Color grading is an important creative adjustment that provokes storytelling and emotions. In portrait photography, it plays an important role in establishing the mood of the subject. This article shows how to craft color grading in picture photography, from sourcing inspiration to the final results.
Mood board
Before I take a picture of my shooting and organize my color grading process, I take inspiration from various sources including movies, other photographers and color straps to achieve the desired look. As a lawyer to watch movies in theaters, cinema has greatly impressed my development as a photographer, which has impressed me visually and emotionally. The concept for this shoot was clear: an urban fashion portrait session was set in Toronto, while Kodak Vision 3 250 was trying to mimic the film stock.
Additionally, I took inspiration from the works of Still Photographer Atsushi Nishizima And NYC Urban Photographer Ricardo CalderanI recommend looking beyond Instagram and finding pictures from magazines, apps BehanceOr even news outlets. Once you collect your ingredients, the time has come to go out and take photos.
Once you collect all the photos, select the best people and draw them in the lighter. We will use the picture above as an example to discuss major tricks to create photos with character and vibe. Feel free to adjust the exposure, geometry (to focus the subject), and the tone decreases as per your choice. The main ingredient color is the wheel to achieve that cinematic effect.
Color grading wheel
To make a cinematic, vintage, urban look, it is important to experiment with major elements: midtones, shadows and highlights. When working with portraits, emphasize warm colors in midtones with a yellow/green tint, bending towards the sian/green for the shade. Although shadow can look calm in photos, they contribute to a road photography and cinematic vibe. Highlights should also have a cyan tint, which bends towards blue, to represent the reflective surfaces of the sky and buildings.
Make sure that the combination and balance is smooth, to avoid any rigid color separation. After achieving your desired color grading, use the film grain, dehaz and texture to create an emotional effect in your photos. Here the final result of the photo is:
The color grading process significantly increases the tone like the film, leading to them a modern experience that resonates with contemporary audiences. By incorporating a cool shade, we get a harmonious balance with hot midtones, which together brilliantly show the vibrancy of urban roads. This combination leads to a blind striking, granular look that gives the image a different cinematic edge, reminiscent of classic films that are still fresh and attractive.
There is another thing I want to share that I find a valuable bonus tip that grading color: can work to help in the camera profile.
Bonus Tip: Color Profile
The camera profile can dramatically change the way you capture and present your image, allow more flexibility in post-production and helps you to achieve the desired aesthetics easily. It is like using a lut (look-up table), but for photos.
Luts may be different for different types of cameras. We used a custom-made profile to achieve red shade and light blue exposure in the first used example. This was a way to mimic the use of Kodak Vision 3 250D. The color profile does not matter, but if you are too much in color grading like me, take a lute cube and put it in a lighter classic, then export it as XMP for Literoom CC.
About the author: Dialon Duft is a professional depiction and adventure photographer, creative director and blog writer with The Art of Photography since 2020. He has worked with Tamron, Adobe and other brands. For their more work, you can see it Instagram, WebsiteAnd Behance,
