Welcome to another in a series for Premiere Pro tutorials from San Diego video production company BizVid Communications. Today, I’m going to show you how to use the Adjustment layer effect. Prior to CS6, the Adjustment layer was only available in Photoshop and After Effects. But, thankfully, it is now available in the current version of Premiere Pro. So let’s get started.
As you can see, I have positioned four clips already on the timeline and each of them needs color correcting. Before the adjustment layer option, I would have had to either apply color correction to each clip individually or, nested the clips and applied correction to that. That method could be cumbersome because nested sequences need to be un-nested if any one of the clips is to be worked on. So, lets use the Adjustment Layer.
First, I’ll position my mouse on the New Icon button on the bottom of the panel, and click. I could have just as easily gone to “File” then “new” then “Adjustment Layer” but that’s too many steps. Next, I’ll select “Adjustment Layer” and click. This brings up a dialogue box giving you the option of setting the parameters for the “Adjustment Layer.” Just click okay because the settings will default to the project size. Once you click, the adjustment layer will appear in the section with your other assets. Next, click, drag and drop the layer onto an empty video track.
The “Adjustment Layer” is like an invisible video clip. There is nothing on it so it won’t interfere with your other video clips. Next, I’m going to go to the effects panel, type in the quick search window the word “three” and it will bring up the three way color corrector effect. Now, to place the effect onto the Adjustment Layer” clip, you can, first select the Adjustment Layer then, double click the effect. In past versions, you would have had to click and drag the effect onto the clip.
Okay, now that I have the color corrector in place, I can skew the color for both clips simultaneously. And there you have it. But, color correction is not the only thing I can do with an Adjustment Layer, I can also effect contrast, brightness and other functions that you can experiment with on your own.
So, I hope this tutorial has been helpful and will save you a lot of time with your projects in the future. For more Premiere Pro or Photoshop tutorials, be sure to subscribe to our channel. Also, visit our website at BizVidCommunications.com and our blog at BizVidCommunications.com/blog. Thanks for watching.