Color matching and color wheels in Premiere Pro for professional videos

When you produce videos, the visual impression is crucial to the overall experience of your audience. Differences in color and brightness can distract the viewer and disrupt the flow of the video. To achieve truly professional results, it's important that your videos have a harmonious color and lighting mood. In this guide, I'll show you how to use the color wheels in Adobe Premiere Pro to match and adjust the colors of your footage.

Key takeaways

• The color matching tool in Premiere Pro is an effective way to match color styles between different clips.
• You can use the color wheels to adjust shadows, midtones and highlights.
• For maximum effectiveness, you should think about the lighting mood of your material before you start shooting.

Step-by-step guide

Step 1: Access the Lumetri window

Start by opening the Lumetri window. Go to the window options at the top of the menu and select Lumetri Color. The Lumetri panel will appear where you can make all color corrections.

Step 2: Activate comparison view

Activate the comparison view to have a reference for your color matching. Click on the Comparison view button in the panel to change the view. Here you should use an already edited video as a reference to make the adjustments.

Step 3: Set reference video

Select your reference video by navigating to the clip in question and providing it as the source. This is done by copying the clip and pasting it into the Lumetri window. Make sure that the reference is well pre-graded so that the changes on the other clip are clearer.

Step 4: Select clip for matching

Now click on the clip you want to adjust. By selecting a clip that differs in mood and color tone, you can start the matching process. The more similar the clips are in their basic mood, the easier the matching will be.

Step 5: Apply matching

Click on the "Apply matching" button in the Lumetri panel. Premiere Pro will now analyze the selected video and adjust the colors, contrast and brightness to make the video as similar as possible to the reference.

Step 6: Check the results

Take a look at the result to see how well the adjustment worked. Check how the contrast, colors and brightness were applied. In most cases, you will already see a noticeable difference.

Step 7: Make manual adjustments

If Premiere Pro's automatic adjustments are not entirely satisfactory, you can make manual adjustments. You can use the sliders for shadows, midtones and highlights to do this. Make adjustments to further refine the image.

Step 8: Use the color wheels

Use the color wheels for more precise adjustments. You can selectively colour shadows, midtones and highlights to create a specific mood or achieve harmonizing effects between clips. Drag the sliders in the desired direction to change the color.

Step 9: Preview the changes

Use the comparison view to see the differences between the original and the edited video. It can be helpful to check the changes several times to make sure everything looks good and fits.

Step 10: Save adjustments

Once you are happy with the adjustments, make sure you save your project. This will allow you to revisit the changes you've made at a later date.

Summary - Adobe Premiere Pro color wheels and color grading

Color matching and the use of color wheels in Adobe Premiere Pro are crucial to creating a consistent and engaging visual experience for your audience. Since colors evoke strong emotions, it's important that you take the time to properly match and adjust your clips. The more you practice, the more adept you will become at using these tools.