0

I took several shots with a camera without the ability to white balance the shot. In one take, Final Cut Pro's automatic color balance works very well. I would like to apply those same settings to the other takes from the same day. When I save the effect as a preset and apply it, Final Cut Pro applies automatic color balance to the new clip rather than a color balance with the same parameters from the first clip.

How can I use the parameters of the automatic color correction from one clip to apply to another clip?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Unfortunately the settings are not visible when you use automatic colour grading. AFAIK what the algorithm does can’t be replicated on another clip.

To be honest I would not use automatic for what I publish. It’s just too unpredictable and not repeatable. Sometimes you get different results with the same footage in your timeline.

Improve this answer
3
  • Yes, I made the rookie mistake of giving up on white balance because the camera didn't have it. Next time I'll use a camera that has it or hold a piece of white paper to white balance the whole clip with the picker tool. I assume that the automatic color balance works like "simplest color balance" and I have had better results with it on some clips than using the picker or than skipping color balance entirely.
    – emonigma
    Commented Jul 8, 2020 at 11:38
  • 1
    @miguelmorin My recommendation would be that you find couple YouTube videos on how to colour grade in FCPX. It isn’t and doesn’t have to be complicated. This would give you the advantages that you can copy this attributes to other clips.
    – German Dude
    Commented Jul 8, 2020 at 21:46
  • It's important to know whether your camera's automatic white balance is continuous or not. Most consumer cameras continuously guess at the ambient light temperature, which make it nearly impossible to correct in post (Resolve has a "color stabilizer" feature, which is like an inverse auto WB). It's better to set your white balance to ANYTHING constant, and best to set WB to the actual constant ambient temp. And always shoot a grey card, or make mental notes of objects in your scene which are actually white as you're shooting. Setting the wrong constant WB risks clipping single channels.
    – Jason Conrad
    Commented Sep 23, 2020 at 3:53

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.