Let's take a look at using the RGB curves control and color wheels to create a look using the Lumetri Color panel guided by the Lumetri Scopes panel.

I have a shot ready on my timeline here.

I'm in the color workspace, so I have those two panels displayed.

I've got a shot here of the actress Andrea Sweeney in New York and I've got a crop layer on top, this is just an adjustment layer, to give me something more like a true widescreen image.

I want to take a moment to explain how the RGB curves controls work and in fact how the color wheels work because these are really fundamental skills that you can take away and apply to a lot of projects.

I'm going to explain in very simple terms, but it should be enough to get you started.

Be sure to download the sample project file that accompanies this tutorial, so you can work on the same footage I'm showing you.

And let's start out with the RGB curves.

The simplest way to understand this control is that the bottom left corner of this control represents the darker pixels, and the top right-hand corner represents the lighter pixels.

So just watch carefully as I make an adjustment with this control and see the results in the waveform.

I'm going to take this bottom corner of the line and I'm going to pull up.

And you can see what's happening is I'm flattening the image by lifting the shadows.

So, what I'm setting here is that the darkest pixels in the image should now be around about 50% bright, and then the line represents a natural adjustment for all the pixels in between right up to the lightest pixels.

So, we're effectively flattening the image and you can see that very much in the waveform display.

I'm just going to double click which is going to reset the control.

And if I do the same thing from the top, I'm going to pull down, the brightest pixels, you can see now again I'm flattening the image down and crushing the highlights and producing a darker image overall.

I just double-click to reset again.

You can add as many control points as you like on this line.

So, here for example, I'm just working on the medium bright pixels.

I can lift and lower those.

See the effect that has on my waveform display.

I can now make very nuanced controlled adjustments to different parts of my image.

Now, I'm going to double click again.

What I actually want to do though is given more natural result.

I'm going to add a control point in the middle just by clicking, and I'm going to pull down the shadows a little, and I'm going to pull up the highlights.

The reason I put the control point in the center is that, well if you're familiar with Bézier controls or in particular continuous Bézier controls, this line will tend to give me a fluid curve through a control point and I want to make sure my mid-tones stick where they are.

So, again, I'm getting a pretty nice result here already.

I'm happy with the way that's looking.

So far, I've been working on the Luma, the overall brightness of the image, but I can also switch this display to give me controls over the red, the green and the blue color channels.

This means I can make adjustments that are pretty nuanced just using this control.

I'm pretty happy with that result though so let's switch to our color wheels.

Now, the color wheels work in much the same way as the vector scope display.

Here though, we've got three different wheels.

We've got one that works on the darker pixels in the image, one that works on the mid-tones and one that works on the highlights.

Each color wheel also has a Luma adjustment that you can make within those bands.

There's a control puck in the middle of each control, and the more you move that puck from the center of the wheel, the bigger the adjustment you're making in the direction of the color you move it towards.

So for example, if I get my mid-tones and drag over towards the blue, you can see I'm making a strong adjustment towards the blue, perhaps a little stronger than I'm going to want to keep.

Although you know, it's kind of an interesting look.

Look at the result though in my vector scope.

A really dramatic shift over towards the blue.

I'm going to double click to reset this control.

What I actually think I want to do is make a bit more of a subtle pull over towards the blue.

I do want to have some because there was a little bit of a haze on the day this was shot, and you can see that's creating a tint anyway on the background with those buildings.

It's really pulling them out from the foreground.

I think I'll just pull the shadows over towards the green, so we get this verdant greenery in the garden.

And let's just move away from the green a little bit in the Midtones just to balance that out.

I think I'm liking the way this looks.

Let's grab the Highlights and just see if we can pull those towards the orange a little bit, just to balance out that jacket which is obviously meant to be white.

It's not that important that it's white but I'd like there to be not too strong a color tint.

And I think I like the way this is going.

Looking at the vector scope I can see I'm pushing out perhaps a little too far towards the yellow.

I might want to pull that back a little.

So just bring that in, but I'm pretty happy with the result I have.

Now, let's switch over to one other control I want to show you.

I'm going to go back to the Curves section and I'm going to expand the Hue Saturation Curve control.

This is a brilliant new control that was added to Premiere Pro with the 2015 release and it allows you to make adjustments to color saturation based again on a hue wheel.

Here are our colors and the white line represents at the moment no adjustment at all.

I'm just going to pick out the red because I really want this hat to jump out in the image.

I want us to be able to see that very clearly.

So, I'm going to click on this red button at the bottom of the control and this is going to give me three control points on the line that I can use to make an adjustment.

I'm going to pull up the red a little bit.

You can see immediately the effect this has on my vector scope.

I don't want to push too hard.

I'm just going to broaden this out a little bit, I'm going to add a couple more control points around the wheel, and I'm going to pull this up a little bit, I want that whole area of the image to be warmer.

Again, I'm going a little too far with the yellow, let's pull in the yellow, and you can see that this is an art and a craft, I'm looking at my vector scope to make sure that the colors don't go too far out of line.

I'm looking at the image to make sure that I'm happy with the result.

And that's pretty good.

Let's just push that a little bit harder out towards the red.

Excellent.

Now let's quickly compare that.

Here's the resulting look.

I'm going to press the F key to just display the original image and you can see we've made quite a difference.

So, with the combination of the tools in the Lumetri Color panel and the precise feedback you get for the Lumetri Scopes panel, you can create some very nuanced results in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.