A single photo is easy to grade. You push the colour around until it looks right. The hard part is the set: forty portraits from one session, four hundred frames from a wedding, a product shoot that has to match last month's. Grading photos well is mostly about getting one look onto all of them without the set falling apart.
What is colour grading for photos?
It is the creative pass. Correction makes a photo accurate: neutral white balance, sensible exposure, nothing clipped. Grading makes it look like something: warm and soft, cool and contrasty, faded film, clean commercial.
The two get confused because the same sliders do both. Colour correction vs colour grading draws the line properly. For photos, the practical rule is simple: correct each photo, grade the set.
How do you colour grade photos, step by step?
- Correct first. Fix exposure and white balance on every photo so they start from the same place. A grade applied to photos with different white balances gives a set that does not match.
- Pick a representative photo. Choose one that contains what most of the set contains: skin, the main colours of the location, typical light.
- Build the look. Usually a tone curve (where the blacks and highlights sit), a split of warm and cool between highlights and shadows, and a few targeted hue shifts. Keep skin tones believable; skin tones is the one thing a grade must not break.
- Save it. As a preset in your editor, or as a
.cubeLUT if you want it to work in other apps too. - Apply it to the whole set.
- Adjust per photo. Some shots will take the look too hard. Reduce it on those rather than rebuilding it.
Steps 5 and 6 are where most of the time goes, and where tools differ most.
LUT or preset: which should carry the look?
| Preset | LUT | |
|---|---|---|
| Works in | The app that made it | Almost any photo or video app that reads .cube |
| Can include | Exposure, crop, sharpening, local tweaks | Colour and contrast only |
| Adapts to each photo | Partly, depending on settings | No, same mapping every time |
| Also works on video | Rarely | Yes |
| Strength control | App dependent | Usually an opacity or intensity setting |
A preset is right when the look depends on edits a LUT cannot store. A LUT is right when the look is colour and contrast, and especially when the same look has to go on photos and video from one shoot. LUT vs preset goes deeper.
How do you apply the grade to every photo?
- Lightroom: sync settings or paste a preset across a selection. Lightroom does not read
.cubefiles directly; LUTs in Lightroom shows the profile workaround. - Capture One: styles and copy-apply. Batch editing in Capture One covers it.
- Photoshop: a Color Lookup adjustment layer, then an action over a folder; Photoshop batch edit walks through it.
- A batch LUT tool: drop the folder, pick the LUT, export.
All of these work. The question is what happens at step 6, when a dozen photos need less of the look.
Why do some photos fight the grade?
Because a grade is built on one photo and the set is not one photo. The frame shot into the sun already has warm highlights, so a warm grade pushes it too far. The shot in open shade is already cool. A dark interior has less room in the shadows than the window portrait the look was built on.
The answer is rarely a different look. It is the same look at less strength. The grade at part strength on the backlit frames keeps them in the family without overcooking them. LUT intensity explains how each app handles it.
How does BatchTone handle a set of photos?
BatchTone is a Mac app for exactly steps 5 and 6, with the look as a .cube LUT:
- Drop the folder in. JPEG, PNG, HEIC and TIFF are read, and clips from the same shoot can go in the same batch.
- Import your LUTs once. Every look is previewed on your own first photo.
- Set a strength on any photo that needs less; hold a key to compare with the original. Photos you have not touched follow the global setting.
- Export JPEG or PNG to a folder you choose, with filenames set before the run. Capture date, camera, lens and GPS carry across from JPEG originals, and originals are never modified.
Photos are graded on the GPU, so the preview updates while you drag the slider, and the export runs the same shader, so what you approved is what you get. It does not develop RAW and has no masks or local adjustments: correct in your usual editor, export, then grade the set here. Nothing is uploaded.
Only your own files and LUT pack can show whether it fits, which is why the seven-day trial has everything unlocked: video, unlimited batches, no watermark. After that it is one in-app purchase, not a subscription.
Download BatchTone free on the Mac App Store
Common questions
What is the difference between editing and colour grading a photo?
Editing covers everything: cropping, retouching, correction and grading. Colour grading is the creative colour part of it, the look.
Can I colour grade photos with a video LUT?
Yes. A creative LUT built for Rec.709 video works on ordinary photos, since both are in a similar colour space. A log conversion LUT does not, because photos are not shot in log.
Which app is best for colour grading photos?
For one photo with retouching, a full editor such as Lightroom, Capture One, Photoshop or Pixelmator Pro. For one look across a large set, a tool that applies it in bulk with per-photo strength. Best batch photo editor compares them.
How do I make my photos look consistent?
Correct white balance and exposure first, then apply one grade to all of them and reduce it where it overpowers a frame. Consistency comes from the shared starting point more than from the look.