DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro (Lumetri)
Color pass
A structured approach to grading: normalize, match, then shape the look.
Set a monitoring baseline
Work on a calibrated monitor in a dim, neutral room. Confirm your NLE color management and the correct timeline color space so what you see is what ships.
Normalize each shot first
Fix exposure, white balance, and contrast on every clip before doing anything creative. A clean, even base makes shot-to-shot matching far easier than grading on top of unbalanced footage.
Match shots across a scene
Balance every clip in a scene to a single reference so the scene reads as one continuous moment. Use scopes - waveform and vectorscope - rather than eyeballing it.
Shape the look
Add the creative grade - lift or crush, skin-tone care, filmic contrast, or a LUT - consistently across the whole piece. Keep skin tones protected and avoid clipping the highlights you want to keep.
Grade for continuity in multi-cam
If you shot with multiple cameras, match them to each other before applying the final look. Log or RAW material should come through a conversion before being graded side by side.
Check on the delivery target
Preview the grade at the resolution and color space you will actually deliver in. Check for banding, clipped highlights, and overly crushed blacks on the final target, not just the edit monitor.