Video Editing Techniques for Correcting Skin Tones

Looking for some new ways to color correct skin tones in your film or video projects? Check out this roundup of video tutorials to improve your workflow.

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Are you tired of struggling with skin tones that look off, alien, or unbecoming in your footage? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. In this article, we’ve gathered some amazing video tutorials specifically designed for videographers and editors like you who want to master the art of color correcting skin.

So, let’s dive into these five different resources that will help you bring your subject’s skin tone back to life.

Basics Using Premiere Pro Lumetri Panel

If you’re new to color correction, this tutorial is a great place to start. It covers the basics of working in Adobe Premiere Pro CC, specifically in the Lumetri color panel. You’ll learn how to make basic corrections like white balance, color temperature, exposure, contrast, and more.

Roberto Blake also shares some insights on working with adjustment layers, creative LUTs, and how to use curves and color wheels to create different effects and styles. Plus, he shows you how to save your own effects for future use. These are all essential tools to master before diving into more detailed color correction.

Using Scopes to Learn Skin Tones

In this video, Larry Jordan and Digital Production BuZZ take you deeper into the world of color correction by teaching you how to work with scopes for skin and midtones. Using Adobe Premiere Pro’s Lumetri Scope, Larry explains how to use the vector graph to adjust saturation and how to crop to focus on just the skin tone for better analysis. Once you’ve mastered adjusting white levels and saturation, you’ll be ready for more advanced correction techniques.

Advanced Use of Scopes and Curves

If you’re ready to take your color correction skills to the next level, this in-depth video from Surfaced Studio is for you. It explores working with scopes like the waveform monitor and RGB parade to gain more information about your images’ brightness and identify the colors affecting your image the most. By following this video, you’ll be able to recognize any problems in your skin tone line through the vectorscope and use the waveform and RGB tabs to correct any imperfections.

Color Correcting in DaVinci Resolve

Now that you have a good understanding of how colors and corrections work in Premiere Pro, let’s explore some more advanced options in DaVinci Resolve. This tutorial by SonduckFilm shows you how to add and work with nodes to create complex color grades. It also focuses on using masks to target your subject’s skin and achieve the desired hue and saturation. DaVinci Resolve offers powerful tools for skin correction and tone control.

Retouching Skin in After Effects

If you’re looking to retouch skin and tackle fine details like blemishes and imperfections, this video by Jason Boone at PremiumBeat is perfect for you. It demonstrates how to use Adobe After Effects and mask tracking to color correct and retouch skin tones. While it requires frame-by-frame adjustments, this technique allows for major cosmetic adjustments to your subjects and their skin.

For more resources on color correcting and color grading, check out the links below:

• The Video Editor’s Guide to Color Grading
• Reduce Unwanted Skin Shine In Post-Production with DaVinci Resolve
• The Best Color Grading Software and Plugins for Video Editors
• How To Make Someone Look Ill Without Makeup in DaVinci Resolve