Challenge 2: Grading Before Correcting — Solution Walkthrough

What went wrong with the workflow order:

Per this chapter's own warning box, the editor applied a creative,
mood-driven grade before actually correcting the underlying technical
exposure mismatch between shots. This is precisely the mistake this
chapter's warning box describes: the desaturated, moody grade now
sits on top of the original exposure inconsistency, obscuring it
visually and making it genuinely harder to identify and fix afterward
than it would have been on the original, uncorrected footage.

Why the grade specifically makes the problem harder to see:

A desaturated, stylized look reduces the visual cues (color, contrast,
brightness differences) that would otherwise make an exposure mismatch
obvious. The creative grade has changed how the footage looks overall,
making a technical problem that was already present blend into the new
stylistic look rather than standing out clearly against a clean,
correctly-exposed baseline.

What the correct order would have been:

Per this chapter's own material, correction should generally happen
first, grading second — fixing the exposure mismatch between the two
shots on the original, uncorrected footage (using color wheels and
scopes) before applying any creative grade on top. Following this
order would have made the exposure problem clearly visible and easy
to fix, rather than hidden beneath an already-applied stylistic look.

WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER
------------------------------
This exercise directly applies this chapter's own warning box to the
exact workflow-order mistake it describes, correctly explaining why
grading first specifically makes a technical problem harder to spot
and fix.