You’re out on an adventure, having fun, and holding your GoPro in your hand so you can record all the memories and replay them once you go back to reality. But, you feel like the footage doesn’t give justice to the scenery that you saw. Well, there’s a solution for that. All you need to do is color grade.
The latest GoPro models have settings for Protune color correction where you can color grade your GoPro videos and apply LUTs if you want. If you want your footage to look professionally made, try color grading during your post-production process and see how incredible your clips would look.
But first, let’s understand color grading and color correcting.
Color Grading and Color Correcting
The two terms correlate with each other and are frequently interchanged, causing misconceptions. To clear things out, color grading and color correcting are post-production processes where you manipulate colors in your footage to achieve a certain look or visual appeal.
Why do we do this? Because it enhances the visuals of your videos and contributes to setting the mood and emotional story. Also, you want to manipulate colors so you can mirror the realistic colors on your videos.
Difference between Color Grading and Color Correction
Color correction comes first since it is where you neutralize your footage and create a ‘flat’ look so that the colors would apply beautifully later on. It is like painting white on a canvas, so you have a clean slate to work on.
The next step would be color grading. This is the actual process of manipulating colors to create the look that you want. Colors will be more vibrant and realistic because you already color corrected them beforehand. It won’t be oversaturated or overexposed.
Prepping up your footage: How to Setup GoPro Protune
The latest GoPro models have Protune in the color mode settings. You have two options, GoPro Flat and GoPro Color. By default, your GoPro is set up to Color mode that automatically color grades your footage for you. But, if you want to take control of color grading your footage, you should choose Flat. You will have more neutralized and washed-out colors in Flat mode, perfect for saving time in the post-production process.
To set it up:
- Go to the Settings menu (shown as a wrench icon). You can go directly to your GoPro’s setting or through the app. It still works the same.
- Select Protune and then select Color or Flat.
3 Ways to Color Grade Your Footage
As previously mentioned, you can automatically go for the GoPro Color mode found in the settings if you want quick and vibrant colors.
Another would be using video editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, iMovie, Wondershare Filmora, etc. Set up your settings to Flat mode and then import your videos to the video editing software. Various editing software has different panels for color correcting and color grading, just like Lumetri Color for Adobe Premiere Pro.
Let’s use Adobe Premiere Pro’s Lumetri Color, for example. First, open Lumetri and manually adjust the highlights, exposure, contrast, etc., then hop on to manipulating the tints and highlights. You can even use the built-in color wheel if you want.
But, if you have a LUT preset that you want to use, you can easily install them into your video editing software and apply it to your GoPro footage.
Then you’re done!
To conclude, I would not recommend manually color grading GoPro footage if you’re a busy bud. Color grading and color correcting take too much time and effort. The easiest and fastest way to color grade your GoPro footage is using the Color mode or directly applying a LUT to your footage using a video editing software.