How to Color Grade Your Music Video

LUTs, B&W film presets, and cinematic looks — applied per clip or across the whole video. No terminal, no plugins, no subscription.

Color is the mood of a music video. The same performance shot can feel warm and intimate, cold and cinematic, or raw and gritty depending on how it's graded. FFmpeg Commander gives you two distinct ways to apply color grades — each suited to a different point in your workflow.

Two Ways to Grade — Know Which to Use

The LUT and B&W Preset Library

Both tools draw from the same library of built-in presets. Every preset is a real LUT or film emulation — not a simplified filter. Here's what's included:

Method 1 — Per-Clip Grading in the Holding Bin

Use this when different clips in your music video should have different looks — for example, live performance footage in B&W and behind-the-scenes footage in warm color.

1. Open Holding Bin & Timeline Assembly from the main interface.
2. Add your clips using Add New Clip and arrange them in the Timeline on the right.
3. In the Timeline, find the Effect column for each clip. Click the dropdown.
4. Choose your grade — a B&W film stock, a color LUT, or none. Each clip is set independently.
5. Repeat for each clip. Mix and match freely — one clip can be Ilford HP5+, the next can be Teal & Orange.
6. When you're happy, click Export Timeline. The grades are baked in during the render. Source files are untouched.

The LUT and B&W preset library — applied per clip from the Timeline's Effect column.

Method 2 — Whole-Video Grading in the Director's Workbench

Use this when you want a consistent cinematic look across the entire video, or when you want a dramatic grade shift at a specific moment in the song — like the drop hitting and the whole video going monochrome.

1. Load your clip in the main interface and click Director Workbench.
2. The Workbench scans your clip and presents a set of effect suggestions. You can also add effects manually.
3. Select Color Grade (LUT) to apply a full-video cinematic look, or Monochrome Mood Pass for a B&W film stock treatment.
4. Drag the region handles on the timeline to cover the section you want graded — the full video, or just a portion.
5. The effect pre-renders immediately. Watch it play back in real time through the built-in player — what you see is what you get.
6. Stack additional effects on top if needed — a Warm Contrast Bump under a LUT, or a Color Drain effect timed to a specific moment.
7. Render when ready.

B&W film emulation applied in the Director's Workbench — grain, tone, and contrast all handled by the preset.

The Color Drain Effect — Made for Music Videos

The Director's Workbench includes a unique effect called Color Drain that was practically designed for music video moments. The video plays in full color, then at a point you choose it transitions to a B&W film stock look, holds it, then transitions back to color.

Transition styles include Smooth Fade, Hard Cut, Flash, Sawtooth, and Slow Burn. You control the timing by dragging region handles directly on the player timeline.

Think: verse in color, chorus drops into B&W, verse comes back in color. That's one effect, no compositing required.

Which Method Should You Use?

A quick way to think about it:

• Different clips, different looks → Holding Bin per-clip grading
• One consistent look for the whole video → Director's Workbench Color Grade LUT
• Dramatic B&W moment timed to the music → Director's Workbench Color Drain
• Full B&W film stock treatment → Either — Holding Bin for per-clip, Workbench Monochrome Mood Pass for whole video

Both approaches produce the same quality output — full LUT-based processing applied by FFmpeg during render. Nothing is simplified or approximated.

Ready to try it? Get FFmpeg Commander for $45 →

See also: Why Black and White Can Make a Film Feel Better  —  Holding Bin vs. Workbench: Two Editing Workflows

FFmpeg Commander Video Toolbox — 2026