The secret ingredient? Color grading

High-quality color grading is not just about clean, beautiful tones. It’s about making the image feel right and ensuring that the essence of the brand is conveyed at a single glance.

Think of perfectly cooked pasta—just the right mouthfeel, the ideal texture. But what if the salt is forgotten? The result is bland and unremarkable, and even the finest ingredients fail to shine. Color grading is the secret ingredient of film: without it, something feels flat, even when the individual elements are of high quality.

Just as salt enhances the natural flavors of ingredients, effective color grading brings out the elements already present in the original image. The goal is rarely to introduce something entirely new, but rather to emphasize and refine what already exists. During production, the color palette is established through set design, wardrobe, and lighting, and in color grading it is fine-tuned toward the desired direction. Additionally, color grading adds depth—an essential aspect of cinematic expression—bringing a fundamentally two-dimensional medium to life along the depth axis.

Of course, additional “spices” can also be introduced by adding elements that were not originally present in the image. This leads us to the artistic side of color grading and the development of a visual identity. In the past, when shooting on film, artistic decisions affecting color were made by selecting the appropriate film stock, lenses, lighting, and set design, while post-production focused mainly on correcting color. The primary objective was to fix errors; today, it is about creating something new.

A warm, golden color grade creates a strong emotional connection with the viewer and highlights the natural wooden surface of Nucu’s baby sleep product.

High-quality color grading is not just about clean, beautiful tones. It’s about making the image feel right—so that the brand’s essence is communicated instantly. Light, shadow, and color should not only look appealing but also evoke emotion. Often, conveying emotion requires colors that are not perfectly pure: yellows may lean toward orange, blues toward cyan, and bright, eye-catching reds may be softened into burgundy. These nuanced adjustments create a visually engaging look that aligns with the brand and resonates emotionally.

When discussing “looks” in color grading, the term often refers to color harmonies. Energy can be introduced through complementary colors, such as the classic “teal & orange” look, which makes actors’ skin tones glow against a cool background. Alternatively, a harmonious aesthetic can be achieved by using adjacent hues on the color wheel, creating a cohesive warm or cool atmosphere. Inspiration is also drawn from different film stocks, each with its own recognizable color profile. Colorists often emulate film’s characteristic soft highlights, detailed shadows, grain, smooth color transitions, and subtle tonal variations.

Although shooting on film has become rare due to the slower process and higher costs, film continues to thrive in digital form. Beyond cinema and advertising, social media is filled with various film filters. Digital color grading has advanced to such an extent that it is increasingly difficult to distinguish genuine film from digital film emulation.

I am often asked why film is still emulated and whether it will ever disappear. I don’t believe it will. Everything we see is light, and film remains the only analog method of capturing moving images through the interaction of light and chemical reactions. Its organic quality is what resonates, especially today. In an era that increasingly values the handmade, natural, and responsible as a counterbalance to the over-processed and artificial—whether in food, fashion, or design—film’s aesthetic feels more relevant than ever.

Darkening the greens adds depth and drama to the image, guiding the viewer’s attention to the product: the OM SYSTEM OM-3 camera.

In cinematic storytelling, the glossy aesthetic of the early digital era has given way to a renewed appreciation for organic visuals. On platforms like TikTok, this often means imagery that appears unprocessed, authentic, and immediate. However, in high-quality premium brand films, organicity is frequently achieved through a filmic aesthetic. Perhaps this is why we speak of brand films rather than brand videos.

Why does organicity work? Because conveying emotion is more important than technical perfection. Audiences no longer seek sterile, overproduced content—whether on TikTok or in premium advertising. People want to believe in authenticity. Even when the “film look” is digitally created, its visual language communicates craftsmanship, history, and humanity. The aesthetics of the past act as an antidote to the coldness of the digital age. The “film look” is associated with nostalgia and with a “better time,” when things felt more genuine.

Cheap film filters have already been seen in abundance, and even an untrained viewer can now, at least subconsciously, distinguish a genuinely crafted look from a simple filter or LUT applied on top of an image. As audiences become more quality-conscious, the standards for color grading have also risen. Most importantly, high-quality color grading—like other elements of cinematic storytelling—does not feel artificially imposed in advertising but instead integrates organically into the narrative and the brand.

Skillfully executed color grading is the final touch that brings an image to life, evokes emotion, and leaves a lasting impression—much like a perfectly seasoned dish that cannot be forgotten.

Note: This article is an AI-assisted English translation of a blog originally published in Finnish on May 13th 2025.