Color correction can be thought of as having two main goals. The first is restoring the original look of the scene. The second is adapting the look of the scene to meet the demands of the project.

In some cases, the task of color correction is complete when the first goal has been met. Often, however, there will be at least some departure from the restored look to achieve shot-to-shot consistency or to convey creative concepts. The color corrections applied to any particular shot must therefore respect (to varying degrees) two different contexts: the original scene at the time the camera captured it and the final situation of the shot within a program that has particular creative or communicative aims.