Joker Color Grade in Final Cut Pro: Step-by-Step Workflow

This step-by-step walkthrough was a viewer request (thanks, Laura!): the Joker color grade. Follow along with the video above, and fair warning: we're using Color Finale 2 Pro, because it's genuinely the only way to achieve this look inside Final Cut, and I'll show you exactly why at the moment it matters. Not sponsored; it's just one of my favorite plugins.

Step 1: Transform and correct

The clip is S-Log3, so instead of a Sony input LUT we use CF2P's ACES color transform: input S-Log3, output Rec 709 100 nits. Then color correct by asking: what are the known anchors in this shot? Whites, grays, blacks, and most importantly skin. Crop the image analysis tool into my skin: exposure sits right (skin generally belongs between 30 and 75 IRE depending on complexion and environment), and on the vectorscope the color is okay, warm light explaining the push toward red.

Contrast first: pulling the shadows exposure down is all this shot needs. Remember, color wheels make gradual adjustments: pulling shadows also eases your midtones and slightly your highlights down, in CF2P and in Final Cut alike. Rename the layer "contrast and sat."

Balance next: the shot's warm, confirmed by the RGB parade (your most-used scope for balancing). The red channel rides high, but be smart about WHY: my red shirt and skin legitimately elevate red in places. The tell is the white wall: crop the ellipse onto it, and pure white should show perfectly even channels. It doesn't, so on the offset wheel, push away from the warm quadrant, ping-ponging until the parade evens out. Rename: "color balance."

Step 2: The look (and why the mask blur matters)

The Joker look is a sickly teal-green world with jaundiced skin. Add a log wheel and color wheel pair, group them ("look adjustment"), and add an HSL mask: pick my skin with the picker, view as composite mask, refine until skin (white) and background (black) separate as well as they're going to.

Set up a reference: Control Command 6 for the comparison viewer, save the Joker frame to the frame browser, and switch to vertical layout for a side-by-side.

Now the background: on the offset hue slider, drag hard toward that thick teal seafoam green. And watch the image start tearing apart around the mask edges. This is exactly what happens with Final Cut's built-in HSL mask, which has no blur option, and it's why this grade needs CF2P: hop into the mask, add blur, and the crumbling pixels smooth into a clean gradient. That's the whole ballgame.

Skin: in the skin layer's gamma (midtones, where skin lives), push the hue away from orange toward blue until I look appropriately gross and sickly. Park it.

Step 3: Secondaries

My red shirt distracts, so Hue vs Sat, eyedropper the red, pull it down. The blue needs darkening: Hue vs Luma, with a word of warning: make a very, very small push, because big moves on this curve absolutely tear an image apart. Then overall saturation via Sat vs Sat: lower the most saturated areas, slightly raise the least, balancing toward the reference frame.

Step 4: Shaping light

The reference is darker and more focused, so build a vignette that's really light-shaping: color curve, shape mask, feather maxed to 90, inverted so everything OUTSIDE gets an S-curve pulled dark (I barely move, so no tracking needed). Eyes land on the subject. Add one more unmasked contrast layer for the overall image, then another Hue/Sat curve outside the group to knock the total saturation down further.

Step 5: Matching his skin and the blue light

On the vectorscope with the skin tone line up, isolate my skin: it's near the line, while the Joker's skin swings toward yellow (he looks ready to throw up, which is the goal). In Hue vs Hue, select my skin's hue range, make the points linear rather than smooth, and raise until my skin swings the same yellow direction.

Last: the blue light on his face. New color wheel, HSL mask on the target area of my face, generous blur, then push the gain hue toward blue, lift exposure and saturation slightly. It looks gross until the finishing move: CF2P lets you set layer blend modes, so switch to Lighten and drop the opacity. Not identical to the movie's light, mine was a different color on set, but close.

Step 6: The filmic finish

A film emulation plugin caps it off: in the video I used Dehancer's film grain and a touch of bloom (skipping its color adjustments since we built our own). These days I'd point you to EMUL8 for this step instead: same finish, fraction of the price, no subscription.

Full recap: ACES transform, contrast, balance, teal world plus sickly skin via blurred HSL masks, saturation secondaries, light-shaping vignette, skin hue match, blue light with a blend mode, film grain. That's the Joker. Society may have failed him, but your color grade doesn't have to.