How to Use the Comparison View in Adobe Premiere Pro CC (2018)

When you are color grading, your eyes play tricks on you. The longer you stare at the footage and make adjustments, the more your brain adapts to what it is seeing. You keep thinking you need just a little more contrast, a bit more saturation, a touch more warmth. Before you know it, you have pushed the grade way further than you intended.

This is where the Comparison View comes in. It gives you a quick way to see your original, ungraded footage right next to the current state of your edit. It keeps you grounded and prevents you from straying too far from reality. Today I will show you how to use the Comparison View in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

How to Enable Comparison View

1. Create a sequence and drag your footage in from the Project panel.
2. Look at the Program Monitor and find the row of small buttons beneath the displayed footage.
3. Find the Comparison View button (it looks like a split rectangle). Click it to enable the view.
4. If you don’t see the button, click the plus icon (+) at the bottom right of the Program Monitor. Find the Comparison View button in the list and drag it into the toolbar.

The Four Comparison Modes

Once Comparison View is active, you will see four new buttons appear near the timecode display in the Program Monitor. Each one gives you a different way to compare:

1. Shot Comparison (first button) syncs the “before” view with the timeline. As you scrub through the timeline, the before frame updates to match. This is great for seeing real-time before and after on the same frame.
2. Frame Comparison (second button) shows a full before and after of the current frame. You see two complete images side by side.
3. Side by Side Split (third button) creates a left/right split down the middle. The left side shows the before and the right shows the after. You can click and drag the dividing line to slide it back and forth.
4. Top/Bottom Split (fourth button) works the same way but splits the frame horizontally. The top is before and the bottom is after.

Tips

• Use the split views while adjusting Lumetri Color. Drag the split line back and forth over areas of skin, sky, or other critical elements to see exactly how your grade is affecting them.
• Don’t turn off Comparison View mid-session. If you disable it, the “before” reference frame is lost and you will need to set it up again.
• Use Shot Comparison when grading across multiple clips. It lets you see how your grade looks relative to the original on each clip as you move through the timeline.
• Combine with scopes. Open the Lumetri Scopes panel (Window > Lumetri Scopes) alongside the Comparison View. The scopes give you objective data while the comparison view gives you visual context. Together they keep your color work accurate.

That is how you use the Comparison View in Premiere Pro. It is a simple tool that can save you from over-grading and keep your color work looking natural.