Basic Correction

Basic Correction is where most grades start: making the image look right before making it look like anything in particular.

This photo only

When you have several photos open, a This photo only group appears at the top of the panel, with its own Exposure, Temperature and Tint. It changes the photo on the canvas and no other. Everything else in the editor is the look, shared by every open photo.

Use it first: get each photo to a similar brightness and a neutral white balance, then build the look. These three values are saved with an exported image, but they are not part of an exported LUT, because the LUT is the look and the correction was for that one photo.

Shot matching

Match the others to this shot Pro does that first step for you. Put your best shot on the canvas, press it (here, or at the top of Color Match), and every other open photo and clip gets the Exposure, Temperature and Tint that bring it in line with this one. Fine-tune any of them afterwards, or press Undo to put the values back.

It matches the light, not the content: it lines up the neutrals (walls, clouds, grey clothes) and the overall brightness. Two shots of the same scene come out alike; a close-up of a dark coat next to a wide of a bright street may need a nudge. If the shot on the canvas is warm on purpose, the others go equally warm rather than neutral.

White Balance

• Temperature makes the image cooler (bluer) or warmer (more orange). Use it when white or grey things in the picture have a colour cast.
• Tint moves between green and magenta. Fluorescent and LED light often leave a green cast; Tint removes it.

Two buttons do it for you, and both just set Temperature and Tint, so you can fine-tune with the sliders afterwards:

• Pick: click it, then click something in the photo that should be white or grey, like a white wall, a grey pavement or a white shirt. Temperature and Tint are set so that spot comes out neutral. Press Esc to cancel.
• Auto: removes a colour cast in one click, judged from the parts of the photo that are least colourful. Use it as a starting point, then nudge Temperature if you want the photo a little warmer or cooler.

A reddish or orange cast is hard to fix with the sliders alone, because it needs both of them at once (cooler and greener). Pick handles that in one go.

Tone

• Exposure brightens or darkens the whole image evenly.
• Contrast pushes darks darker and brights brighter, or flattens them together.
• Whites sets how bright the brightest parts get.
• Blacks sets how dark the darkest parts get. Raising it gives a softer, matte look; lowering it adds depth.

Watch the histogram in the left sidebar as you go (Scopes has the waveform and parade too). If it piles up against the right edge, highlights are clipping to pure white; against the left, shadows are crushing to pure black.

Saturation

Saturation makes every colour more or less intense. For a gentler boost that leaves already-strong colours and skin mostly alone, use Vibrance in the Creative panel instead.

A good order

1. White balance.
2. Exposure.
3. Contrast, then whites and blacks.
4. Saturation last, because contrast changes how saturated an image looks.