NOTE: To simplify the images in this tutorial, as both Premiere and Final Cut show the same scope values, I’ll use the scopes in FCP to illustrate. While her saturation varies, as indicated by the distance from the center of the scope, her color does not. In both Premiere (left) and Final Cut (right) her skin color is right on the skin tone line in the vectorscope. Her skin is clearly a mid-tone value that ranges from about 50% to 80% in gray scale. We would call her “white,” but she isn’t white. Here’s our first example, a young woman wearing a light-colored top. NOTE: In Final Cut, you need to enable the display of the Skin Tone Indicator from the Scope menu. Notice in both cases (red arrow) the skin tone line going up left. On the right is the vectorscope from Final Cut Pro. On the left is the vectorscope from Premiere Pro. What he discovered is that skin gets shades of light or dark from the melanin in our skin, while the hue comes from blood. That which gives skin its color is the red blood underneath.Īlexis Van Hurkman created an outstanding reference to color correction and grading in his “ Color Correction Handbook.” In it, he showcased all the different ranges of human skin tone. You see a piece of dead skin and, surprisingly, it’s gray.
You know this yourself when you get cleaned up in the morning. Why? Because the color of our skin is caused by the color of the red blood flowing through it. But, we all fall into a very narrow range of skin hues. Let me also state up-front that our goal in color grading is NOT to make people “look like they look in real-life.” Rather, our goal is to make people look “believably normal.” As you watch folks walk by on the street, everyone looks a bit different. NOTE: This is also the same reason we use make-up on actors to minimize imperfections and provide the illusion of normalcy. Saturation (the amount of color: gray is desaturated, bright red is highly saturated)įor the purposes of this tutorial, let’s assume you want your characters to look “normal” or “realistic,” as opposed to a clandestine meeting in a dance club at 2 AM.Hue (the color itself – red, green, blue, etc.).
Whether you color grade in Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, or some other video editor, the importance of the Skin Tone line is critical to getting your skin tones to look “normal.”įor those new to color correction and grading, a “color” is actually composed of three values: