Color grading is an important process in post-production and it includes enhancing the color, saturation, and contrast of an image. It is usually used to create specific moods in photos because colors can easily affect the overall atmosphere of an image. When it comes to color grading software, you can use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom or online photo editors such as Pixlr and Fotor.
In this article, we’ll cover a few of the most important tips and tricks when it comes to color grading and color correcting and help you implement them in your editing routine.
The Difference Between Color Correcting And Color Grading
Color correction and color grading are not the same things – you should familiarize yourself with differences between these two processes.
To put it simply, color correction means adjusting the colors to make them as accurate as possible. The main reason why color correction matters a lot is the fact that the camera can’t always capture the colors correctly. This is especially true when the lighting is tricky and involves both natural and artificial sources of light.
For instance, if the skin tone of your model turns up purple in your photo, you’ll probably need to apply some adjustments to make it appear more natural. This would be a good example of color correction. However, you can also manipulate the color of skin tone deliberately and make it look purple – this would be totally acceptable if you’re color grading your image and looking to achieve a certain effect.
It’s useful to apply color correction first to make the most out of your photograph. Once you’re sure the colors are accurate, you can start color grading if the natural look isn’t what you’re looking for.
Preparing An Image For Color Grading
You should think about color grading in advance before you start editing your images. While you’re preparing your camera for the photoshoot, switch the image format from JPEG to RAW. This is important because when you use RAW, you can easily change the white balance in Photoshop or Lightroom even if you used the wrong setting for shooting.
If any color in your image looks off, feel free to change the white balance within your photo editing software until you come up with a natural look. You can also adjust the temperature and the tint if you want more control over the colors in your image.
You should also take a look at your histogram and check if the colors are evenly distributed within the chart or clumped in one section. If they seem to be clumped, you might need to adjust highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks.
After you have done these basic adjustments, you can proceed to color grading.
How To Color Grade
There are many different ways to enhance your photos – it’s crucial to have at least a basic idea about what kind of atmosphere you want to achieve by color grading your images.
For instance, if you want to make everything look vivid or perhaps subdued, all you have to do is to experiment with the vibrance level. It’s fairly simple but effective way to affect the general mood of your image.
After you’re satisfied with the vibrance, you can enhance your photo further by using HSL (hue, saturation, luminance). These sliders can influence which colors you want to pop in your image and it can take some time to find the right combination – there are 8 separate sliders (red, orange, yellow, green, aqua, blue, purple, magenta) in each of these 3 subpanels.
You should learn how to use split toning too – it can elevate you color grading skills to a whole new level. Split toning refers to adding different tints to highlights and shadows – it can add a little something special to an image, especially when it comes to fine art portraiture. Split doning is easily done in Lightroom since there are separate panels for adjusting highlights, balance and shadows.
Don’t forget to keep an eye on the histogram while you’re color grading – you shouldn’t go overboard with your adjustments and make your images tacky instead of skillfully edited.
Using Presets For Color Grading
In case you want to speed up your color grading process, you can buy and install various presets from third-party sites. You can even find free presets on various websites, but you have to make sure that they are safe and virus-free.
It’s quite easy to install these presets – you just need to download the zip folder, extract the files and import them to Lightroom. When you click on an imported preset, Lightroom will automatically apply it to your image. If you’re not happy with the results, you can tweak the preset by adjusting various sliders until everything looks perfect.
Presets can be tricky to use if you plan to edit a large group of images – lighting conditions usually differ from one photo to the next and you might need to spend a lot of time tweaking the original preset.
Additional Color Grading Tips
Once you have learned how to color grade your images properly, you can consider these additional tips too.
Be Careful About Manipulating Backgrounds
If you’re shooting indoors, don’t manipulate the background too much especially if you’re not experienced in color grading. A portrait shot indoors can look rather unnatural if the colors in the foreground and background don’t match. On the other hand, when you’re shooting outdoors and the background is rather colorful due to various objects such as trees, plants, and architectural elements you can experiment with color grading more.
Don’t Oversaturate Portraits
Feel free to experiment with saturation in portraiture, but don’t forget that your subject’s skin should look natural – you should avoid making it orange or red because it will ruin the entire portrait. You should be mindful of how you set the RGB channel.
Try Out Cinematic Effects
Cinematic effects are rather popular in photography nowadays. If you want to try them out, the first thing you need to do is choose the proper subject and proper location – you should find something dramatic and powerful.
You’ll probably have to add some blues to make the image more dramatic, just like movie posters. You can add subtle blue tones by using split toning in Lightroom – it will affect only highlights and shadows in your image, which might be enough.
To achieve a cinematic look, you can add some grain to your picture!
You can watch this really useful video tutorial if you're a complete beginner in color grading – it'a step by step detailed guide:
If you want to learn more about color grading, check out the links below!
Further Resources:
- Master Color Grading: The Guide
- 3 Ways To Use Color To Make Your Photographs, Just Awesome!
- How Learning To Grade Footage Can Help You Color Correct Images
- An Introduction To Color Grading
- The Power Of Color Grading
- A Guide To Color Grading Your Video In 5 Easy Steps
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