One of the most useful tools available in Final Cut Pro is color correction. Whether it was bad lighting or someone forgot to white balance, having your color balance look slightly off is a common occurrence. One of the options in Final Cut’s whole arsenal of video effects and alterations is a Color Corrector 3-way that allows you to change the balances in the color so you can better fit the color scheme you are hoping to achieve in your digital video project.
The best way to do this is similar to the way you would apply motion to a photo. Make sure the clip you want to correct is already in the timeline where you would like it to be. This allows you to see the changes you make to the clip in the Canvas while you are altering the color in the Viewer.
- Select the clip so it goes into the Viewer, then go to the Browser and click on the tab labeled Effects.
- Click on the option labeled Video Effects and go down and click on the sub-option labeled Color Correction.
- Once that is open you are going to be shown a variety of color correction options, including RGB Balance and Desaturate Lows. These all have their place in certain types of color correction, but for the best all-around color correction you would use Color Corrector 3-way.
- Drag this option over onto the clip in the Viewer and two new tabs will appear at the top of the image, one labeled Filters and one labeled Color Corrector 3-way. The Filters tab is where you would normally change the effect settings for the clip, but the 3-way has its own way of altering the settings.
- Click on the Color Corrector 3-way tab and you will be given a window with three color wheels, one each for blacks, mids, and whites. Below each of these wheels is a bar that alters how bright each of these segments of the image are, and then one bar at the bottom of the window to alter how bright the entire image is.
How much should you change the color? Read on...