In this video I show you how to color grade in Final Cut Pro step by step (2026). The big thing I want you to do first is load up the project you actually want to grade, and make sure you’re already done with your transitions and the arrangement of your clips. Color grading is one of those steps you’ll enjoy way more when your edit is locked, because you’re not constantly redoing work. From there, I walk you through using an Adjustment Clip, which is basically a container that holds your color grade for each section of your timeline. You can add multiple adjustment clips if you want different looks in different parts of the video. Then I go to the Effects Browser (the overlapping squares on the far right), head into Video, grab Colorboard, and drag it onto the adjustment clip I want to grade. Finally, I open the Video Inspector, find the Colorboard effect under Effects, and click into the board so I can start grading. The key takeaway is simple: keep your grade on the adjustment clip, park your playhead on that clip to preview the changes, and dial in your raw footage from there. That’s the workflow I use to keep things clean and easy to tweak.