, this helpful video will illustrate five mistakes to watch for when you undertake a color grade and how to best correct them. Of them, I think the two most important are not treating LUTs like presets and not going overboard. LUTs are not one-and-done sorts of things; they often require some tweaking to get the right look and just like a preset, rarely (if ever) is the work finished after you apply one. Second, keep the grading subtle and natural — understated if anything. There's a tendency whenever we learn new editing techniques or styles to overdo a bit, so be sure to step away from your screen for a bit, then come back and reapply your critical eye to the final product. Now, get out and start filming!

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Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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3 Comments

Alex This is very good. If everyone that thinks they can shoot and edit video would watch this the internet would be a much more interesting place.

Stop with the orange and teal.

I'm actually happy he brought up scopes. Far too often in these tutorials people overlook scopes and their usefulness. Hopefully he has another video that fully explains how scopes work !