Chapter 9. Fixing and Enhancing Footage

When working with video, the act of color grading and footage enhancement is generally performed at the end of the development process. The reason is that it can be a bit time-consuming, so the thought is that you should fix color, exposure, and other issues just for footage you used (as opposed to the hours you’ve shot).

So, once you have your cut locked down and you feel that the rhythm of the piece works, it’s time to make sure your images look the best they can. Final Cut Pro X has some amazing color grading tools that allow you to fine-tune how your images look. Much like working with a photograph, the pictures that come out of the camera are not necessarily the best those images can look.

You can even use the color grading tools just to stylize the look of your program. Lots of things can influence the appearance of your footage: