Before you start working on any video editing, you need to have a good overall understanding of working with color in video. To guide you through the process, we'll explain the basics of color and outline the best color editing software packages and apps for fine-tuning the colors in your footage.
Color sorting is an exciting practice of patience, skillful tinkering, and a feeling for atmosphere. Creating stellar looks for a photo or video is a fun way to create a visual experience while maintaining a level of artistic integrity. While advanced artists may prefer larger software programs like Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve, there are excellent, simpler applications built entirely for beginners. In fact, you don't have to be a beginner to use these apps, as many of them use more manual controls for precise adjustments. The advancements readily available for iOS and iPad these days are stellar, and we're here to help point you in the right direction.
In this article
Part 1. What is color correction?
Color correction refers to the process of adjusting each clip of footage to meet a consistent standard of appearance. Basically, it's about correcting the underlying image issues by balancing the colors, making white appear white, black appear black, and making sure everything is even. The goal is to match the video footage to a standard that would accurately represent how the human eye would see it.
An example of this is when you are shooting outdoors during the day. During the day, the quality of the sun will change, and some shots of your video will not match. This is why color correction is important because it will make your video look like it was all shot at the same time.
Part 2. Best color correction app
Whether it's bad lighting or incorrect camera settings, there are plenty of external factors that can affect your videography and ruin your recordings. If the colors in your video don't look right, don't panic because you can quickly fix the problem with a video color correction app on your Android or iPhone device.
To help you choose, we've compiled a shortlist of the 5 best video color correction apps for your smartphone below.
Choose the best video color grading app for your mobile phone
1. Filmora
Rating: 4.5/5
Pricing: Starting at $7.99 per month
Download: Filmora for iOS Filmora for Android
Key Features:
- More than 200 stickers and emoticons
- Several thematic filters and special effects
- Uploading to social media
- Sound editing function (with preset sound styles)
- Simple video editings, such as video merging and cutting
Filmora is a powerful video editor and video color correction app for Android and iPhone users. It gives you instant access to several basic video editing features, including cropping, cropping, and rotating your video. You can also use Filmora to edit and enhance your mobile video clips' color, contrast, and brightness.
With built-in uploading to social media, you can apply color filters and special effects in Filmora before sharing your files. It offers preset color filters that you can use for the entire video, but you can also change frame by frame to adjust the speed and orientation of certain sections.
You can add blur, glitch, split screen, and video recorder effects to your video, as well as more than 200 different stickers, emoticons, GIFs, and text effects. Using Filmora is a three-step process – add your clips, choose themes and apply filters, then save and export your files. However, you will need to upgrade to remove the watermarks.
2. Movavi Clips
Ratings:4.8/5
Pricing: Staring at $59.95 per year
Download: Movavi Clips iOS Movavi Clips Android
Key features:
- Easy-to-use smartphone timeline for editing video
- Supports video splitting, merging, and trimming
- Enables the addition of video transitions and effects
- Insert text, custom sound and music, and image filters
- Export files to social media
One of the top video editing apps for Android and iPhone smartphones is Movavi Clips. Its user-friendly interface and ability to produce amazing, high-quality videos for free. It makes it ideal for newcomers and amateur videographers.
You may easily edit your videos using the capabilities provided by this robust video editing app. To change the color settings and appearance of your video recordings, use pre-made (and social media-friendly) filters. However, you can go further by using bespoke tools to edit the saturation and gamma levels, contrast, brightness, and more.
Movavi Clips also boasts several unique special effects and features, including themed stickers, transitions, in-app audio editing, slow motion (and fast forward) visual effects, and social network compatibility.
Although it's free to use, you must first buy a paid software update if you want to get premium assistance or remove watermarks from your movies.
3. Snapseed
Rating: 4.4/5
Pricing: Free
Download: Snapseed for iOS Snapseed for Android
Key Features:
- Crop, rotate, and adjust exported video and photo frames
- Supports a large number of color effects and filters
- Includes improvements to face lighting, eye focus, and positioning
- Custom controls for automatic or manual adjustment of exposure, color, contrast, and brightness settings
- Includes support for RAW images
You can color correct video on Android and iPhone using Snapseed's outstanding filters and special effects, which were developed by Google and are ideal for photo retouching and editing.
For instance, before re-inserting a selected group of exported video frames into your video using a program like Movavi Clips, you can modify them using Snapseed. Instead of creating a social media photo collage movie, you might use it to add distinctive filters and effects to your photographs.
For editing individual video frames or still photographs, Snapseed offers a number of excellent social media-friendly effects. It can be used to add HDR-style color upgrades, to create a retro 1950s or 1960s aesthetic, to add a straightforward black and white filter, or to mix many images together using the double exposure setting.
4. Adobe Premiere Rush
Ratings: 4.7/5
Pricing: Starting at $20.99 per month.
Download: Adobe® Premiere® Rush for iOS Adobe® Premiere® Rush for Android
Key Features:
- Extensive color correction settings
- Preset video filters
- Support for 4K video
- Tools with artificial intelligence to correct video images and sound
- Support for social media and uploading to cloud storage
- Special effects and animated graphics archive
Premiere Rush is a comprehensive mobile video editing tool from Adobe that has a wealth of capabilities that both amateur and expert videographers will appreciate. It's also ideal for video grading because you can easily correct color issues and modify your video's brightness, contrast, sharpness, and gamma levels.
You can alter the color temperature to make your video appear cooler or warmer (using blue or red) or use a few preset grain filters for quick and simple color correction using the color adjustment menu. Additionally, you can add lighting, colors, shadows, and other effects to your video clips.
The standard video editing tools, such as cutting, trimming, and video merging, are available. Using overlays and text graphics, you may also employ animated graphics to make transitions between several video clips. There are additional sound effects and individual music files available.
Adobe Premiere Rush has certain paid features, but once you upgrade, you can make social media-friendly movies with support for up to 4K video output.
5. FiLMiC Pro
Rating: 3.4/5
Pricing: Starting at $9.99 per month.
Download: FiLMiC Pro for iOS FiLMiC Pro for Android
Key Features:
- Easily accessible controls for video focus, exposure, and color correction
- Gamma curve control for different environments
- Various video capture modes
- Customizable refresh rates and video resolutions
- Video image stabilization support
Try FiLMiC Pro if you're a professional and want to edit your videos while you're on the go. Using its robust capabilities that let you make, edit, and correct videos with your smartphone, this software has produced a number of Grammy-winning music videos and documentaries.
With support for log gamma curves, FiLMiC Pro allows you to directly record your video clips, creating ambient (and realistic) ones. You can alter the video saturation, white balance, contrast, and brightness settings while shooting thanks to FiLMiC Pro's full-color grade customization.
It can produce videos for any environment with 4K capability. Frame rates can be changed, additional effects (such as slow motion) can be added, video stabilization can be turned on, and more. Most of the functionality is free, however, some color correcting settings (such as gamma curve controls) demand a paid upgrade.
FiLMiC Pro may be a challenging option for novices due to a challenging learning curve. However, it provides all the functions professionals might possibly require without the need to upgrade to a professional camera system.
Comparison of color correction app:
App Name | Pricing | Features | Best For | Rating |
Filmora | $7.99 per month |
|
Color Grading | ★★★★☆ |
Movavi Clips | $59.95 per year |
|
Color Grading | ★★★★★ |
Snapseed | Free |
|
Color Grading | ★★★★☆ |
Adobe Premiere Rush | $20.99 per month |
|
Color Grading | ★★★★★ |
FiLMiC Pro | $9.99 per month |
|
Color Grading | ★★★★☆ |
Conclusion
The lighting, colors, filters, and effects used in your video can make all the difference. With the video color editing apps on this shortlist, you can quickly edit and enhance the videos you shoot on your mobile devices. Choosing between apps like these can be tricky, so keep an eye out for apps that support these settings:
- Satiety
- Brightness
- Adjust the contrast
- RGB color control
- Gamma curves
Most color correction programs also include additional fundamental functions. You must be able to split, merge, or export your video clips in addition to changing the resolution and quality of the video. With more sophisticated tools, you may upload to social media, use special effects, edit audio, and more.
With apps like Filmora, color correcting is simple and quick to do on mobile devices. Download Filmora for free right now on iPhone and Android if you want to utilize it to make your video clips stand out.