Colour Grading in Luminar: HSL, Balance and Curves

Grade After You Correct

Grading is the last job, never the first. White balance, exposure and the fixes in the Luminar Neo APK for Android come before it, because colour tools amplify whatever they are given, including mistakes. Correct the photo until it looks honest, then grade the honest version.

Work in a fixed order: balance, then HSL, then curves. Each stage narrows the job of the next, and a photo graded in order rarely needs rescuing.

HSL: One Colour at a Time

HSL splits the photo into colour families and lets you move each one's hue, saturation and luminance separately. It is the surgical tool: the sky that should be deeper blue without touching skin, the grass that should calm down without dulling the whole frame. Pick the family that owns the problem, move one slider, and judge.

Restraint is the whole skill. Small moves on two families beat large moves on six, and skin tones are the referee: when faces start to look strange, the grade has gone too far, whatever the landscape thinks.

Curves for Contrast With Intent

Curves decide where the photo's contrast lives. Lift the bottom of the curve and shadows soften into that faded, filmic look. Pin the middle and push the ends and the frame turns bold and glossy. The RelightAI guide handles where light falls; curves handle how hard it lands.

Work per channel when a cast needs killing: a green shadow cast dies in the green channel alone, without bending every other colour in the photograph.

Save the Look as a Preset

A grade you like is an asset. Save it, name it for the light it suits rather than the photo it came from, and the next similar frame is two taps from finished. Our presets and looks guide covers organising them; the grading habit is to save early and prune often, keeping only the looks you reach for twice.