Planning on using Adobe Premiere to color correct your next video? If so, know that there are several things that you should and should not do along the way. Here are some tips for anybody looking to get into color correcting using Adobe Premiere color correction software.

Don't Heavily Color Correct Early On In Post-Production 

Many video editors are excited to get their footage into their editing software and start looking at the potential that it could be in the finished product. This means they start color correcting footage early on during the initial rough cuts. This is something you should avoid doing for several reasons.

You don't know what shots are going to be in the final edit, so you could be wasting creative hours on shots that nobody will ever see. Color correction filters will also slow you down when doing your rough cut. Footage will be harder to play in real time without rendering your timeline, which makes it harder to be creative since you'll be dealing with slow playback and dropped frames.

Do Use A LUT

The best thing you can do to make your footage look good in rough cuts is to apply a LUT to the footage. LUT stands for a lookup table, and it is used to adjust the flat-looking raw footage to something that looks more natural without applying complex color correction. This will make it easier to view your footage with clients, since they won't be so focused on the raw color.

Don't Use The Incorrect LUT

There are many different LUTs for the various cameras, and they all will turn your raw footage into something that looks much better. However, be aware that LUTs are designed with specific cameras and shooting modes in mind, so you must check with your director of photography to find out what shooting mode was used to capture the footage.

Using the incorrect LUT not only looks bad, but will make it more of a challenge to color correct your footage. LUTs can be a great starting point to get the color where you want it to be, and you don't want to have to adjust things the incorrect LUT is doing to the footage.

Do Use A Scope

Even if you are not using a broadcast monitor, don't forget to turn on the lumetri scopes and look at how your color correction is adjusting the video levels. It can let you more accurately judge when you've adjusted a color setting too much by seeing the levels go past the recommended peaks on the scope.