LEARN HOW TO COLOR GRADE IN PREMIERE PRO QUICKLY!

Just started editing your own videos? But find it hard to have a simple colour grading workflow. Here is a quick and easy beginner’s guide. Once you master these techniques, you’ll have the foundation to colour grade anything using Premiere pro!

My name is Haris, I’m a photographer with a digital agency in London. I have been using Premiere Pro for many years now, I edit Weddings, corporate campaigns, and basically anything I film... I grade it.

Colour grading can be daunting, I found it a mess when I started, especially as a photographer, it is not the same as a photo workflow. So, these steps are things I would tell my past self who is entering the world of grading in premiere pro.

(I say Premiere pro because… there are more dedicated programs just for colour grading solely and it is another world. Let’s stay within the premiere for now.

Before we start! Make sure you’ve edited your project already! Always leave colour grading till the end. This is because Premiere Pro may crash if you have an old machine and start pulling some crazy moves… it might be a bloody pain. So go ahead and save a copy.

For today’s example, I will be using a few clips from my New Zealand travel video. I love that video, really proud of the grade, so let’s get started!

1) VECTOR SCOPES: BASIC ADJUSTMENTS

We start by doing basic adjustments (exposure corrections) to our clips individually. This is where you will correct the exposure, correct the white balance. I MUST ADD that you should have your footage close to what you want visually within the camera first best as you can. This is not like photography where you think you can just fix it in post. Imagine we are editing a string of Jpegs, not raws. If you have a camera that can shoot in raw, well then. BYE.Go to the colour tab and on the left, you will find the vectorscope view. This is a lifesaver. Scopes are your friend, say hello to Mr. Scope sir.

Scopes give you an objective view of what your exposure is. So you may edit your footage and think it looks nice and well balanced and exposed correctly but on somebody else’s screen it’s too dark, it’s too contrasty. Scopes help you to objectively correct your image with confidence.

For example on these clips I will want to have a full graph, I like to have my blacks just kissing 0 and the whites just at 90, that’s my personal preference and suits my style, you can play around with how you want to interoperate this graph but having it full and balanced is the key.

Also, make sure to correct your white balance and use the eyedrop tool to get adobe to an objective opinion. You can have your waves but I find it annoying and everything in the clip might be different. You want the individual clips to flow and match!

A side note, If you have shot in a standard picture profile or flat colour profile, this is still super important to correct your image.

2. COLOUR WHEEL: CREATING YOUR LOOK

Now you have your sequence correctly exposed. Well done. Step 1 is done, the difficult bit is done. I usually like to blast some music whilst doing my basic adjustments or listen to a podcast if you want to fly by quicker ;)

Now we want to add an adjustment layer, an adjustment layer is where you can apply an effect and whatever is underneath it will be affected. So we wanna grab this adjustment layer and drag it all the way across our sequence because we want our whole sequence to have the same consistent look.

Now open the colour wheel in lumetri: If you recently downloaded some luts and are super excited to try it out, you wanna do it here in the creative tab. Be careful they can be quite strong so dial it down. But I wanna show you how to make your own look.

We will be doing an orange and teal look.

Midtones: Orange

Shadows and highlights: Teal.

Be gentle because we have some other things to add, You always want the grade to be subtle.

Grab another adjustment layer and we will boost the Saturation, sometimes I like to add a touch of vibrance if I shoot in a super flat colour profile.

Now at this point, your project might look super punchy and the colours may be a bit too strong for your project. So let’s balance this grade, go to the Luma vs Saturation and drag them down on opposite ends, Look at how they change when you turn it on and off. Now you assess if you wanna be gentle or go full force. Sometimes I find that it really takes the colours completely out of the skin tones, so you always compare how it is affecting your skin tones. Overall, this helps to balance your grade and gives a more of a subdued film look.

Now let’s add some sharpening. Usually, I find that 20% is usually the max I would go to, maybe 25%. If you haven’t shot in a flat picture profile, maybe go 15%.

So, this is my footage when we started the tutorial.

NOW, boom! This is after a few simple tweaks, match better, exposed correctly and colours match nicely.

Congratulations, you now know the basics of colour grading any project in premiere pro. With these foundations, you can now take it further with your projects, super far. Colour grading is never-ending. I’m fairly decent when using Premiere Pro but overall, there are people whose whole job is purely to grade films and we have literally just scratched the surface.

So, I showed what I think are the most important basics if you are a seasoned colourist and just watching this for fun, is there something I missed out? What would you have done differently?

7 Tips for better handheld video

How to shoot a steady handheld video?

When I started filmmaking, I couldn't afford high-end cameras or stabilisers to get smooth handheld footage. However, I adapted and found that shooting handheld gave me the creative freedom to be nimble, have lightweight luggage, and overall be a run n gun filmmaker! After making lots of videos on youtube a lot of people started to ask “how do you shoot a handheld video?” In this guide, I will go over my favourite techniques! I hope they help you out.  I have a video that supports this article as well, so please check that after reading through. So, are you ready to shoot without a gimbal and love handheld video? Let's get steady footage!  

1) Use a camera strap: Lockout your elbows + push out using the strap

Usually, when we photographers are out shooting we have a camera strap with us. If you don’t take one with you, maybe you will reconsider after trying it out!

Using a camera strap around your neck and having both hands on the camera body allows you to have 3 points of contact. To make this more effective, have your elbows tucked in to avoid any small jitters: You will basically be a Human Gimbal.

Now your footage will be smooth, not shaky. 

2) Pan with your body! (Not your arms)

Now that we have good stabilization, it is time to get natural and stable movement:

Naturally, when we pan with our camera bodies, we tend to move our arms, STOP.

Keep your elbows locked in just like in step 1 and rotate your hips, your whole upper body should move as one. (Still keep the camera body pushed and locked out.) 

This will result in a smooth and natural steady motion. You can even rock and tilt, whatever you do, do not move your arms.

Now, this is the time to mention ibis. I personally have not tried ibis much but from various sample footage online. I have seen when panning slowly ibis can actually make your footage a bit wobbly, this is because ibis is meant to counter the wobble. If there is no wobble, the camera may get confused. This honestly depends on your camera brand so my recommendation is to do a test before committing to this technique on a real shoot. You may want to switch your ibis off if you find this awkward result. If you don’t have ibis, you have nothing to worry about. Overall, this is just something to watch out for. 

3) Lean against something

Now I understand that getting a steady shot with a strap will work for everybody. Hell, sometimes I don’t even have a camera strap. So, keeping your camera tucked into your body and leaning against a wall or anything comfortable will definitely help you out on a spontaneous day of shooting. We have a few examples in the support video, go check it out! 

4) The Ninja Walk

Smooth tracking shots without a gimbal? Now, this is not something I will recommend as your first/go-to call to action. However, if circumstances call for it, you can try the ninja walk. 

Simply crouch slightly and walk heel to toe. Whilst doing this you can also apply the strap technique (if you have one). Pop a bit of warp stabilizer or whatever software you use and you should have a decent tracking shot! In my support video, it worked out fine. But like I said, this is not my first recommendation because this takes a lot of practice! 

5) A Wide-angle lens

Quite simply, a wide-angle lens really helps to make those small “micro-jitters” seem less apparent. So whether you shoot in slow motion or apply a warp stabiliser that crops in slightly, you have given yourself 3 areas where you can save your footage.

Just to recap: a wide-angle lens helps with the following: Micro jitters, slow motion, and warp stabiliser.

6) Warp Stabiliser

This one is self-explanatory, whether you are using Premiere Pro, Final Pro X, or DaVinci Resolve. They all have decent software stabilisation. So, if you followed the first few steps and it is still not quite perfect, you have now given yourself a really really good chance of allowing the software to just finesse your footage. Usually, software stabilization just turns shaky handheld footage into jelly which is no good. So, prepping your footage stabilization success is key. 

You have probably realised by now that not one tip solely does the trick (maybe if you are advanced and just needed a little reminder), it is about orchestrating them together to your circumstance and project. 

7) Slow Motion

I left the final tip for last as it is probably the easiest yet most underrated: Slow Motion! If you are shooting broll for a project, slow-motion can help salvage a good chunk of usable footage for your project. You might only need a few seconds and then boom, slap on some software stabilization if you REALLY need and you are golden! 

Especially if you have followed the previous steps, you may not even need software stabilization. 

(Personally, for my own broll and travel videos shot in 100fps or 50fps, I would rarely use Warp Stabilizer when applying the human gimbal techniques we discussed earlier) 

Obviously, if you are shooting a talking head in real-time, this is practically useless. But nonetheless, I had to mention this tip. If you are shooting a casual travel video, I highly recommend just shooting a lot of it in 50/60fps for plenty of options back in the editing suite.

We have come to the end of this article/blog and I sincerely hope you have learned something new in regards to handheld filmmaking. All these tips are techniques that I have learned and applied successfully over the last few years when filmmaking on a low budget. Furthermore, even when it came to my corporate high paid projects, these tips allowed me to keep my camera bag light and be really quick to set up for shoots. Overall, these techniques are a win. 

If you have any questions regarding handheld filmmaking please do not hesitate to email me at haris@haychdigital.com | Instagram

If you wish you to see how I apply handheld filmmaking in a real-world behind the scenes video: