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75 FALL 2015 / CINEMONTAGE 75 FALL 2015 / CINEMONTAGE TECH TIPS new Lumetri Color Panel is even more exciting. Several years ago, for those who are unaware, Adobe acquired SpeedGrade, a capable and professional color-grading application. However, recently there has been a noticeable trend in the industry to combine color grading with online editing in one application. This saves the user the task of going into a separate application to do the color work and rendering the clips out to be used in your editing software (a process known as round-tripping). That process can have problems. If your edit changes, for example, things could get messy. That is why color grading was usually done after picture lock. With sophisticated color tools now conveniently available inside the editing software, you can start working on the color of your image at any time. Of course, you still might wish to hand off the color work to a professional colorist if you'd rather not do it yourself. For those who prefer the traditional way, the standalone version of SpeedGrade is included in the Creative Cloud, which contains the full set of color tools. Working with the two applications has also been facilitated with Adobe's Direct Link technology, making it easier to move your Premiere Pro project into SpeedGrade. With the Lumetri Color panel in Premiere CC 2015, however, Adobe has brought quite a bit of the power of SpeedGrade inside of the editing environment. I opened an editing sequence in Premiere, selected a clip and began modifying it with the controls on the Lumetri Color panel. Almost immediately, I was able to achieve a remarkable amount of different looks and effects. It was quickly apparent to me that the Lumetri panel offers a wide range of creative possibilities. The Lumetri Color panel is divided into several categories. Under Basic Correction, there is a drop- down menu that lets you apply an LUT, or color profile, for a wide range of cameras (see Figure 1). This is a quick way to do an easy color correction, and saves editors from staring at washed-out Log footage while editing. Incidentally, this design was modeled after Adobe Lightroom, which makes it much more approachable for video editors who are new to color work. There are also White Balance and Tone controls that allow you to adjust such things as color temperature, tint, exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks and saturation — all highly effective in achieving different color effects. Modifying any of these controls provide instant feedback on the clip in the program window. The Creative section of the Lumetri Color panel allows you to apply SpeedGrade Looks to your scene (see Figure 2). What are Looks? They're collections of presets designed by others that can immediately bring interesting color effects and moods to your footage. Included are Looks such as Blue Ice or Gold Heat that can make your footage appear to emanate crisp coldness or blaze in a fiery glow, respectively. Others can do things like give your footage a day-for-night effect. An intensity slider lets you dial in the influence of any Look so you can mix it with the original footage. Of course, you can add your own adjustments on top of it as well, and if you create a Look that you want to re-use or share with your friends, you can save it as a preset. The Creative section also contains controls that allow you to give your image a faded film look, as well as sliders for sharpening, vibrance (increased saturation while protecting flesh tones), overall saturation, and the ability to tint your shadows and highlights with different colors. Next up is the Curves section of the Lumetri Color panel (see Figure 3). Many colorists rely on curves to adjust the color and contrast in an image. In this area of the panel, you have access to a set of curves that can adjust the entire RGB image as well as each additional color channel. Under the RGB curves adjustment area is a new Hue Saturation Curve adjustment control. This is a brilliant and highly effective control that lets you isolate individual colors in the shot and increase their saturation selectively. Want to increase all the violet in your picture, or maybe just the blues and oranges (while desaturating everything else)? This control lets you do that. Beneath the Curves area is the Color Wheels area, which contains a three-way color corrector that allows you to separately change the hue, saturation and brightness of the shadows, mid-tones and highlights of your image (see Figure 4). Premiere Pro has had a three- way color corrector for a long time, but the one on the Lumetri Color panel is convenient and easily accessible alongside the other Lumetri tools. Keep in mind that all of the color tools discussed so far not only update the image of the clip in the program Top, Figure 2: The Creative section of the Lumetri Color Panel allows you to apply Looks as well as other controls. Above, Figure 3: The Curves section of the Color Panel contains RGB curves to adjust the composite image, as well as each separate channel. There is also a very useful Hue Saturation Curve adjustment tool.