Lightroom has had a proper colour grading tool since October 2020, when the Color Grading panel replaced Split Toning. It is easy to open it, drag a wheel towards orange and close it again. It does more than that, and the order you use it in matters more than the colours you pick.
Where is colour grading in Lightroom?
In the Develop module of Lightroom Classic, and in the Edit panel of Lightroom (the cloud version), under Color Grading. It sits below the Color Mixer, which is the old HSL panel.
The panel has five controls:
| Control | What it changes | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Shadows wheel | Hue and saturation in the dark tones | Cool or teal shadows |
| Midtones wheel | Hue and saturation in the middle tones | Overall warmth, skin |
| Highlights wheel | Hue and saturation in the bright tones | Warm or golden highlights |
| Global wheel | Every tone at once | A whole-image tint |
| Blending and Balance | How the wheels overlap, and where shadows end and highlights begin | Softening or sharpening the split |
Each wheel also has a luminance slider, so you can lift or drop that tonal range without touching the Basic panel.
What should you do before you grade?
Correct first. A grade built on a photo with the wrong white balance is a grade you will rebuild on the next photo.
- White balance. Get skin and neutrals right in the Basic panel.
- Exposure and contrast. Set the black and white points so nothing important clips.
- Profile. Pick the camera profile you want to start from. Adobe Color and Adobe Neutral grade very differently.
Colour correction vs colour grading explains why the order matters. In short: correction makes each photo accurate, grading gives the set a look.
How do you colour grade a photo in Lightroom, step by step?
- Pick a representative photo. Not the best one: the most typical one, with skin, sky or whatever the set is mostly made of.
- Set the Shadows wheel. Drag the centre point a short distance towards the colour you want. Small moves; saturation around 5 to 15 is already visible.
- Set the Highlights wheel, usually to the opposite side of the wheel. Teal shadows and warm highlights is the familiar version. Teal and orange covers why it works and when it doesn't.
- Touch the Midtones only if skin needs warming or cooling. Midtones carry faces, so this is where a grade goes wrong first.
- Adjust Blending. Higher values let the wheels overlap and the look gets softer. Lower values keep the shadow and highlight colours separate.
- Adjust Balance. Moving it left gives the shadow colour more of the image; right gives the highlights more.
- Check skin at 100%. If faces have gone green or orange, pull the midtones back or use the Color Mixer to fix that one hue. Skin tones are what a grade must not break.
Which other Lightroom panels are part of a grade?
The Color Grading panel is not the only grading tool in Lightroom:
- Tone Curve shapes contrast and can add a faded look by lifting the black point.
- Color Mixer shifts single hues: greens towards olive, blues towards teal.
- Calibration shifts the primaries for the whole image, and is where many film-style looks start.
- Profiles include creative profiles, which apply a look before your sliders.
A finished look is usually a mix: a curve, two or three hue shifts, and a light colour grade on top.
How do you put one Lightroom grade on a whole set?
This is where most of the time goes. Lightroom gives you three ways:
| Method | How | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Sync | Select the graded photo first, then the rest, then Sync Settings and tick Color Grading | A whole shoot in Lightroom Classic |
| Copy and paste | Copy settings from one photo, paste onto a selection | A few photos at a time |
| Preset | Save the look as a preset and apply it on import or later | A look you reuse across shoots |
All three copy the exact slider values. A photo that was darker or warmer than your reference gets the same push and may need a small correction afterwards. Batch edit in Lightroom goes through each method and where it stops.
Can you use a LUT for colour grading in Lightroom?
Not directly. Lightroom does not open .cube files. You can turn a LUT into a Lightroom profile through Photoshop's Camera Raw, and then apply it from the Profile browser with an Amount slider. How to use LUTs in Lightroom shows the steps.
If the look already exists as a LUT and the job is one look on a whole folder of finished photos, it is often faster to export from Lightroom and apply the LUT outside it.
Where does BatchTone fit?
BatchTone is a Mac app for the step after Lightroom. It puts one .cube LUT across a whole folder of photos and clips from the same shoot, with a strength slider on every file.
- Drop in the exported JPEG, PNG, HEIC or TIFF files.
- Preview each LUT on your own photos and set a strength on the few that need less.
- Export to a folder you choose. Originals are never modified, and nothing is uploaded.
It does not develop raw files and has no masks: correct and grade in Lightroom as usual, then use it when a LUT has to go on hundreds of files. The seven-day trial has everything unlocked; after that it is one in-app purchase, not a subscription.
Download BatchTone free on the Mac App Store
Common questions
Where is Split Toning in Lightroom?
It was replaced by the Color Grading panel in October 2020. Old split-toning settings carry over into its shadow and highlight wheels.
What is the difference between Color Grading and Color Mixer in Lightroom?
Color Grading tints tonal ranges: shadows, midtones and highlights. The Color Mixer changes individual hues wherever they appear, such as making every green more olive.
How do I make all my photos look the same in Lightroom?
Correct white balance and exposure on each photo, then grade one and sync the grade to the rest. Check the photos that started darker or warmer, since they get the same push. Colour grading photos covers consistency across a set.
Can I colour grade in Lightroom mobile?
Yes. Lightroom on iPhone, iPad and Android has the same Color Grading wheels, under the Color section of the edit tools.
Is a Lightroom preset the same as a LUT?
No. A preset stores slider values and only works in Lightroom. A LUT is a colour transform any app can read. LUT vs preset explains the difference.