Dive into this in-depth tutorial on using Lumetri Color in Premiere Pro to carry out color correction in an interview video shot with multiple cameras.
This exercise is excerpted from past Premiere Pro training materials and is compatible with Premiere Pro updates through 2020. To learn current skills in Premiere Pro, check out our Premiere Pro classes and video editing classes in NYC and live online.
Note: These materials are provided to give prospective students a sense of how we structure our class exercises and supplementary materials. During the course, you will get access to the accompanying class files, live instructor demonstrations, and hands-on instruction.
Topics covered in this Premiere Pro tutorial:
Using Lumetri Color in Effect Controls
Exercise Preview
Exercise Overview
In this exercise, we’ll finish off our Interview video and learn some more about color correction. The interview was shot with different cameras, each with different color settings. To make the overall video more seamless, we need to adjust the color to get the various shots to visually match.
NOTE: This kind of color-correction is fine for web or social media usage. But if we were creating work for television broadcast, a professional colorist/color correction session is in order. There’s a very limited range of colors that are safe for TV, so to avoid odd-looking skin-tones on TV, a professional colorist is the way to go.
Getting Started
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You should still have yourname-TheInterview open in Premiere Pro. If you closed it, re-open it now by going to File > Open Project then Desktop > Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Multicam Interview. We recommend you finish the previous exercises (5C–6A) before starting this one. If you haven’t finished it, do the following sidebar.
If You Did Not Do the Previous Exercises (5C–6A)
- If a project is open in Premiere Pro, go to File > Save, then File > Close Project.
- Go to File > Open Project and navigate to Desktop > Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Multicam Interview > Finished Projects.
- Double–click on Interview-Ready for Color Correction.prproj.
- Go to File > Save As. Name the file yourname-TheInterview.prproj and save it back into the Multicam Interview folder.
Lumetri Color in Effect Controls
From the Project panel, open the Interview-Multicam-edit sequence (if it isn’t already open).
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Move the playhead over the first interview clip. Then move it over the second.
Notice that the first clip has more of a cold color cast, while the second has a more warm cast.
Let’s see how we can get the shots to visually match, and enhance the color while we’re at it. Select the first interview clip and make sure the playhead is over the clip.
Go to the Effects panel and make sure nothing is in the search bar.
Navigate to Video Effects > Color Correction and locate Lumetri Color.
Drag Lumetri Color and drop it onto the first interview clip on V1.
To adjust the effect settings, go to the Effect Controls panel and expand into Lumetri Color > Creative.
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To the right of Look, click the menu and choose Fuji ETERNA 250D Kodak 2395 (by Adobe). (We’ve found through trial and error that this one works the best for this particular clip.)
NOTE: Feel free to collapse the other effects in Effects Controls to make things easier to sort through and view.
Still in Effect Controls, under Lumetri Color, expand into Basic Correction.
Scroll down and click the Auto button.
Under Tone, set Exposure to 0.5 to make things brighter overall.
Under White Balance, set Temperature to 12.2 to make the scene warmer (less blue, more yellow).
- To check out the cumulative effect of your changes, click the fx icon
to the left of Lumetri Color and look at the Program Monitor. Click the fx icon
back on when you’re done previewing.
Pasting Attributes
Now that we’ve got our color settings, we can copy and paste these settings onto every clip that was shot with this camera (all the wide shots), using a useful trick called Paste Attributes.
In the Timeline, make sure the first interview clip is selected. If the audio has also been selected, at the top left of the Timeline, turn off Linked Selection
and select only the first interview clip.Hit Cmd–C (Mac) or Ctrl–C (Windows) to copy it. Yes, the whole clip!
To save time, we can select both of the remaining wide shots. In the Timeline, select the next wide shot (MC1).
Shift–click the last wide shot (MC1).
Ctrl–click (Mac) or Right–click (Windows) on one of the selected clips and choose Paste Attributes. Alternatively, you can find Paste Attributes in the Edit menu.
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Now we can choose which attributes we want to paste. In the dialog that opens, make sure the following are checked (uncheck any others):
- Effects
- Lumetri Color
Click OK.
Scrub through the Timeline to see that the effects we pasted have transferred to the wide shots. Looking good!
In the Timeline, zoom in on any one of the wide shot clips. Notice the fx icon
for these clips is now purple (instead of gray). This indicates that effects have been applied to them. Neat!
Color Correction for the Interviewee Close Up
Select the first Shanarra close up clip (MC2) and move the playhead over it.
Go to the Effects panel and delete any text in the search bar.
Navigate to Video Effects > Color Correction and locate Lumetri Color.
Drag Lumetri Color and drop it onto the first Shanarra clip on V1.
Go to the Effect Controls panel and expand into Lumetri Color > Creative.
- To the right of Look, click the menu and choose Fuji ETERNA 250D Kodak 2395 (by Adobe).
Below Look, set Intensity to 50 so the look is not quite as pronounced.
Under Lumetri Color > Basic Correction, scroll down and click the Auto button.
As a challenge, see if you can copy the settings from this clip and paste it onto the other clip of Shanarra.
Adjusting the Interviewer Close Up
First, let’s add the color correction we’ve been adding to the other shots. In the Effects panel, delete any text in the search field and then navigate to Video Effects > Color Correction > Lumetri Color.
Drag Lumetri Color and drop it on the Laune clip on V1 (the third interview clip).
In the Effect Controls panel, expand into Lumetri Color > Creative, and set Look to Fuji ETERNA 250D Kodak 2395 (by Adobe).
Under Lumetri Color > Basic Correction, scroll down and click the Auto button.
Scrub the playhead over Laune’s close up and the previous clip of Shanarra’s close up. Compare the cropping of the two shots. Notice that Shanarra’s close up is cropped much tighter on her than Laune’s. To make the two angles less jarring, let’s zoom in on Laune to a similar level.
In the Timeline, make sure Laune’s close up clip is still selected.
Go to the Effect Controls panel and expand into Motion.
Set Scale to 122. Hmm the problem is that since this was shot with a camera that isn’t super high resolution, scaling the image up this much makes it visibly less sharp. However, there are some further adjustments we can do to try to make this look better.
In the Effects panel, search for sharpen.
Under Video Effects > Blur & Sharpen, double–click Sharpen.
In Effect Controls, scroll down to Sharpen, and to the right of Sharpen Amount set the value to 39.
To preview, hover with your mouse over the Program Monitor and hit the tilde (~) key to enlarge it.
Scrub through to check out the Laune clip you just edited and compare it to the previous Shanarra clip. It’s looking closer but could use a bit more adjustment.
Hit the tilde (~) key again.
In Effect Controls, under Lumetri Color > Basic Correction > White Balance, set Temperature to 20 to make it a bit warmer.
Under Tone, set Exposure to 0.2 to make things brighter overall.
Play the whole sequence from the beginning to see the completed video.
File > Save the project.
Exporting
We’re ready to export! Go to File > Export > Media.
In the Export Settings window, set Format to H.264.
Click the menu next to Preset and set it to Match Source - High bitrate.
Next to Output Name, click on the blue name.
Navigate to Desktop > Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Multicam Interview > Exports.
Name it Interview.mp4 and click Save.
Further down, in the Video tab, under Bitrate Settings (you may have to scroll down), set Bitrate Encoding to VBR, 2 pass.
Towards the bottom of the window, check on Use Maximum Render Quality.
Click the Export button at the bottom.
After the export finishes, feel free to go into Desktop > Class Files > Premiere Pro Class > Multicam Interview > Exports and check out your finished video.