FAST, EASY & FREE! Cinematic Color Grading in CapCut | Video Editing Tutorial
TLDRThis tutorial covers cinematic color grading in CapCut, highlighting its ease and speed. The creator demonstrates how to adjust log footage, enhance contrast and saturation, and apply filters to achieve professional results—all using the free version of CapCut. Key tools like the Luma curve, HSL adjustments, and RGB curves are explained in detail, allowing users to fine-tune their footage. The video emphasizes hands-on practice to master these techniques, making it accessible for both beginners and advanced users. Additionally, it introduces music from the sponsor, Audio, ensuring a copyright-safe experience.
Takeaways
- 🎥 Cinematic color grading in CapCut is fast, easy, and free, even in the app's free version.
- 📸 If you shoot in a log profile, you need to add contrast and saturation manually to make the footage look normal.
- 🛠️ Use the S-shaped Luma curve to adjust contrast in your footage, ensuring you don't clip the highlights or lose shadow details.
- 🎛️ Basic adjustments like increasing saturation and adjusting white balance or tint can quickly enhance your footage.
- 🎶 Choosing the right music is crucial; the video recommends high-quality music from Audio for avoiding copyright issues.
- 🎨 After applying a filter, you can further tweak color settings using CapCut's tools, like contrast and brilliance sliders.
- 🔧 HSL adjustments allow you to fine-tune specific colors, like changing the sky from blue to teal or adjusting the saturation of greens.
- 🔄 RGB curves let you alter individual color channels in highlights, midtones, or shadows, but be careful not to overdo it.
- 💡 It's important to practice color grading on various types of footage (sunny, cloudy, etc.) to improve your skills.
- 📚 The key takeaway: Experiment, practice, and customize the tools to suit your personal style and preferences.
Q & A
What is the main topic of this video tutorial?
-The video tutorial is about cinematic color grading in CapCut, specifically showing a fast and easy way to achieve professional results using the free version of CapCut.
What is the first step if you are shooting in a log profile?
-If you're shooting in a log profile, the first step is to add contrast and saturation to make the footage look normal. This can be done manually or by using a LUT designed for your camera.
Why should someone use the color oscilloscope and vector scope when color grading?
-Using the color oscilloscope and vector scope helps make better decisions by providing visual representations of the waveforms and color distribution, which makes it easier to adjust contrast, saturation, and other parameters correctly.
What is an S-curve in color grading and why is it important?
-An S-curve in color grading is a method used to add contrast by adjusting the luma curve. The top part of the curve affects highlights, the bottom part affects shadows, and the middle controls midtones. It’s important because it allows the user to expand dynamic range without clipping highlights or crushing shadows.
How can you manually adjust saturation in CapCut?
-You can adjust saturation manually by going back to the 'Basic' settings after working with curves and simply increasing the saturation to make colors more vivid.
What adjustments can be made if the image appears too warm or too cold?
-If the image appears too warm or too cold, you can adjust the white balance. For example, increase the warmth if the image is too cold or reduce it if the image is too warm. You can also adjust the tint if the image looks too green or magenta.
What is the easiest way to apply a cinematic look using CapCut?
-The easiest way to apply a cinematic look in CapCut is by using the 'Filters' feature. You can choose a filter that aligns with your desired look and apply it to the timeline. You can also further adjust it using other tools like curves and HSL.
What are the HSL adjustments used for?
-HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness) adjustments are used to tweak specific colors in the image. For instance, you can change the hue of the sky to a more teal tone or adjust the saturation and brightness of greens to make them more vibrant or muted.
What is the purpose of RGB curves in color grading?
-RGB curves allow for precise color adjustments by manipulating individual color channels (red, green, and blue). You can control the shadows, midtones, and highlights of each channel to create unique color effects, like adding a teal tone to the shadows or adjusting the warmth of highlights.
What is the most important thing to remember when color grading in CapCut?
-The most important thing to remember when color grading in CapCut is to practice. Color grading is about learning how adjustments affect the image, and only by experimenting with different settings and tools can you master the process.
Outlines
🎥 Introduction to Cinematic Color Grading in CapCut
The speaker apologizes for neglecting CapCut users but promises to make up for it with a tutorial on cinematic color grading. They showcase quick examples, emphasizing that this method is easy, fast, and possible within the free version of CapCut. The tutorial begins with instructions for those who shoot in 'log' profiles, explaining how to add contrast and saturation to flat-looking footage using manual adjustments like Luma curves.
🖼️ Adjusting Luma Curves for Contrast
Here, the speaker explains how to manually adjust the Luma curve to add contrast to log footage. Users are guided through creating an 'S-shaped' curve by dragging the line to pull shadows down and highlights up, paying attention to the waveform to avoid clipping. The process is described as subjective, with each curve needing to be adjusted according to individual footage, providing a flexible, creative approach to contrast.
🎨 Saturation and Color Correction Basics
After setting up the curve, the speaker covers increasing saturation and basic color correction. Adjustments to tint and white balance are highlighted for making images warmer or cooler, greener or magenta, depending on the footage. The key takeaway is to practice with the sliders and curves to understand how adjustments affect the image.
🎶 Importance of Music Choice and Sponsor Audio
The speaker briefly shifts focus to discuss the importance of music in video editing. They promote Audio, their sponsor, as a reliable source for high-quality, copyright-safe music, contrasting it with other free music libraries. The speaker mentions that Audio provides a variety of music genres and powerful search tools, offering a 70% discount on their Pro subscription.
📽️ Applying Filters in CapCut
The speaker introduces the simplest part of the tutorial—applying filters in CapCut. Filters provide a base look that can still be adjusted with color grading tools. Even in the free version, there are enough filters to achieve desired results. They encourage users to tweak the applied filter with additional color adjustments, providing examples of contrast and midtone tweaks using the brilliance and contrast sliders.
🎛️ Tweaking Color with HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness)
The speaker introduces the HSL tool, explaining how users can fine-tune specific colors like making skies more teal or changing the greens in an image. The tool allows users to adjust the tint, saturation, and brightness of individual colors, enabling personalized control over the final look of the footage. The speaker emphasizes that subtlety is key in these adjustments to avoid an overprocessed look.
🔵 Advanced Color Grading with RGB Curves
In this section, the speaker introduces RGB curves, explaining how to control specific color channels (red, green, blue) in shadows, midtones, and highlights. They provide examples of making shadows more teal or highlights more yellow by adjusting the curves. Although this tool is more complex than HSL, the speaker reassures viewers that with practice, it becomes intuitive.
⚖️ Balancing Artistic Expression and Technical Precision
The speaker concludes by stressing the importance of practice when using these color grading tools. They suggest experimenting with different environments, such as sunny or cloudy footage, to see how the tools behave in various conditions. The final message is that mastering color grading is about balancing creativity with precision, encouraging viewers to practice and develop their own styles.
Mindmap
Keywords
Cinematic Color Grading
CapCut
Log Profile
Luma Curve
Basic Adjustments
White Balance
Saturation
HSL
RGB Curves
Filters
Highlights
Cinematic color grading in CapCut can be done in just 5 minutes, making it the fastest and easiest method while maintaining full control.
All the color grading techniques shown in the video are achievable in the free version of CapCut.
If you're shooting in a log profile, you'll need to add contrast and saturation to make your footage look normal.
Using a log profile allows your camera to capture more information and dynamic range compared to standard profiles.
The first step in color grading log footage is to create an S-shaped Luma curve to add contrast without clipping the highlights or shadows.
Always start with an S-curve for contrast and adjust it based on the specific footage you're working with.
The basic adjustments in CapCut can be used to tweak white balance and tint for fine-tuning your footage.
HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness) adjustments allow you to selectively change the tint, saturation, or lightness of specific colors in your footage.
RGB curves enable you to modify the colors in different parts of the image such as shadows, midtones, and highlights.
Adding or removing colors with the RGB curves should be done carefully to avoid unnatural results.
It's better to underdo color grading adjustments than to overdo them, especially when using the RGB curves.
You can achieve professional color grading results using just the basic adjustments and curves in CapCut.
Practice on different types of footage, such as sunny or cloudy scenes, to get a feel for how these tools behave.
Using filters in CapCut can serve as a good starting point for color grading, but you can always tweak them further.
CapCut's color grading tools, including basic adjustments and curves, offer a great deal of flexibility and creativity.