---
title: "Secondary Color Correction Explained | colorgrade.video"
description: "Secondary color correction explained: key a colour with a qualifier, shape it with power windows, read the matte and grade one part of the frame. Free studio."
url: https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/secondary-color-correction
---

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3. Secondary correction

Chapter 6 of 13 · Intermediate · 9 min read

# Secondary Color Correction: Qualifiers and Power Windows

A primary correction changes the whole picture at once: white balance, contrast, overall saturation. A secondary correction changes only part of it: one range of colours, one area of the frame, or the overlap of the two. It is how a colourist deepens a sky without turning faces blue, calms a shirt that shouts louder than the person wearing it, or lifts a face that the sun left in shadow.

Secondaries come after the primaries, not instead of them. If the whole frame is too warm, fix it with [white balance](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/white-balance) and the [colour wheels](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/color-wheels) first; a secondary used to patch a global problem leaves hard edges where the patch stops. Once the picture is balanced, secondaries deal with what is left over.

In the studio, secondaries live in the **Secondary** panel in **Pro** mode and always work on a layer of their own. This chapter covers how a qualifier builds a key, how power windows shape it, how to judge the result with the **Highlight** and **Matte** views, and the honest limits of working without a tracker.

Video guide

## How to Use a Qualifier and Power Window in Grading

Duration:  0:44 

Your browser can't play this video. [Download the MP4](https://colorgrade.video/media/videos/how-to-use-a-qualifier-and-power-window/video.mp4) or read the[full transcript](https://colorgrade.video/videos/how-to-use-a-qualifier-and-power-window).

Chapters

1. [ Play from  0:00 Add a secondary layer ](https://colorgrade.video/videos/how-to-use-a-qualifier-and-power-window#t=0)
2. [ Play from  0:05 Key the sky ](https://colorgrade.video/videos/how-to-use-a-qualifier-and-power-window#t=5)
3. [ Play from  0:19 Limit with a window ](https://colorgrade.video/videos/how-to-use-a-qualifier-and-power-window#t=19)
4. [ Play from  0:27 Correct and compare ](https://colorgrade.video/videos/how-to-use-a-qualifier-and-power-window#t=27)
5. [ Play from  0:42 Try it yourself ](https://colorgrade.video/videos/how-to-use-a-qualifier-and-power-window#t=42)

English captions [Watch page and full transcript ](https://colorgrade.video/videos/how-to-use-a-qualifier-and-power-window) 

## Key takeaways

* A qualifier selects pixels by hue, saturation and luminance; a window selects an area. Combined, you get only the pixels that pass both.
* Judge the selection in the **Highlight** or **Matte** view, not on the graded picture, and keep the edges soft.
* Every secondary goes on its own layer, so you can bypass it, fade it with **Opacity** or delete it without touching the primary.
* Windows do not track. For moving subjects use a large, soft window and let the qualifier follow the colour.

## In this chapter

1. [ 1. Primary versus secondary correction ](#primary-vs-secondary)
2. [ 2. How a qualifier builds a key ](#qualifier)
3. [ 3. Power windows: shape, feather, invert ](#power-windows)
4. [ 4. Why every secondary gets its own layer ](#own-layer)
5. [ 5. Five jobs secondaries do well ](#typical-jobs)
6. [ 6. Limits: windows do not track ](#limits)
7. [ 7. Try it: grade only the sky ](#try-it)

## Primary versus secondary correction

There are three ways to change only some of the colours in a frame, and they suit different jobs. Hue curves and the **HSL** bands in **Curves** act on a colour family everywhere it appears, with no selection to manage; that is the right tool for nudging all the greens in a landscape or [swapping a hue](https://colorgrade.video/change-color-in-video). A qualifier builds an explicit selection that you can see, refine and grade with any control. A window selects by position instead of by colour.

__Choosing the tool for a partial correction__
| Tool               | Selects by                 | Best for                                  | Weak at                                  |
| ------------------ | -------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| Hue curves / HSL   | Colour family, globally    | Shifting all greens or all blues a little | Separating two objects of similar colour |
| Qualifier          | Hue, saturation, luminance | Sky, a shirt, skin, one coloured object   | Colours that also appear elsewhere       |
| Power window       | Position and shape         | Faces, vignettes, part of the sky         | Subjects that move a lot                 |
| Qualifier + window | Both at once               | One coloured thing in one place           | Fast camera moves                        |

A useful rule: if the change would look right on every pixel of that colour, use a curve. If it should only affect one object, or one area, build a secondary.

## How a qualifier builds a key

A qualifier is a colour key, like a green screen key but aimed at any colour. Switch on **Use qualifier**, then choose **Pick colour** and click the thing you want to select; **Shift**\-click other parts of it to widen the range. The presets **Skin**, **Sky** and **Foliage** give sensible starting ranges for the three things people most often isolate.

Under the hood the key is three tests, one per dimension, each with its own on/off switch:

* **Hue**: a centre and a **Width**, measured round the colour wheel. This does most of the work. Greys have no hue, so they never match a hue range, which is why a sky key leaves white clouds alone.
* **Saturation**: a **Low** and **High** limit. Raising **Low** drops pale, nearly grey pixels of the right hue, such as haze on the horizon.
* **Luminance**: a **Low** and **High** limit on Rec.709 luma. Use it to keep the key out of deep shadow, where colour is mostly noise, or to select only the lit side of an object.

[ ![Close-up of the Secondary panel: Use qualifier switched on, Pick colour, the Skin, Sky and Foliage presets, Hue, Saturation and Luminance ranges with Soft controls, and Clean black and Clean white.](https://colorgrade.video/guides/color-grading-tutorial/secondary-color-correction/qualifier-controls.webp)  (enlarge image) ](https://colorgrade.video/guides/color-grading-tutorial/secondary-color-correction/qualifier-controls.webp) 

The qualifier: **Hue**, **Saturation** and **Luminance** ranges, each with **Soft**, plus **Clean black** and **Clean white**.

Each range also has a **Soft** control, which ramps the selection in and out instead of cutting it at a hard threshold. Softness matters more than precision. Video noise moves a little every frame, so a pixel sitting right on a hard edge flips in and out of the key and the boundary fizzes when the clip plays. A soft edge turns that flicker into a gentle blend nobody notices.

[ ![Landscape in the colorgrade.video studio with Show mask set to Highlight: the blue sky is shown in colour while the hills, trees and white clouds are grey, after the Sky qualifier preset.](https://colorgrade.video/guides/color-grading-tutorial/secondary-color-correction/qualifier-highlight-sky.webp)  (enlarge image) ](https://colorgrade.video/guides/color-grading-tutorial/secondary-color-correction/qualifier-highlight-sky.webp) 

The **Sky** preset in **Highlight** view: selected pixels in colour, the rest grey. Clouds drop out because greys have no hue.

### Matte finesse: clean black and clean white

Real keys are rarely clean. A few stray pixels in the background half-match, and the selected area has holes where a reflection or a shadow fell outside the range. **Clean black** pushes weak, partial selections back to nothing, removing the speckle outside; **Clean white** pushes nearly selected pixels to fully selected, filling holes inside. Use small amounts: too much of either turns a soft edge back into a hard one.

### Judge the matte, not the picture

Set **Show mask** to **Highlight** to see the selection in colour with everything else grey, or to **Matte** for pure black and white, where grey means partly selected. Build the key in one of these views, play the clip through, then switch back to **Off** to grade. A key that looks fine on a still frame often breaks on the frames where the subject turns or the light changes.

## Power windows: shape, feather, invert

A power window is a shape drawn on the picture that limits the correction to an area. Add a **Circle**, **Rectangle**, **Gradient** or **Polygon**, then drag it on the picture: the centre to move it, the edges to resize it, the handle to rotate it. For a **Polygon**, drag the points, and click the edge to add one. **Gradient** is a straight line with a soft transition, the digital version of a graduated filter on a lens, and is the usual tool for a sky.

* **Feather** softens the edge. Be generous: a correction that fades over a fifth of the frame is invisible, while a crisp edge looks like a spotlight.
* **Invert** on a window selects everything outside it, which is how a vignette is made. **Invert mask** inverts the whole selection, qualifier and windows together.
* Several windows combine as a union: a pixel is selected if it is inside any of them. Two overlapping circles can cover a face and a hand.
* Windows and the qualifier combine as an intersection: a pixel must be inside a window and match the qualifier. The window then acts as a garbage matte, stopping a sky key from catching a blue car lower in the frame.

[ ![Studio showing a Gradient window across the top half of a landscape, its soft transition just below the horizon, with the Secondary panel open and Feather raised.](https://colorgrade.video/guides/color-grading-tutorial/secondary-color-correction/gradient-window-sky.webp)  (enlarge image) ](https://colorgrade.video/guides/color-grading-tutorial/secondary-color-correction/gradient-window-sky.webp) 

A feathered **Gradient** window limits the sky key to the top of the frame, like a graduated filter.

If you have used DaVinci Resolve, this is its Qualifier palette and Power Windows, with matte finesse trimmed to the two controls that matter most. In Premiere Pro the qualifier is Lumetri’s HSL Secondary section, which keys by hue, saturation and lightness and has a colour/grey preview; its windows are masks drawn on the Lumetri effect.

## Why every secondary gets its own layer

When **Correction** or **Look** is selected, the **Secondary** panel offers **Add a secondary layer**. That creates **Secondary 1** in **Layers** and selects it; the chip at the top of **Adjust** then reads **Editing: Secondary 1**. Everything you change now affects only the masked pixels: the quick sliders in the panel (**Exposure**, **Saturation**, **Temperature**, **Tint**, **Hue rotate**), and also **Adjust**, **Wheels** and [**Curves**](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/curves) while this layer stays selected.

Separate layers are what make secondaries safe. You can switch one off to check what it does, lower its **Opacity** to fade it, rename it ("sky", "jacket") so you know what it is a week later, or delete it, without disturbing the primary underneath. It is the same reason Resolve users give each secondary its own node. Layers apply in order from top to bottom, so a secondary placed above **Look** is corrected before the look goes on, which is usually what you want: fix the sky, then style the whole frame.

Try it in the studio

Before adding a secondary, select **Correction** in **Layers** and make the frame neutral. Then add the secondary layer and watch the **Editing:** chip: if it still says **Correction**, your sky edit is about to change the whole picture.

You can add up to 12 layers, of which up to 6 can carry a mask. In practice three or four secondaries is plenty for one shot; more usually means the primary needs another look.

## Five jobs secondaries do well

1. **A sky.** **Sky** preset, a soft **Gradient** to keep the key above the horizon, then a little **Saturation** and a slightly cooler **Temperature**. Lowering **Exposure** a fraction on this layer brings back cloud detail.
2. **A shirt colour.** **Pick colour** on the shirt, **Shift**\-click its shadowed folds, then raise the **Low** limit of **Saturation** so pale background pixels of the same hue fall out. Use **Hue rotate** to correct a brand colour, or **Saturation** to stop a neon top stealing attention.
3. **A face lift.** A large, well-feathered **Circle** over the face and a third of a stop of **Exposure** acts like a bounce card. Add the **Skin** qualifier if the background is close in tone; the [skin tones chapter](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/skin-tones) goes further.
4. **A vignette.** A **Circle** with **Invert** on, wide **Feather**, and **Exposure** lowered a little. Unlike the **Vignette** in **Creative** (see [building a creative look](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/creative-looks)), you can place it off-centre over the subject.
5. **Mixed lighting.** When a window lights one side of a room blue and a lamp lights the other orange, qualify the warm-lit area by hue and luminance and cool it with **Temperature** until the two sides agree.

[ ![Portrait of a person outdoors with an inverted, heavily feathered Circle window around their face shown in the Matte view: white around the edges of the frame, black over the face.](https://colorgrade.video/guides/color-grading-tutorial/secondary-color-correction/circle-window-vignette.webp)  (enlarge image) ](https://colorgrade.video/guides/color-grading-tutorial/secondary-color-correction/circle-window-vignette.webp) 

An inverted **Circle** in **Matte** view: the white area will be corrected, making an off-centre vignette.

## Limits: windows do not track

Desktop grading applications can track a window: they follow the face across the frame by analysing motion. The studio does not. A window stays exactly where you put it for the whole clip, so if the subject walks out of it the correction stays behind on the wall.

That limits windows more than it limits secondaries. A few ways to work with it:

* Let the qualifier do the following. A key follows the colour wherever it goes, so for a moving red car a qualifier alone, or with a very large window, works fine.
* Keep windows large and soft. A face that drifts within a generous, heavily feathered circle never reaches the edge.
* For slow, small moves, use **Keyframes**: **Animate the grade**, set the start grade with the window in its first position, then choose **Editing: End** and move the window to where the subject ends up. Be clear about what this does: the picture dissolves from one grade to the other, so the window fades out in one place and in at the other rather than sliding. It only looks right when the two positions overlap heavily.
* For fast or long moves, cut the clip into shorter pieces in your editor, or do that shot in an application with a tracker.

Qualifiers have limits too. They cannot tell two objects of the same colour apart, and heavily compressed video, with colour stored at a quarter of the picture’s resolution, gives blocky edges on saturated colours. Softness and **Clean black** help; when they don’t, a hue curve with no hard edge at all is often the better choice.

## Try it: grade only the sky

Isolate the sky with a qualifier and a gradient window on its own layer, check the matte, then deepen the blue without touching the land.

1. 1  
### Add a secondary layer
Switch to **Pro**, open **Secondary** and choose **Add a secondary layer**. **Secondary 1** appears in **Layers** and is selected.
2. 2  
### Key the sky
Turn on **Use qualifier** and choose the **Sky** preset, or **Pick colour** and click the sky, **Shift**\-clicking any patch it missed.
3. 3  
### Check the matte
Set **Show mask** to **Highlight**. Widen **Width** or add **Clean black** until the sky is solid and the land is grey, then play the clip.
4. 4  
### Limit it with a window
Add a **Gradient**, drag it so it fades out just below the horizon, and raise **Feather** until the transition disappears.
5. 5  
### Make the correction
Set **Show mask** to **Off**, then raise **Saturation** and lower **Temperature** slightly. Use **Compare**, **Split** to check the result against the original.

## Secondary correction: questions

### What is secondary color correction?

It is a correction applied to only part of the picture, selected by colour, by area or both, after the primary correction has balanced the whole frame. Typical uses are skies, skin, clothing and vignettes.

### What is a qualifier in color grading?

A qualifier is a colour key. It selects pixels whose hue, saturation and luminance fall inside ranges you set, with softness at the edges, so you can grade just those pixels. DaVinci Resolve calls it the Qualifier; Premiere Pro calls it HSL Secondary.

### What is the difference between a qualifier and a power window?

A qualifier selects by colour, wherever that colour is; a power window selects by position, whatever colour is there. Used together, only pixels that match the colour inside the shape are selected.

### Why does my qualifier selection flicker when the video plays?

Noise and compression change pixel values slightly every frame, so pixels near a hard threshold drop in and out of the key. Raise **Soft** on the ranges, add a little **Clean black**, and check the clip in the **Matte** view while it plays.

### Can I track a power window to a moving subject?

Not here: windows stay where you place them. Use a large, soft window and let the qualifier follow the colour, or animate a slow move with keyframes, which dissolve between two window positions rather than moving the shape.

[ ← Previous: chapter 5 Curves ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/curves) [ Next: chapter 7 → Skin tones ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/skin-tones) 

## Keep going

* [ Skin tones Use the vectorscope skin tone line and the waveform to keep faces natural, fix colour casts on skin, and keep skin out of a creative look. ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/skin-tones)
* [ Curves Shape contrast with RGB and luma curves, fix or create casts with channel curves, and change single colours with the hue curves and HSL. ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/curves)
* [ Change a color in a video Swing one hue band round to a new colour with the HSL controls. ](https://colorgrade.video/change-color-in-video)
* [ Creative looks Build a look on top of a correction: complementary colour, film-style contrast and texture, split toning, black and white, and the restraint that holds it together. ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/creative-looks)

All 13 chapters 
1. [ 1\. Video scopes ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/video-scopes)  · Basics
2. [ 2\. Contrast and tonal range ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/contrast-and-tonal-range)  · Basics
3. [ 3\. White balance ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/white-balance)  · Basics
4. [ 4\. Colour wheels ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/color-wheels)  · Intermediate
5. [ 5\. Curves ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/curves)  · Intermediate
6. [ 6\. Secondary correction ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/secondary-color-correction)  · Intermediate
7. [ 7\. Skin tones ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/skin-tones)  · Intermediate
8. [ 8\. Log footage and LUTs ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/log-footage-and-luts)  · Advanced
9. [ 9\. Creative looks ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/creative-looks)  · Advanced
10. [ 10\. Shot matching ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/shot-matching)  · Advanced
11. [ 11\. Delivery and export ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/delivery)  · Advanced
12. [ 12\. Grading workflow ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/workflow)  · Intermediate
13. [ 13\. Common mistakes ](https://colorgrade.video/color-grading-tutorial/mistakes)  · Basics