Match Color Between Shots So Your Cuts Feel Consistent

Two shots of the same room can look as if they were filmed on different days. One is a little darker, the other a little warmer. The viewer feels the change at the cut without being able to name it. Color consistency means giving every shot in a scene the same brightness and the same warmth.

Pick a reference shot

Choose the shot whose exposure and skin tones look best, and match the others to it. Work through one scene at a time, since shots in different places and light can look different on purpose.

Compare at the cut

Pause on the last frame of the reference shot. Press the right arrow key to step one frame at a time into the next shot, and watch the preview. Step back and forth across the cut a few times. A difference in brightness or warmth shows up when you move between the two frames.

Adjust the clip

Select the shot that needs to change and open the Color tab on the right.

1. Click Auto for a starting point. It fits a grade from the clip's own frame, and the sliders move to show what it chose.
2. Fix brightness first with Exposure, and use Contrast if the picture looks flat or harsh.
3. Fix warmth next with Temperature. Shots under indoor lamps and shots in daylight often need opposite nudges.
4. Adjust Saturation last, so the color strength of the two shots agrees.

Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Exposure and Temperature run from -50 to +50. Hue runs from -180 to +180 degrees and rarely needs more than a small move. A reset button appears beside any slider you have changed, and Reset all returns the clip to its original color.

Read the histogram

The graph at the top of the tab shows how red, green and blue spread across the frame under the playhead, from dark on the left to bright on the right. Compare the graph on the last frame of one shot and the first frame of the next. When the shapes sit in the same place, brightness and balance are close. The thumbnails in the timeline follow the grade too, so you can see the change across the whole row.

Add one look over everything

Once the shots match, a single look can give the video a mood. Open the Effects tab, switch to Filters, and drag a look such as Noir, Pastel or Dreamy onto the timeline. Select it and use the Amount slider in the right panel to set how strong it is. A look applies to the picture for as long as its bar lasts, so stretch the bar over the stretch of video you want covered. Correct first and add a look last, so the look is applied to footage that already matches.

Match one cut

Open two clips from the same scene in DepCut, click Auto on the one that looks off, and finish with Exposure and Temperature until the cut disappears.