Why grade RAW, not JPEG
RAW files store 12–14 bits per channel — JPEGs only 8. That means RAW holds 4,000 levels of brightness per channel against 256 in a JPEG, so you can push exposure, lift shadows and shift color without banding. Lightroom is purpose-built to exploit this latitude.
Start with white balance
In the Basic panel, click the eyedropper and tap a neutral-gray area in the image. From there fine-tune Temp warm/cool and Tint green/magenta. White balance is the foundation; every color tweak after it inherits this base.
Set the tonal range
Push Whites to the right until clipping just begins (hold Alt to preview), pull Blacks left for true black. Drop Highlights for sky detail; lift Shadows for shadow recovery. Set Exposure last — the global brightness slider.
HSL panel — the colorist's playground
Hue lets you shift orange skin toward natural peach, or push the sky from cyan toward deeper blue. Saturation controls intensity per color, Luminance changes brightness per color. Use Luminance to darken a too-bright sky without touching anything else.
Tone curve for contrast
Drag the curve into a subtle S — lift the upper third, drop the lower third. For a cinematic film look, raise the bottom-left point to lift blacks slightly, which mimics the toe of film stock.
Color grading (formerly split toning)
Use the Color Grading wheels: tint shadows toward teal, midtones toward neutral, highlights toward soft orange. This teal-and-orange contrast is the backbone of modern movie color and works beautifully on portraits.
Calibration panel — the secret weapon
Scroll to Camera Calibration. Pushing Blue Primary saturation up enriches every other color in the image. This is where pros add the final richness that distinguishes a good edit from a great one.
Save as preset
Click + on the Presets panel, choose which sliders to save. Apply your preset on import so the whole shoot lands in Lightroom already graded — minutes saved on every editing session.