[Video] How To Color Grade Video In Photoshop, Aperture, or Lightroom

If you are like me, you feel pretty confident editing images in Photoshop, Aperture, or Lightroom. If you have ever tried to do similar edits for your video in Premiere or Final Cut, you know how frustrating it can be. It seems like these video programs don't have all of the necessary tools and they don't seem to work as well as photo editing software. If you don't mind a couple extra steps, you can easily edit your videos just like a still photograph in the program of your choice.

Christopher Bartelski just sent us this video which shows how he uses Aperture to color grade his wedding videos. The process is actually pretty simple and totally worth the effort when you see the finished product. Keep in mind you could also also do this in Photoshop by creating a batch but it would take considerably longer.

Lee Morris's picture

Lee Morris is a professional photographer based in Charleston SC, and is the co-owner of Fstoppers.com

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14 Comments

Page curl!!!!

what's with the backgroud music?

Beethoven is always acceptable.

Oh man, I'm editing a video right this second in premiere and the colour between two different cameras is killing me!  I actually was just thinking about doing this but then I talked myself out of it because I feel like I should learn to do it in premiere... :S But that video looked awesome so maybe it might be worth it.  Hehe great video/post.

It is a workaround, but he
will never learn FCProX. I recommend he start with this Vimeo tutorial
and then see the continuing tutorials - https://vimeo.com/26362011

Learning tools from your video software will take less time that doing this kind of workflow everytime. 

Wow, thats a lot of work when the exposure, color and saturation are on the top right hand of the Final Cut X interface.

First things first, "Spend money on a grading software"??? Never heard about Davinci Resolve Lite???Second, this kind of workaround is "ok" when the whole video is edited with only hard cuts (Although using other cut's variations -correctly- will do more for the story telling) but once you have some transitions you're "screwed".
Third: Seriously guys!!! Curves, Levels and all kind of sliders are the same everywhere (Photo or video software) If you understand what a slider do in one software than it just takes the time to find it in the other software and you have it forever!!!
Ok! Enough of that now :) 
The resulting video is nice (Coloro correction wise) and using a Timelapse Workflow for real-time video is very clever. But guys if you used just a bit of that cleverness in learning the appropriate software, the results will be extraordinary :)

Much easier to just use FCPX in the first place and do it right.
Frustrating... no.

Just went to the Adobe Tour seminar this morning here in Stockholm, where one of the things they showed us was how to edit video in Photoshop. Pretty awesome. You could make an adjustment layer and put it over a certain clip. Gonna try it when I get home. Seems like a MUCH simpler task. It was made for people who knew Photoshop, had a camera with video and didn't know how to color grade etc. in video software.

just tried this on a quick piece of footage just for a different effect. https://vimeo.com/42191127

Any advice on how you license music for your wedding videos?  I love Joshua Radin.  

Anyone know how to export as image sequence in premiere pro CS5?

This is the correct way to color correct. A 4k image is only 8 megapixels. Its Easy!