Today we are discussing five mistakes to avoid as a beginner colorist.

The first is spending way too much time on one shot. As beginners, we want to make every shot perfect or crazy, but if it’s not the hero shot, or we spend too much time focusing on that one shot, we will burn out quickly.

The second is being too hard on yourself. Color grading is probably the most subjective part of the post-production workflow. So cut yourself some slack, listen to your gut, and avoid unnecessary critique.

The third is to not start out with LUTs. I know, some of you may hate me, but you need to practice with all the tools. LUTs limit your vision. You need to know how each tool works and reacts to create the image you want. Once you learn that, you can start playing with LUTs.

The fourth is don’t use look plugins. You will start getting lazy and relying on them, but also a lot of the time you are working on site and the clients don’t want to pay for it.

The fifth and final mistake is no patience. People want to become a colorist overnight. They don’t understand the basics and that will come back to haunt them.

With all that, work hard, get obsessed, get possessed.

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