Eddie Nguyen
The worst grade to fix is your own from last month, with eleven nodes called Node 1 to Node 11 and no idea which one made the skin green.
So I start every grade from the same tree. Each node does one job and has a label. When something looks off, I know exactly which node to open.
Build it fast
| Shortcut (Mac / Windows) | What it does |
|---|---|
| Option + S / Alt + S | Add a serial node after the current one |
| Shift + S | Add a serial node before the current one |
| Option + P / Alt + P | Add a parallel node |
| Option + L / Alt + L | Add a layer node |
| Cmd + D / Ctrl + D | Turn the selected node off and on |
| Shift + D | Turn the whole grade off, for a before and after |
To label a node, right-click it and choose Node Label. It takes two seconds and saves ten minutes later.
What each node does
01 · Exposure
Set the overall brightness first. I use the Offset wheel or Exposure in the HDR palette and watch the waveform, so skin sits where it should and nothing important is crushed or clipped.
02 · Balance
White balance. Use Temp and Tint in the Primaries, or the picker on something that should be neutral grey or white. Fix the colour cast here and nowhere else.
03 · Contrast
Shape the image: Contrast with the Pivot, or a gentle S in the Curves. This is where flat log footage starts to look like a picture.
04 · Saturation
Add colour back, gently. I’d rather do it here, after contrast, because contrast changes how saturated things look.
05 · Skin
Pull a key on the skin with the Qualifier, soften the key, and nudge the hue toward the skin tone line on the vectorscope. Only small moves. This node exists so the next one can be bold without turning faces strange.
06 · Look
The creative part: split toning, a film emulation LUT, a colour shift in the shadows. If I use a LUT, it goes here, and I turn down Key Output Gain to control how strong it is.
Why serial, and why this order
Each node feeds the next, so the order matters. Balancing before contrast means contrast doesn’t exaggerate a colour cast. Protecting skin before the look means the look can be strong and faces still hold up.
Reuse it
When the tree is built, right-click the viewer and choose Grab Still, or save it as a PowerGrade in the Gallery. On the next clip, right-click the still and choose Apply Grade, then adjust nodes 01 to 03 for that shot. The rest usually carries over.
For the two CST nodes at either end, see grading S-Log3 with a CST sandwich.