Correct and grade the colour of any photo

Correct first, then grade

Photo colour correction and colour grading are two different jobs. Correction fixes what the camera got wrong: a blue cast from shade, a yellow cast from indoor light, a flat or dark frame. Grading is the look you add afterwards, such as warm highlights, cool shadows or a faded finish. Doing them in that order stops the grade from fighting a colour cast.

To fix photo colours, start with Levels (Ctrl+L) or Curves (Ctrl+M). Both have Auto, plus black, grey and white point eyedroppers: click something that should be neutral grey and the cast is gone. Exposure adds or removes light with Exposure, Offset and Gamma.

Which grading tool to reach for

Colour balance shifts shadows, midtones and highlights separately between cyan and red, magenta and green, yellow and blue, with Preserve luminosity on. Vibrance raises muted colours more than strong ones, so skin stays natural, while Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U) moves every colour at once and Colourise tints the whole photo with one colour.

For a black and white photo, Image ▸ Black & White mixes each colour into grey and can add a tint for a warm or cool toned print. Every adjustment also has Opacity and a blend mode such as Soft light, Luminosity or Colour, so a strong grade can be dialled back.

Local edits and the Filters panel

Each adjustment is a non-destructive item in the Filters panel, where you can hide it, reorder it, change it later or remove it. Its Apply to setting limits it to one layer or to everything outside it: select the sky with Quick Selection or AI select (Pro), then deepen only the sky, or warm a face without touching the background.

The same panel holds filters such as Gaussian blur, Lens blur, Unsharp mask and Reduce noise, so these photo filters online sit next to your colour grading. Compare before / after shows the difference at any point.

Free, private and kept with your work

Every colour correction tool is on the free plan and runs on your device, so photos are not uploaded. Save a project file to keep each adjustment editable, or a Photoshop (PSD) file with the adjustments applied to the photo layer.