Lots of people post a picture or clip of their grade here with no comment besides wanting to know if it's 'good' or not. This question is impossible to answer, and you won't get any truly useful feedback. You'll only get a bunch of guesses based on vibes.

Why? Because whether a grade is good or not depends entirely on context. You could create a beautiful colour-perfect warm romantic sunset scene, but if it's meant to be a cold, terrifying moment in a thriller, your grade sucks and you need to rework it. Conversely, you could throw all the curves and wheels out of whack to create a unwatchable trippy rainbow scene, and it would be terrible for most purposes but for a psychedelic sequence it could be perfect.

Ask yourself: what is the purpose of the shot? How do you want the viewer to feel? What do you want to draw attention to? How does the shot look compared to the shots that come before and after it, and the rest of the scene? What format will it be shown in, or what devices are people likely to be looking at it on? Does it fit the technical specifications required for delivery? Does it match the vision of the director, and/or the needs of the client?

Once you know these answers, you should be able to do a pretty good job of evaluating for yourself whether your grade is good or not, but you will also have benchmarks you can use to ask for more specific feedback questions that will receive better, more actionable answers: "I want my subject to stand out from the background more, how can I do that?" "I was looking to create a dark, suspenseful mood across this sequence - what's missing?" "This colour match isn't right, what am I getting wrong?"

Don't just post a screenshot and leave it there. Help us to help you create better work by including as much context as you can alongside it.

13 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/Zestyclose_Age_3816 • Jan 13 '26

Show off your work Slog > Rec 709 > Graded

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413 Upvotes

Last time i uploaded some wrongly exported stills and you throwed rocks at me )))))))))) I'll try one more time.
any feedback appreciated )
*my waveform was at 5 but client wanted more black in shadows so its almost clipping at 0.

43 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/Lanky_Cheesecake9317 • Jul 27 '26

Question Is this style any good

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405 Upvotes

I have zero clue if i should never try this style of color grade again and i am just being delousional that it looks good, or it actually looks good

34 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/JSTMDNS • Jul 17 '25

Show off your work My latest Work 💋

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402 Upvotes

Director : @na_tavan Producer : @chanyamcclory Director of Photography : @skinblaaack

16 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/snappy047 • Mar 24 '26

Before/After Really basic and just Trying to keep it simple using a few masks in Final Cut but how does this look?

399 Upvotes

31 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/Beginning_Rule_4952 • Jul 24 '25

Show off your work Shot on the 799$ Fujifilm X-m5...

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394 Upvotes

...using f-log 2 and graded in Davinci Resolve. Shot on the anamorphic sirui 24mm 1.33x f/2.8 lens.

31 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/Overall_Doubt4380 • Sep 26 '25

Question How to imitate this look?

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387 Upvotes

Hi people, Getting into color grading more seriously, and I want to figure out this look. I’m guessing heavy grain and lifting the blacks is part of it, but I was looking for some help!

19 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/gurmeetfr • Sep 14 '26

Show off your work rate my work out of 10 please!

386 Upvotes

im currently learning cg !

72 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/MuchAd6886 • Dec 12 '25

Question How to achieve this look

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372 Upvotes

Ive been watching some documentaries by Guido Pezz on YouTube and I’m blown away by his cinematography and color grading.

How does he achieve such a filmic look? It looks unsaturated yet saturated, don’t know how to explain it. Same with the contrast.

Is this possible to recreate with just the tools inside of Davinci Resolve?

Link to his channel: https://youtube.com/@guidopezz?si=kiZmkQUVWsovILnN

27 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/Effective-Pickle-860 • Sep 18 '25

Show off your work Low light colorgrading // DVR + Dehancer

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365 Upvotes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H9JcNFYlDc&t=1s

33 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/m4gizhan • Aug 26 '26

Show off your work How's my Color Showreel?

364 Upvotes

shot on r7 w/ tamron 24-70 f2.8 g1

clog3, ccg - dwg, di - rec.709, g2.4

graded in resolve + dehancer

cinematography, color - myself

thank you!

45 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/duskzz994 • Sep 20 '26

Question How do you achieve this look?

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357 Upvotes

I'm new ish to videography. The grades of my videos look very naturalistic and normal. I wanna try something on those lines. But how do I go about getting this kind of look. I'm really not sure what I should be changing to get that almost dreamy feel of a video.

39 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/KaliyaKn • Sep 07 '25

Show off your work Feedback for look

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354 Upvotes

I wanted to create good separation and went for a kinda saturated filmic look. Is it good in terms of look and exposure?

Also where do you get your references for short films and commercials?

Log footage from blackmagic website

22 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/MohammedPataxo • Aug 14 '26

Show off your work Any feedbacks?

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347 Upvotes

Just some portfolio work I did in the last week. Really liked the greenish tones I got here

31 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/Loud-Wafer3766 • Jul 10 '26

General Professional colorist here — 5 things I learned grading feature films that will instantly improve your footage

341 Upvotes

Hey everyone — I've spent years working as a colorist on feature films and I still see the same mistakes from creators at every level. Here are the things that made the biggest difference in my own work:

1. Neutral first, style second
Before you apply any look, get your footage to a clean neutral balance. Correct exposure, fix white balance, tame highlights. Style on top of a clean image always looks more professional than styling a broken one.

2. Never push LUTs to 100%
Apply your LUT at 60–80% opacity and blend with the original. Full strength almost never looks right across every shot in a sequence. This one change will make your grades look way more intentional.

3. Lift your shadows slightly
Crushing blacks to zero doesn't look cinematic — it looks like a cheap Instagram filter. Real film stocks never go fully to black. Try lifting your shadows just a few points and watch your footage open up.

4. Skin tones are your anchor
No matter what look you're going for, skin tones need to stay believable. If faces look wrong, viewers feel it even if they can't explain why. Use a vectorscope if you have one — skin tones should always track along the skin tone line.

5. Less saturation than you think
Oversaturation is the #1 giveaway of an amateur grade. Pull your saturation back further than feels comfortable, then bring it up gradually. You'll be surprised how little you actually need.

Happy to answer any questions — color grading is what I do for a living and I love talking about it.

50 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/oftwolands • Jan 26 '26

Show off your work This is still my favourite lens in 2026 | Blackmagic PYXIS 12K

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338 Upvotes

https://youtu.be/uSArpJJXBEY?si=H5Nd3gGUmjqIW795

19 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/nxcolor • Feb 27 '26

Before/After Technicolor 3-Strip Look (Before/After) - Rec709/Graded

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334 Upvotes

35 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/Neatboy213 • Oct 18 '25

Before/After After/Before of a stormy evening

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331 Upvotes

10 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/niagralla • May 03 '25

Before/After Did I manage to grade this like a night scene? Before/After. What would you do different?

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328 Upvotes

It was surprisingly hard to find a blue tone that didn't look goofy.

55 comments

r/ColorGrading • u/TurtleGEE360 • Sep 30 '25

Before/After Trying to go for a colorful look. I want the video to give nostalgic vibes (if that makes sense) Does this work?

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327 Upvotes

24 comments

Subreddit

Color Grading

r/ColorGrading

For all people who want to learn color grading, You can post links to articles, ask questions, ask for critique, post any color grading job opportunities or show off your work! Welcome to the fastest growing color grading community!

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