Hi everyone! 😃

Welcome to the very first edition of the Creator For Him newsletter!

I’m so excited to finally answer one of the questions I get asked most: “How do you colour grade?” Today, I’ll walk you through the techniques I’ve developed—and still use—to transform my footage and achieve that cinematic film look.

When I first started creating content, I had no clue how to colour grade. Honestly, I didn’t even know how to edit or operate a camera! Back then, I relied on an editor who handled it all. He used the same camera I still use today (the Sony A7IV), but the colours in those videos… let’s just say they weren’t what I had in mind😶

When my editor moved on, I decided it was time to tackle the problem myself. That’s when I dove into the beautiful, intricate world of colour.

I didn’t just want to improve the colours in my videos; I wanted to master the art of colour grading. I studied colour theory, explored what every button and dial does in the editing softwares, and learned the science behind why some videos look so much better than others.

I wasn’t interested in quick fixes or slapping on a preset—I wanted to understand the why and the how of creating stunning visuals.

Now, I’m excited to pass on what I’ve learned so you can elevate your own content.

Method 1 : LUTS (Look up tables)

I started out using LUTs in premiere pro  (LOOK UP TABLES) these are what you just apply to your log footage immediately and will give out the look based on what the LUT is I bought them from tropic colour they were really great and I used a lot of their LUTs This was a stepping stone for me to start improving the content but with LUTs they don’t provide as much flexibility

But they were great and they helped me to reach my first 10k followers by just applying that to my footage but I wanted more control over the footage that’s when evolved to using softwares that movies use and so I started to use Davinci resolve…

Method 2 : Powergrades

These are the best to use I believe for your videos because they give you the most control on how you want the image to look like and I love the film look. many successful creators use them due to them being efficient aswell so it's saves alot of time

I ended up experimenting with alot of them but the one I like most was by Tom Bolles - cineprint 

But what I use today…Is a powergrade called Filmvision by Serr:

But the secret to my look is that I make it warmer:

I was inspired by my favourite movie Amélie

I read they used an ef warming filter when they made that movie and I wanted to buy a filter like that but they didn't have in my country South Africa so I just do it in post I do this by adjusting the white balance node in the filmvision power grade and move the temperature to  1000K or 1250K, but 1500K I only used when I filmed in the acquarium because it was so blue

The key to colour grading well is to do it with intention like when my friend Enoch and I were in this jungle scene it wouldn't look right to warm the scene up

as opposed to when my sister and I were in that autumn scene:

and you get this by your intuition overtime you’ll get a feel for what needs to be done when you are colour grading

So that's how I colour grade. I pray this email and newsletter helps you to improve on your creative journey🙂 

Happy Creating

Love Timothy 💛