Photo Colour Grade
Hand it a snapshot and it comes back graded — a named contrast curve, a named colour split, halation and grain — with every object, every shadow and the whole framing exactly where they were. Two fields.
We made two examples, from two different photographs: two friends at a table and a dog on the sand, given opposite looks with the same five settings. The first is lifted with warm highlights; the second is crushed with green shadows. Neither imitates a film stock: only the values change.
Every object and every shadow stays where it was, at the same size and the same angle. Shadows get deeper or lighter, but they never move. The five settings work as separate controls, so you can change one without touching the rest. Before you use the result, check flat areas such as skies, walls and water: sometimes detail appears that was never in the photo, like invented clouds. If that happens, generate again.
Generated for this library
Input
Look black point lifted a little · shadows cool
blue-grey, highlights warm amber · halation
on the brightest speculars · fine grain ·
background falling off darker and softer
May glow the glasses on the table, as if catching a
light out of frame
Photograph friends-table.png (1254 x 940)
Returned 1 image · 4:3 · the same frame, graded
content every object where it was - both people, the
poses, the glass, the napkin, the planting,
the chairs behind
shadows unmoved: same angles, same lengths, deeper
but not relocated
grade black point lifted, shadows cool, highlights
warm, halation on the speculars, fine grain,
background falling away
glow the glass, and only the glass, catching a
light from outside the frame
words none, in any scriptYou fill in 2 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The look, as its parts
- 2What may glow, if anything
Photo Colour Grade
What this makes
Hand it a snapshot and it comes back graded — a named contrast curve, a named colour split, halation and grain — with every object, every shadow and the whole framing exactly where they were. Two fields.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Attach your photograph and paste the template in the same message.
- Replace the two FIELDS lines. Write the look as a list of parts; each part is something you can turn up or down next time.
- Check the shadows before shipping: they should be the same shadows, in the same places, at the same angles. A moved shadow means the run relit the picture instead of grading it.
- For a set, run each picture from the same first field, and they will sit together.
What you swap
- The look, as its parts
- black point lifted a little · shadows cool blue-grey, highlights warm amber · halation on the brightest speculars · fine grain · background falling off darker and softer
- What may glow, if anything
- the glasses on the table, as if catching a light out of frame
Before it runs
- An actual photograph, attached to the message. There is nothing to grade without one.
- A look described as parts rather than as a name. 'Blade Runner' and 'cinematic' get you a different picture every time; a black point, a colour split and a grain size get you the same one twice.
- A picture already composed the way you want it. This changes how the frame is rendered and nothing about what is in it — if the framing is wrong, grading will not fix it.
- Somewhere for the light to be, if you ask for a glow. A specular that has nothing to catch reads as a smudge.
When to reach for it
When a picture is the right picture and the wrong flavour: a phone shot that has to sit beside a campaign, a listing photo that needs a house look, a snapshot you want to feel like a still. Templates in this genre say cinematic and hand back a different photograph — relit, recropped, with a glow somewhere nobody asked for.
What changes
- One photograph in, one out — the same frame, given a look made of named parts rather than a genre word.
- The look is five things you can change one at a time: black point, colour split, halation, grain, background falloff.
- No shadow moves. A grade is not a relight, and that is the line this template holds.
- Nothing is added, removed, sharpened into existence or cropped away.
- Repeatable across a set, because the same five values give the same look on a different picture.
Pairs with
- Backlit Silhouette EffectHand it a photograph and it comes back as a cut silhouette lit from behind — no interior anywhere, so every part that has to be recognised must reach the edge and show itself against the light. Two fields.
- Chalkboard Drawing EffectHand it a photograph and it comes back drawn in chalk on a black board — where the darkest thing in the picture is bare board, because chalk adds light and there is no way to draw a dark line. Two fields.
- Contour Line DrawingHand it a photograph and it comes back as contour lines — every line a closed loop at one depth, none of them crossing, none of them stopping in mid-air, with the spacing doing all the shading. Two fields.