"Color grading is vital to achieve a movie-like look. It’s how you get your footage to fit the video you want to make."
Tomas Pollen Stavik has been making films since 2006, but he's quick to point out that he's never trained as a colorist. What he has built - through years of trial, error, and constantly evolving tools - is a process that gets his footage to match his creative vision. The proof is in his recent sci-fi short film Ruins Ignite, which has gone on to screen at festivals.
Tomas has already spoken to Uppbeat about how he built the sound for Ruins Ignite from the ground up. This time, he's talking through his color grading process: how he captures footage, what parts you should color grade first, and why he’s learned to trust his tools.
Tomas Pollen Stavik is a Norwegian filmmaker and the director of Ruins Ignite, a 2025 short film that's gone on to screen at festivals. He shares his process, from camera tests to color grading, on his YouTube channel, with more of his work available on his personal site and IMDb profile.
- Nail the exposure when capturing footage
- Learn to control skin tones first
- Build a process instead of relying on one LUT
- Trust your scopes, not just your eyes
- Your software matters less than the technique
- Know when your grade is "good enough"
1. Nail your exposure before you touch the grade
Before Tomas talks about grading tools or techniques, he's clear about one thing: none of it matters if your footage is badly exposed to begin with.
Tomas: "Even though a lot of cameras have amazing dynamic range, if you haven't exposed properly – if the groundwork, what you're actually coloring, is badly exposed – then you can't really create magic. You can't make bad footage better just by color grading. Your input has to be good right from the start."
That doesn't mean the final look has to be locked down in camera. Tomas actually leaves plenty of room to shape things later, but only because he protects the exposure underneath first. He shoots in a flat, log color profile specifically so he has flexibility once he's in the edit.
TPS: "Your final look is shaped in post. But you’re left with a lot more wiggle room to adjust your footage the way you want if you stay aware of the exposure while shooting – I use the Lumix system with V-Log."
He learned exactly how far that flexibility can be pushed during production of Ruins Ignite, when a sunset shoot and a heavily backlit final fight scene pushed his camera past what the grade could recover.
TPS: "In Ruins Ignite, I had some instances where the exposure was way off, because the conditions were tough to film. We'd chosen a sunset, and there were some backlit scenes at the end during the final fight. The Lumix S5 suffered in that last fight, so the colors are a bit off, the lighting isn't proper, and the skin tones weren't easy to control."
It goes to show that you can’t completely fix shots that aren’t captured how you want them. If you want a fuller breakdown of the process once your footage is properly exposed, Uppbeat's step-by-step guide to color grading your videos walks through the basics.
Tomas's Key Takeaway:
Color grading is a finishing tool, not a rescue tool. Shoot in a flat or log profile so you have flexibility later, but treat correct exposure on set as non-negotiable. That's where your final look actually begins.
2. Learn to control skin tones first
Once your footage is properly exposed, Tomas has one clear piece of advice for anyone just starting to grade. Start with skin tones before anything else.
Tomas: "Skin tones are probably the one thing I'd tell you to learn to adjust straight away if you're new to color grading, because it completely changes the look of your film."
It's an easy step to overlook when you're starting out, since it's tempting to focus on mood or overall color palette first. But skin tones are usually the first thing a viewer's eye settles on, so getting them right does more for a shot than a stylistic color choice ever could.
Tomas is also honest that skin tones aren't purely a grading skill. How much control you actually have depends on the quality of the footage you're working with in the first place.
TPS: "Dynamic range – how much color detail your camera picks up – plays a big part. If you're editing 8-bit footage or lower quality footage, you can't pick out the skin tone in the video file, so you can't really control it. If you have good input, that's what allows you to control the skin tones properly."
Once you’re happy with how your footage is looking, the rest of the color grade becomes easier to build from. Of everything a grade can touch, skin tones are the one thing worth getting right before you move on to anything else.
Tomas's Key Takeaway:
If you're new to color grading, start with skin tones before you touch anything else. Just know that what your camera captures sets the ceiling on how much control you'll actually have.
3. Build your own process instead of leaning on one LUT
For anyone new to the term, a LUT – short for lookup table – is a preset that remaps the colors in your footage to create a particular look in one step. Rather than reach for a single preset and stop there, Tomas builds his own layered process for every project, and it starts with a strong opinion about LUTs themselves.
Tomas: "A lot of LUTs are basically a pre-made filter. You apply Rec709, then apply a LUT, but it never quite looks right just applying that LUT on its own. There's no universal LUT that works for every shot."
That's why Tomas treats any single tool, including his own go-to plugin Dehancer, as one layer in a wider process rather than the whole answer.
TPS: "I don't treat a LUT, even Dehancer, as something I just slap on and accept. The approach is to control the colors and light in post as much as I can to get the look I want. I have a particular look I like, based on texture and contrast, and I'm looking for the tools that help me get there."
He's just as clear that this applies whether or not you're using a plugin at all. The mistake, in his eyes, is expecting any preset to do the work for you.
TPS: "If you treat a LUT like the final answer, it won't look how you imagined. LUTs are a great tool, but that's exactly it – they're a tool, and you have to learn how to use them. There's a technical barrier to climb before your footage looks the way you want it to.”
Even Tomas, who tends to not rely heavily on LUTs, admits they're a legitimate part of that same process for most people.
TPS: “If I hadn't found my own color grading process yet, I'd use LUTs – It would be a workaround for me."
Tomas's Key Takeaway:
A LUT, or any preset, is a starting layer in your process, not the whole thing. Build toward the look you want with more than one tool, and keep adjusting from there rather than accepting the first result.
4. Trust your scopes more than your eyes
You can’t always trust how your footage looks on a screen. Every monitor renders color a little differently, and Tomas has seen that play out in a very literal way with his own work.
Tomas: "The monitor you're using is also just a tool. To you, your footage might look a certain way, but on other screens it'll look different. I've seen Ruins Ignite in some cinemas, and it looks one way there, another way on YouTube, and different again on my mobile phone."
Because his own display can't be trusted as an objective reference, Tomas relies on scopes instead – visual tools that allow you to adjust the colors accurately – which show him exactly what's in the image regardless of how his monitor happens to be rendering it.
TPS: "I use the Lumetri Scopes, where you can see the red, green, and blue channels. They're at least telling me what's factually in the image. So if it's showing a lot of red, but on my monitor I'm not seeing a lot of red, that's probably because my monitor has a slight green tint. Using those scopes is a way to control for those mistakes a little."
Working from scopes means you can build the look you're after with real confidence, because the data itself won't shift even if the screen displaying it does.
Tomas's Key Takeaway:
Your monitor is one opinion among many. Reading your scopes gives you a factual take on your footage that isn't at the mercy of screen calibration, so you can catch color issues before you hit publish.
5. The software matters less than the technique
With so much attention paid to DaVinci Resolve in color grading circles, it would be easy to assume the software you use is what makes or breaks your grade. Tomas doesn't use it, and his reasoning shows why the technique matters more than the tool.
TP: "I'm one of the stubborn ones who still uses Adobe Premiere and not DaVinci Resolve. It's so simple and powerful, and I've gotten used to using Lumetri Color in Premiere, which is great enough for me."
His choice comes down to workflow habit rather than any belief that Premiere is the better tool, and he's the first to admit it's also the more expensive one.
TP: "Lumetri Color is more than powerful enough for most people. Adobe is expensive though, so if you're starting out, Resolve is a great option since it's free."
Whichever program you land on, Tomas is clear that the software itself isn't what closes the gap between your footage and the look you actually want.
TP: "Whatever you use, it's a tool, and you have to learn how to use it. There's a technical barrier to climb before it looks the way you want."
If you're weighing up whether to make the switch yourself, Uppbeat's guide on how to use DaVinci Resolve covers the essentials for getting started.
Tomas's Key Takeaway:
The software matters far less than the technique behind it. Learn to read your scopes and control your skin tones well, and that skill carries over no matter which program you're grading in.
6. Know when your grade is good enough to export
Color grading can easily turn into an endless loop of tiny adjustments. And whilst Tomas has no formula for knowing when a grade is finished, he does have a sense of when to walk away.
Tomas: "The point at which you’re finished is just subjective. There are so many memes about editors sitting until 3am, nudging the shadows a little bit to the left and a little bit to the right, and realistically nobody's going to care if you did it one way or the other."
Rather than chasing a perfect, objective endpoint, Tomas leans on a simpler gut check once the changes he's making stop moving the needle.
TPS: "When you're at the point where you're only making minor changes, maybe you're done. I try to get into the habit where I think to myself, okay, this is good enough."
That instinct of knowing when to stop rather than chasing perfection is as much a part of the color grading craft as any tool or technique.
Tomas's Key Takeaway:
There's no finish line where a grade becomes objectively correct. When you notice you're making tiny, inconsequential tweaks, that's usually your sign to step away.
Build your color grading process from the ground up
For Tomas, a strong grade is never about a single plugin or preset. Instead, it comes down to exposure handled properly on set, skin tones treated as a priority, scopes trusted over a screen that might be lying to you, and the discipline to know when to stop.
If you're just starting out and want to see how another filmmaker approaches the same craft, John Schoolmeesters shares his own take on finding a signature color grading style in a separate interview with Uppbeat. And if you're looking for an easy way to start experimenting with looks of your own, Uppbeat's LUTs library is free to browse and a solid first step before you commit to a heavier film emulation workflow.
