Color Grading
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The creative process of adjusting colors in film, video, or photography to achieve a specific mood, style, or narrative effect.
Color grading goes beyond basic color correction (which aims for neutral, accurate reproduction) to deliberately manipulate color for artistic purposes. Common techniques include applying color tints to shadows and highlights (teal-orange being one of the most recognizable looks in cinema), shifting overall color temperature, adjusting saturation selectively, and creating distinct looks that define a film's visual identity. The teal-and-orange look became dominant in Hollywood because these complementary colors separate skin tones (warm) from backgrounds (cool). In digital photography, color grading is achieved through LUTs (Look-Up Tables), curves, and channel mixing.
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