Adjust color using RGB and Hue Saturation Curves

Premiere Pro's Curves feature allows you to make quick and precise color adjustments to achieve natural-looking results. The two types of curves you can use to edit color are: RGB Curves and Hue Saturation Curves.

You can edit curves using two approaches:

• Using the RGB Curves available in the Lumetri Color panel.
• Using the RGB Curves effect available in the Effects Control panel.

Adjust luma and tonal ranges using control points

RGB Curves let you adjust luma and tonal ranges across the clip using curves. The master curve controls the Luma. Initially, the master curve is represented as a straight white diagonal line. Adjusting the master curve adjusts the values of all three RGB channels simultaneously.

Here are some of the ways you can manipulate control points:

Usage examples

Hue Saturation Curves

Premiere Pro offers the following color hue saturation curves that you can use to make different types of curve-based color adjustments to your clip.

• Hue versus Saturation - Select a hue range and adjust its saturation level.
• Hue versus Hue - Select a hue range and change it to another hue.
• Hue versus Luma - Select a hue range and adjust the luma.
• Luma versus Saturation - Select a luma range and adjust its saturation.
• Saturation versus Saturation - Select a saturation range and increase or decrease its saturation.

Grade color using control points

You can adjust colors using control points. While moving a control point, a vertical band appears to help you judge your final result.

Here are some of the ways you can manipulate control points:

Sample colors

With one of the color curves tabs open, click the Eyedropper tool to sample a color in the Program Monitor. Three control points are automatically placed on the curve.

• The center point corresponds to the color you selected. 
• For the Hue curves, the value for the selected pixel is the Hue.
• For the Luma and Sat curves, the selected pixel corresponds to the Luma and Sat values.

By default, the Eyedropper samples a 5 x 5 pixel area and averages the selected color. Press the Cmd (macOS) or Ctrl (Windows) keys while using the Eyedropper to sample a larger 10 x 10 pixel area.

How Premiere Pro handles Hue Saturation curve adjustments

Premiere Pro processes effects that are applied before the current Lumetri effect before sampling the color.

• If the effect applied earlier affects the color, the changed color is sampled.
• Effects applied after the current Lumetri effect are not considered when sampling the color. 
• The Lumetri panel process from top down. Basic, Creative, and RGB Curves are processed before feeding into the Hue Saturations Curves.
• Lumetri sections that come after curves (Color Wheels, HSL Secondaries, Vignette) are not considered when sampling the color.
  
• The Hue Saturation Curves process in parallel. All the curves sample the color value at the time it feeds into the Hue Saturation Curves section.

An example to illustrate this behavior:

Use the Hue versus Hue curve to change a green color into blue. Now, use the Hue versus Luma curve to sample the resulting blue color. Premiere Pro adds the control points to the green section of the curve - the original color - not blue.

If you want to ignore the Hue versus Hue change while editing the Hue versus Luma curve, deselect the check box above the Hue versus Hue curve.

Examples

Keyboard shortcuts for Curves