How to colour match two clips

Two clips can be matched in Video by Zaweba with Colour match. Pick the clip that looks right as the reference, and the tool measures a few frames of each, then nudges the other clip's brightness, contrast, saturation, warmth and tint towards it. It does this by adjusting an ordinary colour grade, so you can fine-tune the result in the Inspector afterwards. Auto colour, which sets white balance and levels from a frame, is a useful first step on clips that are badly off.

Shots that don't match are one of the quickest ways a film starts to look home-made. Cut from a warm phone shot to a cool camera shot of the same room and viewers feel the jump even if they can't name it.

Why clips drift apart

Different cameras see colour differently. The same camera changes too, as it adjusts white balance and exposure automatically while the light shifts. Clouds pass, a lamp goes on, you move from a window to a corner. And AI-generated clips drift between generations, which is exactly the case Colour match was built for in the Episode Builder, where many short clips must sit together as one episode.

Matching step by step

Choose the reference. It should be the shot you're happiest with, correctly exposed and with natural skin, because everything else will be pulled towards it. If no clip looks right, grade one properly first, then use that.

Select the clip you want to change and run Colour match against the reference. The tool measures a few frames from each, so a brief flash or one odd frame doesn't throw it, and writes the adjustment into the clip's own colour grade.

Then compare. Play across the cut between the two clips and watch faces and neutral things like walls and white shirts. If it's close but not quite, finish by hand.

Finishing the match by hand

Because the match is an ordinary grade, every control is still there. Nudge temperature and tint until whites agree. Use the shadow, midtone and highlight colour wheels for casts that only affect part of the range. Curves help when contrast is the difference.

View > Scopes is the best judge. Put the RGB parade up and compare neutral areas in both shots; when the three colour columns sit the same way in each, the balance matches. The vectorscope's skin line shows whether faces in both shots fall in the same place. View > Colour page has a before and after split and the clip grid along the top, which makes stepping between shots quick.

Matching a whole sequence

For many shots, match each one to the same reference rather than chaining them, so small errors don't build up from shot to shot. Once a scene matches, you can lay a single creative look over all of it with an adjustment layer from the Graphics menu, so every shot gets the same style on top of matching foundations.

Colour match corrects overall differences. It won't fix a shot where one object has changed colour, or where the light is coming from a different direction. For those, the hue curves and secondary colour correction can target a single colour, and sometimes the honest answer is to choose a different take.

When the cut plays through without anyone noticing the cameras changed, the match is done.