# What is Color Correction?

Color correction adjusts exposure, white balance, contrast, and channel balance to create a technically consistent image or sequence. It generally addresses capture errors before creative styling.

Video + audio tracks

Video processing

Playable derivative

Video processing decodes timed tracks, transforms them, and encodes a deliverable for a target player. This diagram shows video broadly, not specifically Color Correction.

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## How Color Correction works

Correction normalizes captured material so neutral objects, skin tones, exposure, and shots agree under a defined viewing transform. Controls may operate on lift, gamma, gain, curves, channel matrices, or scene-linear values, with scopes providing measurements beyond visual judgment. It differs from grading because its primary goal is technical balance and shot matching rather than a deliberate look. Corrected masters then feed editorial finishing, grading, compositing, and distribution conversions.

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## Key facts

1. 1A histogram can reveal clipping and overall level distribution, while waveform and vectorscope displays retain spatial or chroma information that a histogram alone cannot show.
2. 2White-balance adjustment is not merely lowering an obvious color channel; operations in a suitable working space help preserve neutral relationships and highlight behavior.
3. 3Applying correction to transfer-encoded values as though they were scene-linear changes the math of exposure and blending, which can produce different results across tools.

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## When Color Correction matters

Apply correction before combining footage from different cameras or repairing a color cast caused during capture. Incorrect color-space or transfer-function assumptions can create clipped highlights and inconsistent results.

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## Common use cases for video

These examples cover video broadly, not specifically Color Correction.

* Preparing uploaded video for web, mobile, connected-TV, social, or editorial playback.
* Creating clips, thumbnails, captions, alternate aspect ratios, and adaptive renditions.
* Normalizing camera, screen-recording, and user-generated files into predictable outputs.

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## Working with video

This guidance covers video broadly, not just Color Correction.

A demuxer separates tracks from the container, decoders turn compressed streams into frames or samples, and filters apply spatial or temporal changes. Encoders compress the transformed tracks before a muxer writes the chosen output container.

Video compatibility is the product of codec, container, profile, level, frame rate, color, audio, and subtitles. Validate the complete output on target devices because a playable file on one decoder may fail or look different on another.

### What you gain

* Standardized derivatives make diverse source files playable on target devices.
* A retained master can feed many resolutions, aspect ratios, codecs, and channels.
* Automated inspection and transformation make large upload volumes consistent.

### What it costs

* More efficient codecs can lower bitrate at similar quality but usually cost more compute and may have narrower support.
* Higher resolutions and frame rates preserve more detail and motion while increasing processing and delivery requirements.
* Fast encoding settings improve throughput but can produce larger files or lower quality than slower analysis.

### Before production

1. 1Inspect codec, container, dimensions, frame rate, color, audio, and subtitle tracks.
2. 2Test visual quality and playback support across the slowest and oldest target devices.
3. 3Preserve a suitable master before applying lossy, destructive, or delivery-specific changes.

[← Collaborator](/glossary/collaborator.md)[Color Grading →](/glossary/color-grading.md)

More in video

* [Cloud Transcoding](/glossary/cloud-transcoding.md)
* [Cloud Video Encoding](/glossary/cloud-video-encoding.md)
* [Codec vs. Container](/glossary/codec-vs-container.md)
* [Color Grading](/glossary/color-grading.md)
* [Common Intermediate Format](/glossary/common-intermediate-format.md)
* [Deinterlacing](/glossary/deinterlacing.md)

[All 505 terms](/glossary.md)

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