Zoom-in or soften-in destroys grade

Still on steep learning curve here.

I graded 20 outdoor clips that were horribly exposed. Pretty happy with the result. 10 clips are an interviewee (who will intermittently show in an overlay window) and the other 10 are scenic.

In trying to create the overlay, I found that zooming-in or softening-in (in cropping) both destroy the color grade. Zooming out and cropping do not hurt it.

I can live without softening-in, but the subject really needs to be smaller in his overlay. Did I violate a sacred rule of editing order?

FOLLOW-UP Just seeing that moving the overlay around also raises the exposure.

By 'overlay' you're just referring to Picture in Picture?

By 'overlay' you're just referring to Picture in Picture?

Yes that is all.

Alright.

How are you creating that? Just adding the clip on V2 and adjusting it's Transform properties in the Inspector?

Yes by adjusting the transform and crop properties. I successfully repaired the degraded appearance.

Guessing the whole screen grade was applied to the crop window, since the crop was done after the grade. The color grade does not scale down well since the crop content is so different.

It is harder to select from a series of poorly exposed clips without correcting them first. I guess in the future a simple exposure correction first using whole scene. Then do a detailed color grade using overlay window.