Last updated: 8 May 2026 · By Luke Lv, Director, Lumira Studio
Colour grading is the process of adjusting the colour, contrast, and tone of footage in post-production. It is one of the highest-leverage things that happens to a video between filming and delivery. A weak grade makes professional footage look amateur. A considered grade makes modest footage look elevated. The fundamentals are not technical mysteries. They are repeatable disciplines.
What colour grading actually does
The grade does three jobs:
- Correction. Fixing exposure, white balance, and colour issues from the shoot. Making clips that were filmed at different moments or in different lighting cut together.
- Brand alignment. Pushing the footage toward the brand’s visual identity: warmer or cooler, higher or lower contrast, leaning into a specific palette.
- Storytelling tone. Adjusting the emotional register. A documentary about industrial safety has a different colour feel than a brand film for a creative agency.
Most weak grades skip step one and jump to step three. Without correction first, the artistic grade fights the source footage rather than working with it.
The colour grading workflow
1. Calibration
The monitor used for grading must be calibrated. Grading on a screen with inaccurate colour produces footage that looks correct on the editor’s monitor and wrong everywhere else. Hardware calibration tools (X-Rite, SpyderX) are inexpensive and essential.
2. Primary correction
Get every shot to a neutral, technically correct starting point. Adjust exposure (overall brightness), white balance (correcting any colour cast), and contrast. The goal is footage that looks honest, not stylised, before any creative grade is applied.
3. Shot matching
Within a scene, every shot should look like it belongs to the same world. Different cameras, different angles, and slightly different lighting on set produce footage that needs to be matched in post. Side-by-side comparison on a reference monitor catches what the eye misses.
4. Creative grade
Once the technical baseline is solid, apply the brand or storytelling treatment. Pushing toward a palette, adjusting saturation, lifting or crushing the shadows. The creative grade should support the content, not draw attention to itself.
5. Delivery
Different platforms require different colour spaces. Rec. 709 for standard web delivery, Rec. 2020 for HDR, sRGB for some streaming platforms. Check the spec for the platform before locking the export.
What separates considered grades from default ones
- Skin tones held. Whatever the grade, skin tones should remain credible. Pushing too hard into teal-and-orange territory makes faces look unhealthy.
- Continuity across the cut. A scene where shot A looks warm and shot B looks cool destroys the illusion. The grade should be invisible at the cut points.
- Brand-aligned palette. The grade should look like it belongs to the brand. A piece for a heritage automotive marque has a different feel than a piece for a fintech startup.
- Restraint. The strongest grades are the ones the viewer does not consciously notice. Heavy stylisation dates fast.
Common colour grading mistakes
- Grading without correction first. Stylising broken footage stylises the brokenness.
- Working from an uncalibrated monitor. Produces grades that look wrong on every other screen.
- Pushing saturation as a shortcut to “looking good”. Heavy saturation reads as amateur, not premium.
- Inconsistent grade across a scene. The viewer feels the cut even if they cannot articulate why.
- Forgetting the delivery platform. Footage graded for sRGB looks different on a Rec. 709 platform.
How long should colour grading take?
For a corporate or training video at 3-5 minutes, allow 0.5-1 day for grading by an experienced colourist. For a brand film with significant visual ambition, 1-3 days. For a documentary or longer-form piece, days or weeks depending on shot count and complexity. Cutting grading time short is one of the fastest ways to make a finished video look cheap.
Frequently asked questions
What is colour grading in video production?
Colour grading is the post-production process of adjusting the colour, contrast, and tone of video footage. It covers technical correction (exposure, white balance, shot matching) and creative treatment (brand-aligned palette, storytelling tone). It is one of the highest-leverage stages in post-production.
What is the difference between colour correction and colour grading?
Colour correction fixes technical issues (exposure, white balance, shot-to-shot matching) to produce a neutral, accurate baseline. Colour grading is the creative treatment applied on top of that baseline to support the brand and storytelling. Both are needed, in that order.
What software is used for colour grading?
DaVinci Resolve is the industry standard, with a powerful free version that handles most professional grading work. Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and Avid Media Composer all include colour grading panels but are typically less specialised. For high-end cinema work, Resolve dominates.
How do I know if my video needs colour grading?
Every finished video benefits from at least basic colour correction. Whether it needs significant creative grading depends on use case: brand films and storytelling content benefit from more grade work, internal training and quick-turnaround social content less so. The minimum is shot-to-shot matching and an exposure pass.
How long does colour grading take?
For a 3-5 minute corporate video, 0.5-1 day. For a brand film with significant visual ambition, 1-3 days. For documentary or feature-length content, considerably longer. Cutting this stage short usually shows in the finished work.
Do you offer colour grading at Lumira Studio?
Yes. Colour grading is part of our post-production service, applied across all the corporate, training, testimonial, brand, and event work we produce. We also offer colour grading as a standalone service for footage shot elsewhere.
