#Final cut pro color grading pro#

I’ve found it also helps to drop your highlight levels down a touch as well, to avoid bright highlights clipping too severely.Įvery shot will be a bit different. This alone improves the look of iPhone footage subtly, making it softer and more natural. Take a look at this sample image, raw from the iPhone:Īnd here’s what it looks like with the mid tone / shadow adjustments: Drop your mid tone levels way down so that you are crushing the shadows, and then bring your black levels back up to taste. There is very little mid tone contrast, which is partly what makes it look like video. By default, iPhone footage seems to have a lot of overall contrast, but it’s mostly in the shadows and highlights. The very first step in your iPhone color grading workflow is to adjust the exposure levels of your shot. These same adjustments can also be made using three way color correctors, curves, or any other tool for that matter.īut perhaps the easiest way to set a base look with your iPhone footage (inside of FCP X) is to simply add a clip to your timeline, hit CMD + 6 to bring up the color board, and start making adjustments.

#Final cut pro color grading pro#

The Color Boardįor the purpose of this quick tutorial, we are going to use the Color Board panel in Final Cut Pro to make our adjustments. The most important part is understanding what the footage needs to look more organic, as opposed to which tools you use to get there. One quick note before we jump into the recommended iPhone color grading workflow –Īlthough this post focuses on settings adjustments you can make within Final Cut Pro, these exact same principles can of course be applied in any other video editing software, including DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro. But today, I want to share a quick tip for improving your footage that was shot with the native Apple camera, which is also capable of great results. There are workflows for achieving those type of results using third party apps (like the incredible Filmic Proapp). In any case, if you’re reading this article you are likely trying to break out of the stock iPhone aesthetic and find something more tasteful for your project. It’s not that there is anything “wrong” with the native iPhone look per se, but it’s just not exclusively intended for filmmakers seeking a polished narrative or high end documentary look. This is a result of many factors – sharpening, internal processing, small sensor size, and to a large degree color science. With that said though, iPhone footage does still come off the camera with a baked-in video look. And as I’ve learned recently, the raw footage is very easy to grade – or even match to other cameras like the Arri Alexa. Virtually any iPhone model released in the last 4 – 5 years is capable of producing pretty incredible video results in the right hands. In this quick post I am going to walk you through a very simple color grading workflow that will elevate your iPhone footage and make it appear as if it were shot on a cinema camera.