This week on MacBreak Studio, Steve Martin from Ripple Training shows us a method for performing selective or “secondary” color correction in Final Cut Pro X.

While primary color correction is concerned with overall changes to the luminance range, hue, and saturation of an image, secondary color correction is performed on a specific part of the image. That part can be defined by a specific shape, such as a rectangle that isolates the horizon or an oval that isolates a person's head. Or it can be defined as a specific range of brightness and color values – for example, the dress that a subject is wearing, or the grass in a scene.

While you can perform both kinds of secondary color correction in Final Cut Pro X, this episode focuses on the latter, and uses a technique of first isolating just the color/brightness ranges that you don't want to have affected and then inverting that selection before performing the correction.

Steve also shows us a very useful trick for viewing the greyscale representation of the selected color range – that tip alone is worth watching this episode!