Color grading

Color grading is the deliberate adjustment of an image’s colors and tonal character to create a chosen visual style or mood.

Color correction: The adjustment of an image’s color and exposure to make them accurate or consistent. Grading often follows correction, using a balanced image as the starting point for stylistic choices.
Color grading in filmmaking: The shaping of color and tone across a film to establish its visual character. Film grading coordinates the look of individual shots with the intended style of the whole work.
Color theory: The study of how colors relate, combine, and affect visual perception. Color relationships help explain why particular grading choices feel harmonious or tense.
Color management: The practices and systems that keep color reproduction predictable across devices and workflows. Management aims at reliable color reproduction, while grading deliberately shapes an image’s appearance.
Color wheels: Controls that adjust shadows, midtones, and highlights toward chosen hues. They provide a common way to tint different tonal ranges independently.
Color grading in photography: The stylistic adjustment of color and tone in photographic images. Still-image workflows use grading to create a consistent look across photographs or within one image.
Color temperature: A measure of the warmth or coolness associated with a light source or image color. Shifting temperature is a direct way to make an image feel warmer or cooler.
White balance: An adjustment that compensates for the color cast of a light source so neutral objects appear neutral. White balance corrects an illumination cast; grading may preserve or introduce one for expressive effect.
LUT: A lookup table that maps input color values to output values. A LUT can apply a defined color transformation as one step in a grading workflow.
Color continuity: The visual consistency of color across shots, scenes, or images that belong together. Matching graded shots prevents unintended shifts from distracting from a sequence.

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