How do you adjust hue in Premiere Pro?

March 14, 2026 · caitlin

Adjusting hue in Premiere Pro is a fundamental video editing skill. You can effectively modify the color tint of your footage using several built-in tools, primarily the Lumetri Color panel. This panel offers a user-friendly interface for precise hue adjustments, allowing you to correct color casts or achieve creative color grading effects.

Understanding Hue in Video Editing

Hue refers to the pure color that we perceive. Think of it as the position of a color on the color wheel. In video editing, manipulating hue allows you to shift colors—making reds more orange, blues more purple, or even turning green grass into a vibrant teal. This is crucial for color correction and creative color grading.

Why Adjust Hue?

Color Correction: Often, footage can have an unwanted color cast due to lighting conditions or camera settings. Adjusting hue helps neutralize these casts, making colors appear more natural and true to life. For example, if your footage looks too blue, you might shift the hue slightly towards yellow.
Creative Grading: Beyond correction, hue adjustments are a powerful tool for establishing a specific mood or aesthetic. Want a warm, nostalgic feel? Shift hues towards oranges and reds. Aiming for a cool, sci-fi look? Push blues and greens.
Consistency: Ensuring color consistency across different shots or cameras is vital for a professional look. Hue adjustments help match colors between clips.

Methods for Adjusting Hue in Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro offers multiple pathways to adjust hue, each with its own strengths. The most common and versatile method is through the Lumetri Color panel.

1. Using the Lumetri Color Panel

The Lumetri Color panel is your all-in-one solution for color manipulation in Premiere Pro. It’s accessible via Window > Lumetri Color. Within this panel, you’ll find several sections, with the Basic Correction and Creative tabs being most relevant for hue.

Basic Correction Tab

This is where you’ll find the foundational tools. Look for the White Balance section. While primarily for correcting white balance, the eyedropper tools here can indirectly influence hue by correcting color casts.

More directly, you’ll find the HSL Secondary section. This is a more advanced tool that allows you to select a specific color range (including hue) and adjust it independently.

Selecting a Color: Use the eyedropper tools to pick the color you want to adjust.
Refining the Selection: The Hue, Saturation, and Luminance sliders allow you to precisely define the color range you’re targeting.
Adjusting Hue: Once your color is selected, the Hue slider within the HSL Secondary section lets you shift that specific color to the left or right on the color wheel. This is incredibly powerful for targeted adjustments.

Creative Tab

The Creative tab offers pre-set looks (LUTs) and sliders for Faded Film and Sharpen. While not directly for hue, applying a LUT can significantly alter the hue of your entire image, and you can then fine-tune it.

Curves Tab

The Curves tab provides even more granular control. You can adjust the RGB curves, but for hue-specific adjustments, you’ll want to use the Hue Saturation Curves.

Hue Saturation Curves: This allows you to select a specific color channel (e.g., Red, Green, Blue) and then adjust its saturation or hue. Clicking on the curve and dragging up or down affects saturation. To adjust hue, you’ll typically select a color range on the horizontal axis and then drag the point vertically to shift the hue of that specific color range. This is an advanced technique for precise control.

2. Using the Color Balance (RGB) Effect

For a quicker, less nuanced approach, you can apply the Color Balance (RGB) effect.

Applying the Effect: Search for "Color Balance (RGB)" in the Effects panel and drag it onto your clip.
Adjusting Colors: In the Effect Controls panel, you’ll see sliders for Red, Green, and Blue. Adjusting these sliders shifts the overall color balance of your footage. Moving the Red slider towards Red will add red; moving it towards Cyan will add cyan. This method affects the entire image’s color balance, including hue, saturation, and luminance simultaneously.

3. Using the Hue/Saturation Effect

The Hue/Saturation effect is straightforward for global hue changes.

Applying the Effect: Find "Hue/Saturation" in the Effects panel and apply it to your clip.
Global Hue Shift: In the Effect Controls panel, the Master channel’s Hue slider will shift the hue of all colors in your clip. This is a broad adjustment, so use it with caution. You can also target specific color channels (like Reds, Blues, etc.) for more localized shifts.

Practical Examples of Hue Adjustment

Let’s look at a couple of scenarios where adjusting hue is essential.

Example 1: Correcting a Blue Tint in Indoor Lighting

Imagine you filmed an interview indoors under fluorescent lights, and the footage has a noticeable blue cast.

Apply the Lumetri Color panel.
In the Basic Correction tab, use the White Balance eyedropper tool and click on a neutral gray or white object in the scene. This often corrects the overall color cast.
If a slight blue tint remains, go to the HSL Secondary section.
Use the eyedropper to select a blue area.
Slightly drag the Hue slider in the HSL Secondary section towards yellow (counter-clockwise) to neutralize the blue.

Example 2: Creating a Moody Sunset Look

You want to enhance the warm colors of a sunset for a more dramatic effect.

Apply the Lumetri Color panel.
Go to the Curves tab.
Select the Hue Saturation Curves.
Click on the orange/red part of the spectrum on the horizontal axis.
Drag that point slightly upwards to shift the reds and oranges towards a more intense, perhaps slightly more magenta hue, enhancing the sunset’s drama.