Grading on the Colour page in Video by Zaweba

Grading in an editing layout is cramped. The timeline takes room, the bin takes room, and the Inspector shows everything from position to sound. View, then Colour page in Video by Zaweba swaps that for a layout built for one job. The clips in your edit appear as a grid along the top. Below them is a big viewer with readouts for the clip, the timecode, a histogram and an RGB parade, plus a before and after split. At the side are the colour controls and nothing else.

Finding your way round it

The clip grid is your map of the edit. Each clip from the timeline is shown in order, so you can step from shot to shot and grade them in sequence. Clicking one shows it in the viewer and loads its colour settings at the side.

The viewer is large on purpose. Small problems such as a faint green tint or crushed shadows are hard to see in a small preview, and easier when the picture fills more of the screen. The clip name and timecode tell you exactly what you are looking at.

The histogram shows how many pixels sit at each brightness, from dark on the left to bright on the right. A pile squashed against either edge means detail lost to pure black or pure white. The RGB parade shows the red, green and blue channels side by side across the width of the frame, so a colour cast shows up as one channel sitting higher or lower than the others.

Using the before and after split

The split view shows the original picture on one side and the graded one on the other. Your eyes adapt to whatever they look at, and after a few minutes on one shot almost any grade seems normal. The split resets that. If the graded side looks heavy next to the original, you have probably gone too far.

It is also good for showing other people what a grade does, since the change is easy to see side by side.

A sensible way to work through a film

Start at the first clip and do the basic correction: exposure, contrast, white balance. Move along the grid and repeat. Don't try to perfect a look at this stage. The aim is for every shot to sit comfortably next to its neighbours.

When the shots match, go back and add the creative look, on the clips or on an adjustment layer in the edit. Then step through the grid again, watching for any shot that stands out.

Because only colour controls are on show, you are less likely to wander off and start trimming or fixing sound in the middle of a grading session. That focus is the real point of the page.

Moving between pages

The Colour page works on the same project as the editing view. Grades you make here are on the clips when you go back, and edits you make there are reflected here. There is also a Colour workspace among the workspaces in the View menu if you want a colour layout that keeps the timeline and other panels docked in their own arrangement. The full scopes window, with a waveform and a vectorscope as well, is under View, then Scopes.

Mistakes people make on a grading page

Grading before the edit is locked is the classic one. If shots are still being swapped and trimmed, grading them is often wasted. Do a rough balance early if it helps you judge the cut, then save the real grade for later.

Trusting the screen alone is another. An uncalibrated monitor or a bright room changes how a grade looks. Use the histogram and parade to back up what you see.

Lastly, check the whole film once the grade is done, in the normal preview and in order. A shot that looked fine on its own may jump out in context.

The Colour page in Video by Zaweba turns grading into a calm, separate stage of the job, and that alone tends to make the results better.