How to Color Correct and Color Grade HLG - 2022 Workflow
Starting out with video is no easy task, and some things, like color grading seem to be a task even experienced videomakers struggle with. After a long time running tests with different picture profiles in innumerous different occasions I found a workflow that worked well for me.
And suddenly it all crumbled down with the recent updates to Premiere Pro 22 and Da Vinci Resolve 17. My picture profile of choice, HLG3, now seemed always overexposed and with weird colors, and I discovered that was due to the new color management system on both softwares.
HLG is a gamma that was initially meant for HDR delivery, and so, it needs to be understood by the software, since it possesses brightness values totally off chart for a normal REC709 timeline.
The color space in question used for these tests was BT2020, that by being much larger than the REC709 space, leads to many tones off range appearing smushy and weird without conversion, mainly appearing on skin tones, that look greenish (everyone seems sick…).
In the video you’ll be able to understand the workflow I use to color correct these clips and below, by signing up to the newsletter, you’ll get in your inbox the link to download 3 different LUTs:
The first one is a correction LUT, that will take the HLG footage, shot in REC709 or BT2020 to the right color space.
The second one is an artistic LUT that will give your footage a very nice and warm faded look, as you can see in the image below.
The third and last, is a combination of both previously mentioned. So you can choose the case that suits you best, by only converting the footage, grading it or combining them with other LUTs of your choice.
Hope they look great on your footage, and please let me know in the comments of the video if you have any doubts or if any tweaks seem necessary to make it work with a broader range of cameras and clips!
Keep creating!
Enri
On the left the original HLG3 BT2020 clip and on the right the clip color corrected and graded with the mix LUT
