You can use color curves to adjust the components of individual color channels in an image. You can adjust the global luma channel as well as the red, green, and blue color channels. You can also select a custom color in a clip and adjust its intensity, or select a mix of different colors in a clip and adjust their intensities at the same time.
When you apply the Color Curves filter, its settings appear in the Filters Inspector:
A color curve is a graph that lets you remap a color channel’s luminance (intensity) values. The straight diagonal line represents the tonal ranges of the color channel before you make changes to the image, with shadows on the left side of the diagonal line, midtones in the center, and highlights on the right.
The vertical axis in the graph represents the luminance changes you make to the color channel, by dragging up or down at any point along the diagonal line. So, for example, in the Red curve control, dragging up on the left side of the diagonal line increases the intensity of red in the shadows—making the dark areas look more intensely red. Dragging down on the left side of the line reduces the intensity of red in the shadows—making the dark areas look more blue-green.
Note: Because you can apply multiple color filters to an image, you’re not required to follow all of the steps below, nor the order of those steps. For example, you might adjust the overall contrast with the Color Curves filter and adjust a color tint with the Color Wheels filter. Or you could achieve the same results with multiple instances of the same effect.
In Motion, open the Library, click the Filters category, then click the Color category to reveal the color-correction filters.
Drag the Color Curves filter to the layer in the Layers list you want to adjust.
The Color Curves controls appear in the Filters Inspector.
In the Filters Inspector, click the View pop-up menu at the top of the filter controls and choose a display option:
All Curves: Displays all four curves (Luma, Red, Green, and Blue) at once.
Single Curves: Displays one large curve at a time. In Single Curves view, click a button above the curve to display a specific curve.
To color-correct the image, follow the instructions below.
In Motion, apply a Color Curves filter to a clip or image, as described in the previous task.
Do one of the following:
Adjust a primary color channel: Click the Red, Green, or Blue curve (the diagonal line) to add a control point.
Tip: Click somewhere on the lower-left side of the line to adjust mostly shadows of a given color; click in the center of the line to adjust mostly midtones; or click the upper-right side of the line to adjust mostly highlights
Adjust the luma channel: To set the black and white points, drag the control points on the ends of the Luma curve. Click the Luma curve (the white diagonal line) to add a control point.
Adjust the white point to modify the very brightest parts of an image; adjust the black point to modify the very darkest parts of an image. You can expand the tonal range of your image by increasing the white point and black point as far as you can without clipping (forcing values out of the allowable range).
Drag the control point up to increase the intensity of the color or luma value, or down to decrease the intensity.
To constrain the control point to vertical or horizontal movement, press and hold the Shift key as you drag. To make fine adjustments, press and hold the Option key as you drag.
Adjusting the image with a single control point affects most of the midtones as well as some shadows and highlights.
To narrow the tonal range for your adjustments, add more control points.
The default diagonal line for each curve indicates the original state of the image. Wherever the curve diverges from the diagonal line, the image is altered. Wherever the curve touches the diagonal line, the values of the image at that tonality are the same as in the original image. For example, to prevent any change to the shadows, you could add a control point to pin the curve to the diagonal line in the shadows area.
Add and drag control points as needed.
To delete a control point, select it and press Delete.
To reset the values for a color curve, click its reset button (the curved arrow). To reset the values for all color curves and value sliders, move the pointer over the upper-right corner of the filter controls, then click the Animation pop-up menu (the down arrow that appears) and choose Reset Parameter.
At the bottom of the filter controls, adjust any of the following:
Preserve Luma: Select this checkbox to maintain the overall brightness of a clip despite changes in one or more color channels.
Mix: Set the amount of the original image that’s blended with the color-corrected image.
You can also select a custom color or a range of custom colors and then adjust the intensity.
In Motion, apply a Color Curves filter to a clip or image.
Do one of the following:
Select a custom color using the eyedropper tool: Click the eyedropper tool at the top of one of the color curves, then click in the canvas to select a single color, or drag in the canvas to select a range of colors.
Select a custom color using a color wheel control: Click the name of a color curve (in the top-left corner of the curve), then click or drag in the color wheel.
Click the curve (the diagonal line) to add a control point.
To delete a control point, select it and press Delete.
Tip: Click somewhere on the lower-left side of the line to adjust mostly shadows of a given color; click in the center of the line to adjust mostly midtones; or click the upper-right side of the line to adjust mostly highlights.
Drag the control point up to increase the intensity of the color or down to decrease its intensity.
To narrow the tonal range for your adjustments, add more control points.
If a clip wasn’t white-balanced properly during shooting, it may exhibit a strong color cast (a bluish or other hue). Oftentimes, you can correct or reduce this issue using the Color Curves filter.
In Motion, apply a Color Curves filter to the clip or image.
Click the eyedropper tool at the top of one of the color curves, then click or drag in the canvas over an area of the image that’s supposed to be white, such as a white sheet of paper.
A vertical gray line appears on the color curve.
Click to add a control point where the gray line intersects the curve, then drag the control point down until the selected color in the canvas turns white.
To delete a control point, select it and press Delete.
Tip: If you frequently add a particular color filter, you can speed up your workflow by saving the correction as a Motion template. (However, you cannot publish the Color Curves filter as a custom Final Cut Pro effects template.)
