Ever notice that film has a certain look that you can’t quite describe? That’s “color grading,” and now it’s available for anyone to use on their photos in Adobe’s professional photo editing app, Lightroom.
Color grading lets you apply subtle (or not so subtle) tints to the highlights, midtones, and shadows in your photos. This can change the mood of an image, but it also lets you go crazy with some colors while leaving others intact.
“A great example is a portrait of a person,” photographer and Lightroom instructor Matt Kloskowski told Lifewire via email. “We can color not only the shadows and highlights, but also the mid-tones that are such an important part of a portrait (or any photo).”
Ever since we could take photos, we’ve been tinting them. You’ve probably seen sepia toning, where black and white images get a brownish tint that looks old to our eyes. Or selenium toning, which ranges from reddish brown to purple brown.