First, do no harm.

THE COMMANDMENTS
page 5

Simplicity beats complexity.

page 8

Broad beats narrow.

page 10

Macro beats micro.

page 12

Embrace process.
page 15

Choose the right tool.

page 18

Work photographically.
page 20

Greatest gains for least effort.

page 23

Do it wrong.
page 26

Question assumptions.
page 28

2
 INTRODUCTION
If you’re like me, you might be resistant to the idea of a “commandment”
in the realm of the creative. Many of us are taught from a young age that
the essence of great art is unrestricted expression. This is the first of many
assumptions I’ll ask you to question throughout this book.

The reality is, all art has formal constraints – music has a key, drama has
three acts, and painting has a palette. Of course, there are exceptions, but
even these exceptions are defined by the rules they break. A song with an
unusual time signature might be celebrated for its originality, or dismissed
for breaking the norm, but in either case, its relationship to the traditional
form is just as significant as in the case of a pop standard.

The trick is not to tear down rules and constraints. Instead, we want to
discover the ones which can enhance our creativity. This is the goal of this
book: to give you a set of guiding principles for professional color grading
that focuses your creativity into its most potent form.

Before we start, I’d like to identify this book’s core assumptions, which are
implicit in the forthcoming chapters.

The professional colorist’s work should

be undetectable.
Colorists are visual artists working in a recognition-driven industry, and the
urge to be seen can be overwhelming. That’s why it’s helpful to remember
that the moment your efforts are noticed by the viewer, you have zero chance
of effectively supporting the project. Your work must remain invisible at all
costs.

3
The professional colorist’s work should be
anchored in natural reproduction.
The foundation of any effective color grade is an image that feels natural and
consistent with physical reality. It’s always best to start here, even if your goal
is a more stylized look.

The professional colorist’s work should be

as efficient as possible
Professional colorists are paid by the hour, and your goal should always be to
give your client maximum value for the time they’re paying for. This book looks
at every aspect of the colorist’s process through the lens of optimized efficiency.
It’s not enough to get the job done well; we need to get the job done well and as
quickly as possible.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

The chapters of this book are designed to be read in order, but each principle
stands on its own. If a particular lesson excites or bores you, feel free to skip to
it or skip over it.

This is not a comprehensive manual on how to color grade; it’s a collection of

proven concepts that I’ve distilled over the course of my multi-decade career
grading at the highest level. They’ve stood the test of time, and I hope you find
them as useful and rewarding as I have.

4
Commandment #1

First, do no harm.
The first step towards any goal is ensuring that nothing you do is working
against that goal. If you’re a physician, and your goal is to improve the health
of your patient, any step which includes some amount of harm is, at best, sub-
optimal. Put another way, if you’re trying to get your car to its top speed, you
want to make sure you haven’t left the parking brake on.

The point seems blatantly obvious, right? So why are we dedicating an entire
chapter to such a simple and intuitive idea?

The truth is, in practice, it’s actually quite tricky advice to follow. The path
from an ungraded timeline to final approval is complex and nonlinear. It can
involve false starts, abandoned ideas, and conflicting direction. As we add
to the stack of operations that become our final grade, it’s easy for harmful
manipulations to sneak in. These manipulations tend to fall into one of the
following categories:

Adjustments at odds with the creative direction

It’s rare to find the final look of a shot or scene at the outset of a grade.
Color grading is exploratory in nature, and it usually requires auditioning and
experimenting with many options to find what works best. For example, we
may start our grade by adding a cool push to our highlights, and then later
decide what the scene really needs is a bit of warmth. Because of the evolving
nature of the process, we may forget about that cooling adjustment resting at
the base of our stack or node tree, and end up having to push our warming
adjustment harder to counter it.

Given the massive flexibility offered by modern color grading workflows and
software, you might ask: “Does this really matter? Shouldn’t my footage,

5
software, and workflow be able to accommodate this and when we’re making large increases in exposure.
rough treatment?”
Here’s the rule of thumb: if you can’t do it cleanly, you
The answer is: maybe. Depending on your footage and can’t do it. Staying on the right side of this rule is about
a host of other factors, your final image may emerge choosing the right tool (which we’ll discuss further in
unscathed. But the best scenario would be one where chapter 6), as well as applying it at the proper strength.
you don’t have to ask this question at all. Answering For example, a hue versus saturation curve rather than
it definitively is nearly impossible, and it involves time a qualifier, or choosing a more moderate intensity for
better spent on grading. your adjustment which doesn’t break the image.

This is also an issue of best practice. If you’re diligent

about only retaining adjustments that contribute to your Adjustments the viewer can see
creative agenda, you’ll be that much closer to the ideal
form of your grade, both in terms of the final image and These harmful adjustments can be trickier to spot: they

in terms of a node graph you can efficiently navigate may not break our image, but on some level the viewer

throughout the grading process. notices them. Even if most viewers can’t articulate that
they’ve spotted the edge of your power window, they
can feel the difference between an organic image and
Adjustments that create artifacts or noise a manipulated one. Whether you’re writing, shooting,
or color grading, the essential craft of filmmaking is to
Colorists today have more power than ever, with the conceal its artifice.
tools at our disposal giving precise control over our
images. However, this also means it’s never been easier The most common examples of this kind of adjustment
to introduce artifacts or noise with careless adjustments. include:
Often, this happens when we’re pulling keys/qualifiers,

6
• Power windows with too hard of an edge, or too relationship with the client, etc.), but we should never
erratic of a tracking path take on work that costs more than it pays.

• Unnatural reproduction of memory colors, including

skin, sky, and foliage. Human vision is tuned to these
hues, and we recognize when they fall outside their
naturally occurring range.

• Adjustments at odds with a shot’s physical realities.

The classic example is adding a power window to
a character standing in shadow and exposing them
up. Even if you do this without introducing artifacts
or hard edges, the adjustment itself doesn’t make Does this
sense because it’s not consistent with the light
in the frame. Again, just because the viewer can’t adjustment
contribute to
articulate what’s going on does not mean that their
subconscious mind is fooled.

Now that we understand why this rule is important,

and what breaking it can look like, let’s discuss what
following it looks like. It boils down to a simple bit of
the image?
diligence you should apply for every single adjustment

Does it
you make. Whether you’re doing your initial primary
grade or adding a final sweetener to a massive node

contribute
graph, all you have to do is disable and then enable your
current adjustment and ask two simple questions:

1) Does this adjustment contribute to the image?

without
causing any
2) Does it contribute without causing any harm?

harm?
If the answer to either of these questions is “no,” you
need to either remove the adjustment, or find a better
way to make it.

Here’s a final thought about this rule: we can apply it

not only to our craft, but to our business practices. If
your goal is to make money as a colorist, the first thing
to ensure is that you’re never losing money! Some jobs
will have better margins than others, and there are
always other factors to consider (quality of the work,

7
 Commandment #2

Simplicity beats complexity.

Color grading is becoming more complex every year as Simple is intuitive
software, camera, and display technologies continue
to evolve. But like any skilled practice, the essence of The first major benefit of keeping our color work simple
color grading is not complexity but simplicity. Colorists is that it allows us to work intuitively. For example,
are sought after for their ability to distill the creative understanding what an RGB gain adjustment does to
and technical intricacies of an imaging pipeline into an our image is much easier than understanding what’s
essential form that best suits the vision of their client. But happening when we qualify our highlights and increase
this truth is easy to overlook, as the inertia of complexity our contrast and red saturation within that region. Even
is always waiting to sweep us away. Herein lies the need though these adjustments may yield similar results, we’re
for this rule: virtually everything about the color grading far less likely to have a tactile and intuitive connection
process is biasing us toward complex adjustments, and to the latter, blunting our creative sensitivity.
if we don’t provide our own counterweight, nothing else
will.
Simple is adaptable
But what would be so bad about complex adjustments?
Why is simplicity so important? Maintaining simplicity also allows us to readily adapt
to changing creative direction, whether that direction is
our own or our client’s. If we’re asked an hour or a week
later to revise the adjustment exampled above, figuring

8
out what needs to be done will take longer in the case huge source of the “complexity inertia” we discussed at
of the qualifier+contrast+saturation approach than the beginning of this chapter. More adjustments mean
with the RGB gain approach. This is a critical factor, less intuition, less flexibility, and more time per shot.
particularly for client-attended grading – nobody wants
to pay or wait for you to figure out your work.
Think reductively

Simple is efficient This may be my favorite strategy. The next time you have
a client note or creative impulse, ask this question before
Finally, simple grading is more efficient than you make your adjustment: is this need best addressed
complex grading. To return once again to our by adding something, or by removing something? You’ll be
example of applying RGB gain versus applying a amazed at how often the latter is true, and at the benefit
qualifier+contrast+saturation solution, the latter not you gain from taking this opportunity to simplify.
only blunts our intuition and limits our adaptability, but
it also takes longer to do in the first place! This bit of The essence of this rule is embodied in the scientific
extra time may seem insignificant, but if we regularly principle known as Occam’s razor, which states that,
choose a less efficient solution over a more efficient one, all things being equal, simpler solutions are preferable
those lost seconds add up to lost hours by the time we to more complex ones. However, the “all things being
finish our grade. equal” clause is worth emphasizing. This rule does not
mean you should forgo all but the simplest approach if a
Now that we understand the importance of striving for more complex solution is required. Rather, it emphasizes
simplicity, let’s discuss practical strategies for doing so. that we should select the simplest viable solution for a
given problem.

Limit your tools If you can create the habit of seeking the simplest path
to your goal, you’ll have the ideal counterweight to the
One great way to embrace the principle of simplicity relentless complexity of this craft.
is to select a handful of tools at the outset of a grade,
and limit yourself to them for the duration. If you’re
accustomed to using a wide range of tools (as so many

Simplicity
of us are), you’ll find the exercise frustrating at first, but
if you stick with it, you’ll be surprised at the speed and
quality of the results you begin to see.

is intuitive,
adaptable,
Limit your nodes/layers

& efficient.
Like limiting your tools, limiting your node/layer count
for each shot forces you to be strategic and focuses your
work. We tend to think of the boundless nature of a
node graph or layer stack as liberating. In reality, it’s a

9
Commandment #3

Broad beats narrow.

Take a moment to think of the last new tool or feature in your grading software
that got you excited. Now think about how many pixels in your image that tool
is designed to affect: all of them, most of them, or a small portion of them?

The answer for most of us is the last option, because software manufacturers
love finding new ways to offer precision manipulation of narrow parts of our
image. This sort of bleeding-edge tool is far easier to sell than the generic,
broad controls that have been with us since the dawn of digital color grading.
In addition, there’s an intuition among colorists that precise tools offer the
ideal way to exert creative control over our grades. But as so often happens in
color grading, the intuition is misleading: the reality is that we should always
be seeking the broadest tool possible.

Defining our terms

Before we explore why broad beats narrow, let’s clarify our terminology. We
can define how broad or narrow an adjustment is using two criteria:

1. How large or small is the region of pixels targeted by the adjustment?

2. How sharp or soft are the boundaries of this region?

Below is a list of common operations in descending order from broadest to

narrowest.

• Offset

• Contrast, Slope, Lift, Gain

10
• Gamma/Power mechanically succeeding at our goal. There’s a simple
reason for this: organic changes in the character of an
• Luminance curves image tend to be broad and soft, not narrow and sharp.
The viewer knows the difference between these, even
• “Log” highlight or shadow controls if they don’t know they know. (We’ll discuss this at
greater length in chapter 7.)
• Power windows

• HSL/RGB qualifiers Risk versus reward

With these definitions in place, let’s explore why broad Here’s another tradeoff colorists often fail to consider:

is better. the narrower the adjustment, the more we risk breaking

Commandment 1 and creating artifacts or noise. This means
that even if your results are good, grades accomplished with
The counterweight principle narrow adjustments need more babysitting and QC than
they otherwise would.
In our last chapter, we discussed the concept of
“complexity inertia”: the idea that our craft is constantly In my experience, the most challenging aspect of this
pulling us toward complexity and away from simplicity. rule is not that it rigidly dictates the use of one tool over
We’ve now observed there’s a similar momentum with another, but that it insists on a deeper understanding
regard to broad versus narrow adjustments: both our of all the tools we use. Being able to assess how broad
software and our creative culture bias us toward the or narrow a particular tool is takes practice, and often
narrow end of the spectrum. requires research. But once you’re equipped with this
skill, it improves your decision-making in every grade
The solution, as in chapter 2, is to bring a conceptual you take on.
counterweight to our practice. When we make a
conscious effort to keep our manipulations as broad as
possible, the net result is that we find a middle ground.
We can still take advantage of precise manipulations
where needed, but we won’t be swept away by them as
so many colorists are. “... the reality
is that we
Naturalistic reproduction should always
It’s easy to see what we gain with the latest precision be seeking the
tool or feature, but we often fail to recognize what we
lose: a naturalistic reproduction of our image.
broadest tool
In general, the narrower our adjustments become, the
possible.”
less naturalistic the results tend to feel, even if we’re

11
 Commandment #4

Macro beats micro.

In our last chapter, we discussed how and why you Efficiency
want to prioritize adjustments that affect the broadest
possible portion of your image. The lesson of this The most obvious benefit of macro-level adjustments is
chapter is really an extension of the same idea: you that they’re fast.
want to prioritize adjustments that affect the broadest
possible portion of your entire timeline. In simplest Let’s perform a quick thought experiment: Imagine you
terms, an operation that serves the needs of two shots have a timeline with 1,000 shots ready to be graded.
is better than an operation that only serves the needs Next, imagine that, after playing around for a bit, you
of one. These operations can be creative, forming part of create a manipulation that seems to perfectly address
our overall look, or technical, forming part of our color the needs of every shot you paste it onto. Even factoring
management or imaging pipeline. In some cases, these in your initial experimentation time, rippling this grade
operations may include both a creative and a technical out across all 1,000 shots will be far faster than grading
component, for example: a print film emulation LUT, them individually.
which imparts a creative look in addition to technically
transforming a log image for display. Now imagine a similar scenario, but instead, only
80% of each shot’s needs are addressed by that single
Why would we want to surrender the control and manipulation. What if it only gets you 50% closer? Or
nuance of per-shot adjustments? What exactly makes 25%?
macro better than micro?

12
 software or our peers.

The question is: at what threshold does this adjustment

cease to be valuable? Viewed through this lens, it’s Strategies for macro adjustments
easier to see that any macro-level adjustment that takes
multiple shots any amount closer to their desired final Now that we understand the value of macro adjustments

form is inherently more valuable than an adjustment over micro adjustments, how can we apply this

that serves only one shot. knowledge to our practice?

The answer is simple: since we understand that with

Visual glue all things being equal, macro beats micro, we start with
macro and work our way to micro.
One of the key goals of color grading is to integrate our
individual shots into a cohesive whole. Often, this goal • First, implement sound color management across all
is accompanied by the assumption that the best and shots.
only way to achieve this is through individual attention
to each shot, nudging them as needed into a consistent • Next, implement your overall look, finding a set of
visual space. While this is an important tool in the adjustments that brings every shot at least 1% closer
colorist’s arsenal, it’s far from being the sole means of to your creative intent.
unifying our grade.
• From here, tailor scene-specific tweaks underneath
An equally potent tool in bringing our images together your overall look.
is not what we change from shot to shot, but what we keep
the same. This is where macro adjustments come in: they • Once these pieces are in place, move on to your shot-
provide a consistent “wrapper” for things like dynamic level grading – but don’t be afraid to revisit your
range, contrast ratio, saturation, and hue reproduction. macro adjustments and add, remove, or revise things
These characteristics work best when we optimize them as needed.
once and then consistently apply them across all shots.
Beyond this proper sequencing, the best thing you can
do is habitually assess: Does my current adjustment
The counterweight strikes again work only at this micro-level, or might it serve all of my
shots the same way it’s serving the current one? Like
After chapters 2 and 3, we should be well acquainted most of the principles in this book, incorporating this
with the counterweight principle: the idea that biases into your thinking and methodology may feel awkward
in our creative culture and software can skew our color at first, but it’s well worth the effort.
grading decisions, and that a conceptual counterweight
is the best way to keep this in check. When it comes to
a macro versus micro grading approach, this bias leans
toward the “micro” side. If we don’t consciously seek
opportunities to think and work at the macro level,
we’re likely to be led in the opposite direction by our

13
“An equally potent
tool in bringing our
images together
is not what we
change from shot
to shot, but what
we keep the same.
This is where
macro adjustments
come in...”

14
Commandment #5

Embrace process.
This chapter confronts us with a central paradox of color grading. On one
hand, this craft is all about the appearance of things, and on producing the best
result in any way that works – after all, the end viewer doesn’t see anything
but the final image. Simultaneously, our job is about far more than making
pictures pretty, requiring us to navigate culture, narrative, technology, and the
human visual system.

Charting this course is only possible when we recognize the importance of

process: how we arrive at our results matters as much as the results themselves.
Don’t believe me? Consider the following examples:

• A feature film client asks for a full-strength film print look on their project,
which you apply by using a standard Cineon log to Rec 709 print film
emulation LUT, on top of which you do all your shot-level grading. The
client loves the work and you deliver the final grade to them. The next
month they reach out in need of an HDR version of the grade. You’re now
in a scenario where, despite achieving good prior results, you’re limited
to one of a few compromised options for what’s being asked of you. You
can either upconvert the SDR master to HDR, or you can re-grade the
entire show without the benefit of the film print LUT used before. Had you
implemented sound color management and a scene-referred look, all that
would be needed is a change to your target output and a quick trim pass
on a calibrated HDR display.

• A commercial client who’s done all their editorial reviews without a

viewing LUT comes in for a session and immediately asks you to remove the
moderate amount of contrast you’ve introduced by properly transforming
the log-state footage for display. Offended, you tell them that they’ve
just become accustomed to an inaccurate reproduction, and you insist on
moving forward with the grade. They begrudgingly concede, and you end

15
 up with a great-looking spot. Unfortunately, you’ll Modeling over mimicry
probably never hear from this client again, because
while they may ultimately recognize that you were Another critical point for embracing process is the look
right, what will stick with them most is the way you development stage of a project, particularly when color
made them feel – in a word, dumb. references are being used. For most colorists, matching
a grade to a provided reference image seems simple and
Now that we recognize the need to embrace process, intuitive: pull the reference into your project and match
let’s discuss how we can put this into practice. it with standard color grading tools using your eyes and
your scopes. While a skilled colorist may have good
luck with this, the resultant match is fleeting at best:
Perfect your pipeline
the moment you move on to a new shot, or compare to
a different frame from your reference film, the match
Our first example highlights the importance of an
will disappear.
optimized imaging pipeline: the series of technical
transforms from raw captured image out to your
To get a deeper and more consistent match, it’s not
display. This pipeline should be backboned by a sound,
enough to mimic surface characteristics: you need to
standardized color management framework such as
gain insight into the process(es) used in the mastering
ACES, with all the parameters thereof carefully tailored
of the reference image and then meaningfully model
to your workflow. Once this pipeline is built, it’s critical
them. For example, you might notice in a film like Joker
to select the right point within it for performing your
that the highlights have a warm push and the shadows
grade, and to ensure that any look LUTs or creative
have a cyan push, and then mimic these characteristics
transforms are capable of operating within your scene-
using your RGB lift and gain until your image looks
referred working space, and carry no implicit technical
similar. While this may work one shot at a time, the
transform such as the PFE LUT mentioned in our first
better solution is to research the color grading work that
example.

16
went into Joker. In doing so, you’d learn that the behavior
in question is a result of the film print emulation used
by the colorist. Armed with this knowledge, you can
analyze several different frames from the film, dial in
contrast curves for your red, green, and blue channels,
and produce a consistent match to this characteristic.
This approach just so happens to be more efficient, but
the best reason for it is that you’ll get a deeper and more
faithful characterization.

Be a great collaborator

The second example given earlier in this chapter

highlights the importance of embracing process not only
in our grading, but in our collaborations. In a profession “... the best
results
that’s always under time constraints, there’s a strong
desire for a quick and linear process, but unfortunately,

come from
this isn’t the way collaboration works. 99% of the time
you spend with your clients is occupied by review,
notes, and revisions. It’s your job to make this a fun and
exciting journey. Successful collaborations are about
exploration far more than destination. If you can give radical
your client deep permission to suggest crazy ideas, try
out multiple approaches, and change direction whenever commitment
to the
they wish, they’ll find excuses to continue hiring you.
But remember that the opposite is true as well!

I’d like to close out this chapter by sharing a secret it’s

taken me many years to discover. The paradox of a result-
process.”
centric activity that only succeeds with intense focus on
process is not unique to color grading – in fact, it’s all
around us. Whether you’re seeking financial success,
athletic achievement, or the ideal romantic partner,
the best results come from radical commitment to the
process. The process is not the barrier to your result –
the process is your result.

17
 Commandment #6

Choose the right tool.

If you had to make one surefire prediction about the investment pays for itself in several key respects.
next version of your color grading software, what would
it be?
Creative structure
I know what I’d go with: the next release will have
more features than the last. In my 10+ years as a post Whether you’re a musician, a screenwriter, or a painter,

professional, this has proven true time and time again. you need structure to produce your art. Color grading

It’s practically a universal law: software must either is no exception: if we approach every shot as a blank

grow or die. canvas we’ll be paralyzed by decision fatigue and plagued

by inconsistent results. Instead, by seeking and sticking

Combine this reality with the prevailing color grading to the ideal tool for every task we tackle, we provide

wisdom that there are many ways to accomplish any ourselves with a much-needed framework.

goal, and it’s no surprise so many of us wander from

one solution to another, or cling to one with no clear
Digging a deep hole
reasoning.

When we find the right tool and make it a consistent

The truth is that there are only two ways to accomplish
part of our practice, we cultivate greater skill and a
a goal in color grading: the optimal way, and every
deeper relationship with our craft than the colorist
other way. Finding this ideal isn’t always easy, but the
who’s constantly jumping from one tool to the next. It’s

18
better to dig one deep hole than a dozen shallow ones. Because no single image contains all possible pixel data
that may be encountered. To work up a full profile, we
need to see our tool applied to many different images and
Stronger images test patterns, and gain greater insight into how it works.
Doing this requires time and open-ended exploration,
Finally, insisting on going further than the first knob and it’s where many colorists lose their patience. To
that works is the only way to ensure the best possible answer this question, we have to observe the lessons of
results. Why? It comes down to the fact that we tend chapter 5 and embrace the process.
to be overly impressed by any grade that improves on
the source material. In the words of a colorist friend:
everything looks good – until you see something better. How do my candidate tools or methods compare to
one another?
By pushing ourselves past what works and searching for
what’s ideal, we give ourselves this critical opportunity As you begin working up to more detailed profiles of

to see something better, and to know our work isn’t various tools and methods, you can narrow your search

just good – it’s the strongest possible expression of our to a shortlist of viable options. Once you’re down to two

creative intent. or three of these, it’s time to stage a shootout: do your

best to implement your goal with each of these tools,
then compare the stills. In my experience, a clear winner
How to find the right tool will almost always emerge.

How do we go about determining the ideal tool for a There’s an old saying that an expert is someone who
particular task? It’s all about asking good questions. knows more and more about less and less. This is a
great encapsulation of this chapter’s theme: by selecting
and focusing on a small subset of the tools and features
What exactly am I trying to do? available to you, you’ll gain true mastery of your craft.

This is the most important place to start – we need to

think deeply about what we’re hoping to accomplish,
and articulate it in concise, specific language. For “The truth is
example, I might say that my goal is to find a gentle,
that there are
only two ways to
naturalistic way to soften the texture of my skin tones.
Notice the difference between this and saying “I need to
smooth out her skin.”
accomplish a goal
What’s the full profile of the tool or method I’m
in color grading:
evaluating?
the optimal way,
It’s time for me to let you in on a hard truth: Evaluating and every other
a tool, technique, or process on any single image doesn’t
give a meaningful window into how it works. Why? way.”
19
Commandment #7

Work photographically.
Perhaps the single biggest mistake we make as colorists is failing to recognize
the larger process we’re participating in, and to understand our optimal
role within it. We exist in a sacred space between photographic capture and
photographic reproduction, and our task is to shepherd the image through
this space as we sculpt it into its ideal form.

The key to doing this is to honor the image’s fundamental nature as a

photographed element. The image may be represented by pixels, but its origin is
physical light, and so too is its destiny. The more we think of and work with
the image on these terms, the more organic, invisible, and powerful our work
becomes.

So how can we do this? What needs to change in our thinking and our
technique to work photographically?

We need to start by recognizing our limitations. Our image may represent

physical light in three dimensions, but we only have contact with it as a two-
dimensional arrangement of pixels. We can’t reposition the camera, lights,
talent, or scenery, nor can we change their behavior. But if we choose to seek
them out, we do have access to many of the core tools of cinematography.

The colorist’s photographic toolkit

Exposure

Exposure is arguably the cinematographer’s most fundamental consideration

in the design of any shot, but it’s all too often neglected in the color grade in
favor of the traditional tools of color correction. Perhaps even worse, when the

20
word is invoked, it’s in a loose, inaccurate way with little Priority
to no relationship to its meaning on set. So the very first
thing we should do to build our photographic toolkit Like ratio, the concept of priority allows us to work
is ensuring we have a photometrically accurate means with contrast in a more photographic manner. Priority
of adjusting exposure, ideally expressed in stops. This is about using spatial contrast to guide the eye toward
allows you to shape the image in its native language, or away from various parts of the frame. In general, we
and, just as importantly, to collaborate with its creators reduce an object or area’s visual priority by exposing
in their native language. it down, and we increase an object’s visual priority by
exposing it up.

Ratio
Temperature
For the most part, whenever exposure is being
overlooked in a grade, what’s taking its place is some Much of our time in color grading is spent finding the
form of contrast. We have many different names for it – ideal mixture of red, green, and blue to introduce or
lift, gamma, gain, shadows, mid-tones, and highlights, remove from our image. It’s a highly subjective process
to name a few – but contrast gets plenty of attention in made more difficult by a lack of a common metric, as
most grades. Yet all too often, we fail to think of contrast well as by the fact that RGB color space is not perceptually
in a photographic context – as a ratio of light to dark. linear – meaning that “20% more red” doesn’t read that
When we do, we’re less tempted by narrow, complex way to our eyes. This is why a photographically accurate
adjustments, and instead we focus on optimizing the color temperature adjustment is so useful – it offers a
simple relationship between the key and fill areas of the meaningful metric (degrees of kelvin), and a mixture of
frame. red, green, and blue anchored in the behavior of a camera.
With a true photometric temperature adjustment,
the warming and cooling of the image is consistent in

21
character and scale with the equivalent changes made
in-camera during production. Such an adjustment is a
critical ingredient in your photographic toolkit.

Going beyond the photographic

What about the myriad of adjustments within our color

grading software which the above list excludes? Are
they now off-limits to us?

While it’s true that some tools have no obvious

photographic analog, this doesn’t mean they can’t help
us accomplish our goals. We can continue embracing
this chapter’s principle when using these tools with the
following guidelines.
Exposure
Ratio
• First, any time we’re working with a tool which
seems to have little relationship to photographic
reality, we can ask a simple question: “What if it did?”
For example, in our previous section, by relating

Priority
contrast adjustments to ratio and priority, we’re able
to work more photographically not by changing our
tool, but by changing our concept of it.

• Next, keep the following rule of thumb in mind: do

80% of your shot-level grades with your photographic
toolkit, and the remaining 20% can, and often should,
Temperature
involve non-photographic manipulations.

• Finally, it’s worth noting that our overall color

pipeline, as well as our macro-level looks, won’t
be as bound by the photographic principle. This is
because, by nature, these pieces are concerned with
optimizing the display reproduction of a well-graded
image – they are the very ingredients that provide
us with photographic freedom at the individual shot
level.

22
 Commandment #8

Greatest gains for least effort.

There’s an apocryphal story about the famous bank skill.
robber Willie Sutton being asked why he robs banks.
Sutton’s reply? Unfortunately, figuring out where to focus our efforts
is a bit trickier for colorists than for bank robbers. How
“Because that’s where the money is.” do we know what adjustments to tackle first, second,
or last? To complicate matters even further, our clients
This quote points to the central theme of this chapter: as often have their own ideas of how much time should
colorists, we want to focus our work on “where the money be spent on which task, and it’s easy to get stuck in
is” – the adjustments which will give us the greatest a pattern of letting them determine the course of the
gains for the least effort. Here’s a simple example: if you grade.
spend an hour finding the perfect exposure adjustment
for a small object in the background, it’s a poor decision But whether you’re working unsupervised or with a
compared to using that time to dial in the exposure client, the ability to continually orient your decisions
on your subject’s face. Both take the same amount of around “where the money is” is one of the most
time, and both net a benefit for the image, but the latter important skills for us to cultivate as colorists. Let’s
adjustment nets a much larger benefit. Just like Willie explore my framework for how to sniff out the greatest
Sutton wouldn’t have found much success robbing gains, which is based on finding the right answers to
libraries, we’ll never deliver maximum value to a project these three basic questions that you can ask yourself at
if we’re focused on the wrong things – regardless of our any point during your grade.

23
1. What type of adjustments have the greatest Here’s a helpful tip for determining the more and less
impact on the viewer’s experience? important shots and scenes in your timeline: look at
how much of the timeline they occupy. In general, a
This is the most important of our three questions. It scene that lasts 15 seconds is less important than one
determines whether we’re working with or against the that lasts 5 minutes.
human visual system. In the end, the viewer’s experience
of your work is its most important facet, and the single
largest factor in that experience is biology: how our 3. What are the most important subjects or
objects within my current frame?
visual system has evolved to function.

As with our last question, the answer to this will vary

The human visual system is complex, but here are a
from project to project and client to client, which is why
few of its basic rules that are most important to us as
it’s so important to seek it out. With this said, we can
colorists:
apply the following general guidelines:

• We’re far more sensitive to changes in luminance

and contrast than to changes in color. This means
Subjects beat objects
that, all things being equal, time spent dialing in
exposure or contrast is better than time spent on
If there are one or more people in your frame, you
color balancing.
can pretty well bet on them being the most important
fixture within it. Making them look their best will net
• The colors we’re most sensitive to are memory colors,
you greater gains than focusing on a pet, a car, or a piece
which include skin, sky, and foliage. Conclusion?
of furniture.
All things being equal, time spent on perfecting the
reproduction of a memory color is better than time
spent playing with a non-memory color. Large beats small

Larger subjects and objects are generally more noticeable

2. What are the most important shots or scenes than small ones, so focus first on those elements, as
in my project?
their appearance will make a greater difference to the
viewer’s experience.
Unlike our first question, this one has no single objective
answer, and will change depending on your project and
It’s also worth noting that, with some minor rephrasing,
the creative wishes of your client. What won’t change
we can use the above questions to determine whether a
is the value of knowing the answer. Once you’ve
particular adjustment we’re considering is an appropriate
determined the most and least significant shots/scenes
next step:
in the project, you can ensure that appropriate priority is
given to the proper frames, rather than operating under
1. How sensitive is the viewer to the type of adjustment
the simplistic assumption that all shots have roughly
I’m considering?
equal importance. Put simply, time spent grading a high
priority shot is better than time spent grading a medium
2. How important is this shot or scene to the project?
or low priority shot.

24
3. How significant or insignificant is the subject or
object I’m thinking about adjusting?

You may find that, stated out loud, many of the principles
in this chapter are so intuitive that you’re probably
already doing them. If that’s the case, great! No need to
complicate an intuitive process by making a mechanical
exercise of it.

Yet every one of us has had that moment in a grade

where we’re not sure what the right next move is, and
“Just like Willie
we’ve all been on the receiving end of a client request
Sutton wouldn’t
have found
that we know is focused on the wrong thing. These are
the scenarios where having a simple, well-thought-out,
and easily explained system for making the most of our
grading time comes in handy. And at the end of the day,
much success
being able to navigate these moments is what separates robbing
libraries, we’ll
a passionate hobbyist from a billable professional.

never deliver
maximum
value to a
project if we’re
focused on the
wrong things –
regardless of
our skill.”

25
Commandment #9

Do it wrong.
You may have noticed by this point in the book that many of its ideas have
application beyond the craft of color grading: they’re useful for any number of
creative pursuits. This is particularly true of this chapter: regardless of what
you’re creating, one of the most potent questions you can explore during the
process is, “What’s the wrong way to do this?”

Let’s take a closer look at why this question is so powerful, and how we can
make best use of it.

Getting unstuck

One of the most dreaded circumstances in any color grade is finding yourself
stuck. Maybe you’re grading unsupervised, and you can’t find a way to address
a note or incorporate a visual idea in a way that you like. Maybe you’re with
clients, and you can’t reach a consensus about whether a particular adjustment
is needed. Whatever the details, we’ve all found ourselves in a situation where
momentum has been halted and the path forward is unclear.

Intentionally doing the wrong thing can be a great way to release the sticking
point. Can’t figure out how to address that note or incorporate that reference?
Try its exact opposite: if the note is to add a warm push, add a cool push. If
you can’t agree on whether to increase contrast by 10% or 20%, try decreasing
it by that amount or more.

The idea is to loosen up your thinking, and to switch up your frame of reference.
The essential problem whenever we’re stuck is that we’ve zoomed in on a tiny
detail and lost sight of the big picture. Swinging the image into a completely
“wrong” place, even if just temporarily, is a powerful way to return ourselves
to this larger view. It also gives us a strong stimulus to react to, which we’re

26
probably not getting when we audition the difference Finding the vector
between 10% or 20% contrast.

In addition to helping you find your goalposts, seeking

Finally, you’ll be surprised at how often the “wrong” out an exaggerated extreme makes it easy to recognize
thing is actually right. By opening a window to other when your problem isn’t actually the intensity of your
possibilities, you can let in new ideas. adjustment, but the vector, or direction, of it. For
example, by driving your red gain to 120% of its initial
value, you might discover that what you actually need is
Finding the edge
a combination of red and green to achieve what you’re
after – in other words, your vector is off.
Doing the wrong thing can also be treated as an exercise
in seeking out an exaggerated extreme of the adjustment
In broadest terms, doing things wrong serves the dual
you’re contemplating – in essence, taking something too
purpose of freeing and focusing our efforts. It pulls us
far on purpose. The moment you find this “too far” point,
out of fixating on the tiny details while also showing
you’ve given yourself a great gift: you now know that
us the larger boundaries of what we’re contemplating.
this adjustment’s sweet spot rests somewhere between
With a large but finite map in front of us, we’re free to
where you started and where you are now. You have a
explore all points within it.
lower and upper limit and a finite axis in between. If
your solution exists, it rests somewhere between these
goalposts.

27
 Commandment #10

Question assumptions.

I started this book by making a case for the necessity • The colorist’s most important task is to correct and
of guiding principles in a creative pursuit. As we’ve balance their images
learned in the last nine chapters, these principles pro- • Shadows and highlights should never be allowed to
vide a framework for our practice, and can help ensure clip
that our process and results are consistent with our cre- • The most pleasing looks are those which emulate
ative agenda. the behavior of film stocks
• Logarithmic encoding is the ideal state to manipu-
Yet this truth cuts both ways: our guiding principles can late our images in
also exert a profound negative influence on our work if • The RGB color model is the ideal one to use for cre-
we embrace the wrong ones. This is why it’s vital that ative color grading
we make a habit of uncovering and questioning our core
assumptions. Like any assumption we might uncover, it’s impossible
to say that any of the above are good or bad without fur-
Several of the chapters in this book serve as rebuttals to ther examination. One of the greatest lessons I’ve taken
some of the most deep-rooted assumptions I see in our away from studying image science is to embrace the sci-
creative culture, but there are hundreds more that the entific method, which is all about formulating and test-
conscious colorist should be exposing and examining. ing hypotheses. You could design experiments around
Here are a few examples: any of the above assumptions and use their results to
determine the creative costs and benefits of that partic-

28
ular assumption. The tricky part is to get into the habit of sniffing out implicit assumptions, and to have the curiosity
and patience to evaluate them on their merits.

So, where do you start?

The five assumptions above are certainly worth further examination. Better yet, as you apply the lessons of this book,
pay close attention to how well or poorly they serve your creative agenda. If a particular principle doesn’t work for you,
it’s time to start asking questions: why doesn’t this work? What might work better? How can I express this alternative
in a testable way, and how can I go about testing it?

At the end of the day, our practice as artists is defined by the questions we ask, and by the ones we fail to ask. If we take
this idea to its logical conclusion, it means that the most important trait for a colorist to have is curiosity.

I’ve spent my entire career understanding less than I want to about the workings of my craft. I still remember the first
trickle of naive questions I had when I began hanging around Los Angeles telecine suites in the late 2000s:
• What’s wrong with film scans that I have to crank the wheels so hard to get a baseline level of contrast and satura-
tion?
• What are the objective characteristics that make digital and film images feel so different?
• How can I use my color correction tools to create more filmic images?

As I began discovering answers, more questions followed, and the trickle soon turned into a flood:
• Why is this tool embraced and that tool shunned among my peers?
• What’s the best way to technically map my image from capture to display space?
• How can I get “under the skin” of a film system and speak its language?
• How can I sculpt my own creative transforms and LUTs?

In the years that followed, I worked as a freelancer, a staff artist, and a facility owner, and I credit this variety of en-
vironments with providing the ideal stimuli for my growth: I was given good rules by my mentors, but also plenty of
opportunities to break those rules when working for myself. It’s my hope this book provides you with the same com-
bination of factors: a sound set of principles to build your craft around, and the freedom to improve upon them as your
craft matures. If you continue seeking growth and asking questions, you’re in for a lifelong adventure. Enjoy the ride!

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