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Let's color grade!

One way to get the absolute most out of your drone footage is to color grade it! With that in mind, we asked Stewart and Alina to give us some tips on how to get the most out of Mavic 3's 10-bit footage.

1 - Color correct before you color grade!

If you take only one thing away from this video, it is the following - color correct before you color grade. With color correction, we are talking about white balance adjustments, saturation adjustments, and contrast adjustments. That then gives us the baseline upon which we can build our grade.

2 - Basic corrections

First up, contrast as log footage can be so flat it's hard to see the differences. Using the waveform (100 is white, 0 is black), you want to stretch it out so that it's not all packed in the middle section (shades of grey).To do this, move your highlights up to almost 100, and the shadows down to 0 (give or take).

3 - Use curves adjustments!

The great thing about curves is that it alters the contrast within the predefined range of black and white. There is no one-size-fits-all as it depends on your clip, but playing around with these is the base of the grade. Alternatively, you can also use the D-Log to Rec.709 LUT, but it's good practice to do it manually and build the footage exactly how you'd like it.

Alternatively

You can also use the D-Log to Rec.709 LUT, but it's good practice to do it manually and build the footage exactly how you'd like it.

4 - Color grading

Once you've color corrected, you have your starting point to grade and stylize your video. Color grading will depend on the look you’re aiming for, so feel free to explore the different options available to find a look that works for you on your footage.

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