Color Match

Color Match Pro takes the colour of a reference image, such as a film still or a photo you love, and applies it to your own.

Matching

1. Load your image.
2. Open Color Match from the rail.
3. Drop a reference photo onto Drop reference photos, or click it to choose one. To match a film or a creator's look, choose 3 to 6 stills from different scenes at once (up to 6), or add them one by one with Add more frames. Or pick one of the built-in looks under Or match a look.
4. Click Match Colors, then use Strength to decide how much of the look to keep. The match is built to be the whole grade at 100%, so start there and lower it if it's too much for your photo.

To try a different reference, remove the current one (all its frames) with its × button.

How it works

Color Match reads the parts of the reference a grade changes and the scene mostly doesn't: where its blacks and whites sit, the tint in its shadows, midtones and highlights, and how saturated it is.

It compares those with what a typical ungraded photo measures. The difference is the grade, and it's applied on top of your image, which keeps its own light and colour underneath. With several frames of one look, it uses what they share. The built-in looks are measured across 63 photos graded in each, so they match the grade itself rather than one picture.

It runs in your browser; no image is uploaded.

The result goes into the LUT slot, the same one Creative presets use, so it replaces any LUT preset you had applied. Everything else in your grade still applies around it.

Matching your own shots to each other

Color Match gives your shots a look from somewhere else, and that look goes on every open photo and clip alike, so it won't make two of your own clips match each other. For that, use shot matching Pro: with several photos or clips open, the top of the Color Match panel has Match the others to this shot. Put the shot the others should look like on the canvas and press it. Then add a look, and it goes on all of them evenly.

Choosing a reference

Color Match copies the look, not individual objects. From one image it can't fully tell the grade from the scene (a sunset is orange either way), so some of the scene comes through as if it were grade. Several frames fix most of that: choose 3 to 6 stills from different scenes of the same film or set, such as a day exterior, an interior and a close-up, and what they share is the grade. With one frame, it works best when the reference and your image are similar kinds of scene, and you can push it further with Color Wheels or Saturation.

To study a reference's palette before matching, try the free Colour Palette Extractor.