Motion & effects
Color correction: definition and examples
What is Color correction?
Color correction is the technical process of adjusting a clip's exposure, white balance, and color balance to produce an accurate and consistent image that matches how the scene actually looked. It is performed before creative color grading and addresses problems such as incorrect white balance, uneven lighting, or color casts.
When you'd use it
- 1When clips shot in different locations or lighting conditions look inconsistent against each other.
- 2When footage looks flat, overexposed, or color-shifted straight out of the camera.
- 3When white balance was set incorrectly during the shoot and skin tones look off.
- 4When preparing clips for creative color grading, because correction must happen first.
- 5When combining B-roll from multiple sources that need to match visually.
Example
A creator films half a tutorial indoors under warm tungsten light and the other half near a window with cool daylight. After color correction, both sections match: skin tone is consistent, whites look neutral, and exposure is even. The LUT applied afterward reads cleanly across all clips.
Use cases
- 1Matching exposure across five product shots filmed at different times of day.
- 2Fixing a warm orange cast on indoor talking-head footage shot under tungsten lights.
- 3Bringing a washed-out, log-profile camera clip back to a neutral baseline before grading.
FAQ
What's the difference between color correction and color grading?
Color correction is technical: it fixes problems and makes the image accurate. Color grading is creative: it shapes the mood and aesthetic of an already-corrected image. Correction comes first; grading builds on top of it.
Make on-brand short-form video from the footage you already have.