Shooting with various cameras is not uncommon in the video world. Most of the time, it's because of budget constraints, but sometimes, it's because different parts of the project require different cameras. In this video, Tom Antos shares his way of matching footage from three camera brands.
There are many ways to match the image from two different video files, but when they are recorded on different sensors and with different processing units, we should always expect some slight variations between the color-matched files. Tom Antos uses color charts and records a few seconds with them under the same lighting conditions as on the actual shoot. He slightly turns the charts to make sure there is a frame in the recording without any unwanted light reflections. He uses 3D LUT Creator (which we reviewed previously). This software starts off with a base color-grading of your choice, a stock, or a custom LUT. Then, it matches these colors to the color chart stills from the various cameras. Despite being an automated process, it can never be perfect for your taste, because as I wrote in a previous article, the colors on the skin when it's lit in a certain way are not as predictable as the colors on a flat matte color chart. Nonetheless, it's a good process to get things close.