Color Grading
Color Wheels and CDL
Use color wheels and CDL (slope, offset, power) for primary color correction.
Two tools for primary correction: ASC-CDL (slope, offset, power) for numeric precision, and color wheels (lift, gamma, gain) for visual adjustments.
Primary Correction (CDL)
Industry-standard ASC-CDL formula. Three operations applied per RGB channel:
Slope, Offset, Power
| Parameter | Effect | Analogy |
|---|---|---|
| Slope | Multiplies pixel value — scales highlights and midtones | Gain / exposure |
| Offset | Adds to pixel value — lifts or lowers the entire range | Brightness / lift |
| Power | Gamma curve — reshapes midtones without clipping | Gamma / contrast |
Each has independent R, G, B controls for per-channel color cast correction.
Global controls
| Control | Effect |
|---|---|
| Saturation | Global color intensity |
| Exposure | Overall brightness multiplier |
| Temperature | Warm (yellow) to cool (blue) shift |
| Tint | Green to magenta shift |
| Highlights | Recover or push bright areas |
| Shadows | Lift or crush dark areas |
Color Wheels
Visual interface for color balance across three tonal ranges.
The three wheels
| Wheel | Tonal Range | Use for |
|---|---|---|
| Lift | Shadows | Cool or warm the dark areas |
| Gamma | Midtones | Shift the overall color balance |
| Gain | Highlights | Tint the bright areas |
Usage
Polar coordinate controls:
- Drag the center point toward a color to push that tonal range. Toward orange = warm shadows, toward blue = cool highlights.
- Distance from center = intensity of the shift.
- Luminance slider below each wheel adjusts brightness of that range independently of color.
Example: fixing white balance
Blue color cast in footage:
- Add a Color Wheels node.
- Drag Gamma toward orange/yellow to neutralize.
- Adjust Lift if shadows are still too blue.
- Check highlights with Gain.
CDL vs. Color Wheels
Both do primary correction — pick whichever fits:
- CDL — precise numeric work, easy to copy values between shots.
- Color Wheels — intuitive visual adjustments.
Both nodes can be used on the same clip in the grading graph.