Ryan Color Match

This Gizmo helps you to quickly create a grade node that matches colors from source footage to target footage.  Can be used to quickly and roughly match the grade from one shot to another.

It works by sampling two color areas of the source footage and matching them to two color areas of the target footage.

Ideally you should sample the darkest area you can find, in order to match black levels/tone, and the brightest area you can find, to match highlights.

Instructions:

1. Choose your footage format in the Source Format menu.

2. Connect footage you want to color correct (source) to Source input.

3. Connect footage you want to match to (target) to Target input.

4. Choose 'Source' in this node's view menu and set your viewer to view the node.

5. Move the 'source_dark' spot in the viewer to the darkest spot you can find.

(make sure Overlay is on in viewer)

6. Move 'source_light' to the lightest spot.

7. Switch view to Target and choose a dark and light spot on your target footage.

8. Set view to Source and click 'Match Darks' to adjust the black levels to match your target.

9. Click 'Match Lights' to match the brights.

(Sometimes this doesn't work as well as matching the black levels, so use tastefully.)

10. Repeat clicking Match Dark and Match Lights to further refine the match.

11. When you are done, click 'Export Grade Node' to make a grade node with your match.

Uses bits of Francois Leduc's gizmo 'ColorSampler'.

Example Source Image with dark and light spots sampled

Example Target Image with dark and light spots sampled

Example composite, left side is with original, right side is with Color Match grade.