Color curve
Shape the tones and colors of a camera with curves, like in photo editors.
On this page
The color curve lets you remap the brightness of each color channel of a camera, for contrast, faded blacks or color grading. It lives in the Color correction effect of a camera, below Color burn.
Important
Editing the color curve needs full access.
Editing the curve
- Select a camera and turn on Color correction in the frame editor.
- Pick a channel: RGB changes all colors together, R, G and B change one color channel.
- Edit the curve:
- Click on the graph to add a point. A curve holds up to 16 points.
- Drag a point to move it. Up brightens those tones, down darkens them.
- Right-click a point, or drag it far above or below the graph, to remove it.
The left of the graph is the dark end of the image and the right is the bright end. Moving the end points lifts the blacks or lowers the whites. The curve bends smoothly through the points and never overshoots them.
Behind the curve is a histogram of the viewport: how much of the image sits at each brightness. The RGB channel shows all three colors, the other channels show only their own.
Reset curve resets the selected channel. On RGB, it also resets the regions and splits.
Regions
The RGB channel also has four sliders that bend parts of the curve without placing points:
| Slider | Affects |
|---|---|
| Highlights | The brightest tones. |
| Lights | The bright midtones. |
| Darks | The dark midtones. |
| Shadows | The darkest tones. |
The three handles on the bar under the graph set where shadows, midtones and highlights meet. Drag them to move the borders of the regions. The regions are applied first, and the RGB points on top of them.
Animating curves
Curves and regions are keyframed like any other camera value. Between two keyframes, the curve blends smoothly from one shape to the other, even when they have a different number of points.
Examples
Contrast. On RGB, pull a point at the dark quarter down and a point at the bright quarter up for an S-curve.
Faded film look. On RGB, drag the left end point up so the blacks become a soft gray.
Teal and orange. On B, raise the dark end and lower the bright end. On R, do the opposite.