Colour grading: where to begin?
Abigail Freeman
@abigailfrmn1d
Colour grading: where to begin?
Hello everyone, it’s high time I learnt how to do my own colour grading and editing. I have been relying on my Framelines LR presets for far too long. (No offense Josh and Shane! They will always have a special place in my heart 🥰😆) I’d love more of a coherent feel across my photos without just applying the same 1 filter on repeat… Does anyone have any tips on how to approach this? I’m learning about colour theory. And just giving editing a go in LR because I definitely learn best by doing. But what I envisage in my head vs what I achieve on the screen is SO far apart it’s very frustrating at the moment. Would love any guidance on how to approach colour grading, what to know about shadows / midtones / highlights etc and what’s helped you achieve the looks you are aiming for. 🙏
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Great question! I also use presets quite a lot but don’t feel I have a cohesive approach yet. I have some film presets from Very Good Co. which I really like (as well as Josh and Shane’s), and they’re often based on film stocks. They also have a YouTube video explaining each preset (and you’ll find a discount code in the vid description).
I’m following this discussion too!
Thanks Luke!
Good question!
I’d always say less is more! Just make very small adjustments (e.g. +/-5 at a time), save a copy, give it some time and come back to the image and look at it with fresh eyes. At that stage, which tones do you like/not like? Make some more small adjustments based on this; it’s a lot of trial and error but you’ll eventually figure out what you like and you’ll be able to apply it to most images.
Which photographer’s images do you like?Challenge yourself to say which colours are in the mid tones, shadows and highlights of their images. I make adjustments to all of these rather than a blanket tint or only the mid tones.
Also play around with the warmth. I treat images with people and without a bit differently; for portraits I tend to lean warmer than still life/observational.
It can be frustrating but try to have fun with it! X
I think the best advice I’ve heard is to look at the image full-screen and write down what you think BEFORE any adjustments. What do you like and want to retain or emphasize?What do you think you want to adjust? How might you want to adjust it? I try to think in super basic terms: “I want to keep the warmth of the sunlight.” “I want to make it feel softer - maybe lower contrast?” “The red traffic light is distracting, how can I mute that a bit?” I like this because I end up making adjustments with a specific purpose, and it keeps me from getting overwhelmed by all the things I COULD do. You can always change the plan and you can always repeat the exercise after a few changes to re-assess!
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Depends on what you want to achieve look wise, I wanted to try and get a cinematic grade on my images so watched lots of videos on your tube which gave advice on that. Then took the bits from it I liked and used them. Try stuff and see whats works.
For mono this is very comprehensive:
For color I watched a lot of videos.
One of the main takeaway's from this video above for color and black and white shots was holding alt key and moving the white slide and black slider to set the point where both are not burnt out.
I watched a lot of color videos and found that it was quite complicated a lot of what they were doing so simplified it. Also researched what each setting is doing on the main panel and the advantages and downsides to try and understand them. In lightroom I might tweak the colors in the slider screen shot, to bring out a color more or less. But using the color grading panel I never got the results I wanted and images looked inconsistent which kinda defeats the point, so would be interested to hear what other people have done.