Adobe ships Color mode as a dedicated color workspace inside Premiere Pro beta. It uses a streamlined layout that maximizes the Color monitor, reduces on-screen clutter, and adds dedicated color panels that only appear in Color mode.

Colour mode centres the experience around three pieces: the Colour monitor for evaluation, a Clip Grid for picking shots quickly, and a Colour Controls panel for doing the actual work. The intent reads as editorial-first grading: jump between shots fast, make decisions with the image front and centre, and keep the toolset close to what you already do in an NLE.

Color mode switches the monitor between a sequence view for checking the timeline and a clip view for focusing on a single shot. It also adds a Solo mode that temporarily disables overlays and composited elements so you can judge adjustments without extra layers muddying the view.

The new workspace design lands alongside a clear compatibility message. The Lumetri effect remains available in the beta Effects panel and stays supported. Existing projects and Lumetri grades keep their expected look. The Lumetri panel itself no longer appears in the beta UI, and Lumetri changes move to the Effects Controls panel.

Clip Grid turns your sequence into a grading playlist

The Clip Grid presents clips from the active sequence as thumbnails for quick selection. It supports filtering, sorting, and grouping to keep large timelines manageable while you grade. It also includes view controls that change between a row style layout and a multi-row grid so you can either stay focused on a short run of shots or see more of the cut at once.

Color Controls and Operations aim at repeatable grades

The Color Controls panel acts as the hub for adjustments to the currently selected clip in the Clip Grid. It organises colour operations applied to that clip, and it frames each operation as equivalent to a layer or node of colour tool modifications. That puts grade-building blocks front and centre, with a structure that can scale from quick balancing to more involved looks.

Color mode also introduces an Operations system for grade management, positioned as part of the new experience alongside the interface and control set. Operations appear as the mechanism for managing grades across clips, groups, and sequences.

Color mode also leans heavily on feedback. Many controls activate a heads-up display that combines scopes, numeric feedback, and real-time visual guidance. The goal is to help you understand what a control does while you drag it, instead of making you guess and undo your way back to safety.

That HUD concept matters because many controls are bi-directional. One axis adjusts one parameter and the other axis adjusts a second parameter. There is also a modifier for precise single-axis moves. Each control can surface its own on-screen feedback as you work.

If you already live in scopes, the pitch is simple: fewer trips to separate panels, more continuous feedback while you push the image. If you are newer to grading, the design tries to teach you by making the response visible and measurable while you move.

New controls: from contrast to zones to hue isolation

Color mode adds a set of new control groups and built-in styles and modules. On the adjustment side, the control set includes contrast with contrast and pivot, exposure with exposure and black level, temperature with temperature and tint, balance for shifting color balance, saturation, and a Detail section that covers texture and sharpness. Texture offers global, single, or multi-band detail. Sharpness includes radius and threshold controls, plus blur.

There is a Zones section that grades the whole image globally or isolates grades into shadow zones and highlight zones. Shadow zones and highlight zones support multiple preset zones and custom zones, letting you target darker or brighter parts of the image with separate adjustments.

There is also a Color Shift section with Sat Shift, Hue Shift, and Lum Shift. These controls focus on specific hues, letting you change saturation, hue direction, and brightness for a selected hue range. Automatic Hue Isolation surfaces prominent hues from the image for faster selection, and it also supports an eyedropper plus a full RGB spectrum picker for manual targeting.

Styles and Modules show up as built-in starting points. The system includes modules such as Film Color, Contrast Kit, and Flare, plus style presets such as Cinematic Contrast, Varied Temp, Varied Lighting, Varied Sat, and Monochrome. There is also a Make Your Own path that combines modules to build custom styles.

Color management: SDR and HDR workflows in the same mode

Color mode links directly into the application color management system. It supports workflows that include Direct Rec. 709 SDR and Wide Gamut Tone Mapped. It also supports SDR and HDR output formats including Rec. 709 and Rec. 2100.

Wide Gamut Tone Mapped has more flexibility when adjusting images. Tone mapping aims to create smoother highlight and shadow roll-off, with the benefit of easier exposure and color adjustments without clipping.

There are also updated tone-mapping and gamut-compression settings for handling SDR media and graphics. An advanced option called Apply Inverse Tone Mapping and Gamut Compression targets accuracy when working across mixed media formats. But never change the working color space mid-workflow, since switching after adjustments can alter the appearance of the grade and force extra refinement.

This is the part that can make or break the experience in real projects. Colour management should behave consistently across cameras, codecs, and delivery targets, or editors will revert to what they trust.

Some workflows will still need careful validation on your own media, especially mixed camera jobs and sequences that move between SDR and HDR deliverables. Test new tools and innovations before use in production, and verify the pipeline from ingest to export with footage that matches your real work.

Plans, beta access, and what it costs

Color mode is included in the Premiere beta and it comes with any Creative Cloud plan that includes Premiere, with no additional cost for the feature itself. The beta installs through the Creative Cloud desktop app. New users can start with a 7-day free trial of Premiere. The official product page also states that the Premiere single app plan starts at US$22.99 per month for an annual plan billed monthly. Pricing changes by plan and region…

https://www.adobe.com/de/products/premiere/color-mode.html

The post Adobe brings Color mode to Premiere beta first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the Lineup: The ColorEdge CS Series sits below the ColorEdge CG Series (Highend) in the ColorEdge family, while FlexScan covers general office displays. CS targets color critical work with external calibration via ColorNavigator 7, CG adds the built-in sensor luxury tier.

A big new desk buddy for serious pixels

Meet the ColorEdge CS3200X. It features a 31.5-inch panel and 4K UHD resolution (3840 x 2160). which makes it the largest model in the CS Series so far, built for anyone who wants more room for images, scopes, UI chrome, and timelines that look like a subway map. The core stays familiar: You get a colour-managed monitor designed for image and video work where you need to trust what you see, not just admire it.

HDR targets and a shortcut for signal switching

HDR support comes via targets for Hybrid Log-Gamma and Perceptual Quantization. That lets the display slot into HDR workflows that use those transfer functions. A standout feature for this CS model is Sync Signal. With Sync Signal, brightness, gamma, and color space can adjust automatically based on metadata of the incoming video signal. The goal is fewer manual changes when moving between SDR and HDR and fewer chances to grade the right shot in the wrong mode.

More space, fewer gymnastics

The CS3200X targets workflows that benefit from a larger working area, especially in photo and video setups where multiple panels, large tool palettes, and long sequences compete for attention. The screen area increase gets a specific comparison: roughly 36 per cent more display area than a 27-inch monitor. That extra real estate matters when you keep a viewer large enough to judge details and still leave space for controls, without turning your workspace into a tab-juggling contest.

Wide gamut coverage and ready-to-go presets

CS3200X covers 99 % of Adobe RGB and 96 % of DCI-P3. That positions it for image editing, video post-production, colour grading, and print workflows. It ships with factory-calibrated presets for BT.709 and DCI-P3, plus an Adobe RGB preset. The point is speed. Switch the monitor to the standard you need and keep moving.

There is also a Display P3 preset aimed at consistent display when working with Apple devices such as a MacBook. The monitor can connect over USB-C and charge the connected laptop with up to 70 watts, which helps keep the desk from becoming a cable museum.

Quiet by design, tidy by intent

The CS3200X runs without active fans. That makes it a better fit for quiet rooms like grading suites or any setup where the loudest thing should be your keyboard and emotional distress about the producer’s notes, not your monitor auditioning for a wind tunnel role. The physical design also shifts. The housing uses a three-sided frameless look with an ultra slim bezel, aimed at saving space and cleanliness for multi monitor setups.

For the first time in the CS series, a light shielding hood comes in the box. It attaches magnetically and is intended to reduce reflections. It is a small accessory that usually feels like a luxury until the day you work next to a window and remember why hoods exist.

Inputs, hubs, and the practical desk stuff

Connectivity covers modern and classic rigs. Over USB-C, the monitor can carry the video signal, USB data, and up to 70 watts of charging through one cable. For many laptop-based setups, that is the entire “suite of necessities” right there. For workstations and other sources, there are inputs for HDMI and DisplayPort.

There is also a built-in USB hub with four downstream ports. Two are specified at 5 Gbps and two are USB 2. A built-in switching function can connect shared USB accessories such as a webcam, audio interface, mouse, and keyboard to whichever source computer is currently active. The result is less unplugging, less replugging, and fewer moments where you stare at a dead mouse like it personally betrayed you.

Calibration, uniformity, and the long game

Hardware calibration support is included, using ColorNavigator 7 with external sensors. The calibration is a lossless hardware calibration (It is an Eizo, after all!). Uniformity control comes via the Digital Uniformity Equaliser, intended to support consistent luminance distribution and colour purity across the screen.

The housing uses plastics with recycled content to reduce resource use and lower environmental impact. The warranty is 5 years and includes on-site replacement service.

Availability and the first public showing

Delivery is expected in autumn 2026, with the note that exact timing can vary by region. The first show appearance is set for the NAB Show in Las Vegas, running April 19 to April 22, 2026, at stand N1123. Go there, have a look, say hi to the team from me.

Tec Specs for the ColorEdge CS3200X

Item	CS3200X specification
Panel size	31.5-inch
Resolution	4K UHD, 3840 x 2160
Color gamut	99 % Adobe RGB, 96 % DCI-P3
Max brightness	350 candela per square meter
Contrast ratio	1300 to 1
Processing	16-bit Look-Up-Table, 10-bit display output
Uniformity	Digital Uniformity Equalizer
Presets	Adobe RGB, DCI-P3, BT.709, Display P3
HDR targets	HLG, PQ
Sync feature	Sync Signal adapts brightness, gamma, and colour space to incoming signal metadata
Cooling	Fanless, no active fans
Video inputs	USB-C, HDMI, DisplayPort
USB-C	DisplayPort signal and up to 70 W power delivery
USB hub	Four downstream ports, two 5 Gbps, two USB 2
USB switching	USB accessories follow the active source computer
Hood	Magnetic light shielding hood included
Sustainability	Housing plastics include recycled content
Warranty	5 years, includes on-site replacement service
Availability	Expected autumn 2026, region dependent
Price	No Info yet, but should be reasonable

https://www.eizo.de/coloredge/

The post EIZO ColorEdge CS3200X adds 31.5-inch 4K first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who do not know the tool: There is not much legacy history to unpack here, because Open Light is new. The more relevant context is the developer: Borja Rama is a lighting artist with feature and episodic credits including Spellbound, The Mandalorian, Game of Thrones and Carnival Row. That background suggests the tool was built from actual production irritation, which is usually a better starting point than “we disrupted light.”

Open Light is a small release with suspiciously practical ambitions. Instead of digging through old folders full of “final_light_v7_realfinal_02”, the standalone app generates HDR light textures procedurally, including softboxes, beauty dishes, gobos, Kino Flos and similar source patterns for lighting setups. According to Borja Rama, the tool came out of a very familiar problem: needing custom light textures and getting tired of hunting for them.

The useful part is that Open Light is not just a freebie texture pack with good intentions. It exposes controls for shape, falloff, surface imperfections, gels and grids, then exports the result as production-ready maps. Supported output formats include 32-bit EXR and HDR, with exports up to 4096 by 4096 pixels. Color space options include sRGB Linear and ACEScg.

Rama also lists 87 simulated Lee and Rosco gels, along with controls designed to mimic various real-world source characteristics. That makes Open Light potentially useful beyond straight lookdev. It could fit into compositing, product viz, motion design, virtual production tests, or any scene where a generic white rectangle is technically correct but spiritually depressing.

Open Light is currently available as a free standalone beta for Windows 10 and 11. The download is listed on Gumroad, and Rama’s tools page notes EXR and HDR export for use in “any DCC application”. A macOS build is in progress, but no release date is given.

Open Light on Gumroad: https://2583407267451.gumroad.com/l/openlight
Borja Rama tools: https://www.borjarama.com/tools

The post Open Light: Procedural HDR Lighting Without the Texture Archaeology first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Kraken is a Norwegian sci-fi thriller that moves between majestic fjord landscapes, industrial fish farms, studio interiors, LED-volume stages and CG-heavy underwater sequences. From a grading perspective, the main challenge was maintaining visual continuity while allowing each environment to retain its own identity.

The main priority for senior colourist Dylan Hopkin was establishing a strong, consistent foundational look across the film. “A good grade always serves the story and characters first,” he says. “What I do should be almost invisible. My colouring shouldn’t draw attention to itself.” Before the main grade began, Hopkin worked on teasers and the main trailer, a process that helped the team prepare for the actual movie, he explains. “But teasers and trailers are commercials for the film. The looks don’t always translate directly once you see scenes in their full context.”

Hopkin walks through a selection of scenes from the film, explaining how he approached colour, contrast and continuity, and how DaVinci Resolve was used to solve specific creative and technical challenges.

A bit about Kraken

Kraken (2026) is a Norwegian monster action feature directed by Pål Øie and produced by Nordisk Film Production AS, with Handmade Films in Norwegian Woods also credited on IMDb. It was shot on location around the Sognefjord and included studio work in Finland.

The story follows marine biologist Johanne, sent to investigate a salmon farm near Vangsnes after two teenagers die and strange phenomena suggest something huge is moving in the fjord depths.

Establishing a foundational look for Kraken

The main weight of the grade was creating a robust foundational look, which effectively became a bespoke show LUT implemented as a fixed node tree. From there, I focused on what each image already had to offer. I looked at dominant hues, how practical light flowed through the frame, what the most important part of the image was, and what the director and DP wanted the audience to feel. From that analysis, I usually get a gut feeling for how to adapt the image.

I try to be as respectful as possible towards the cinematography. What’s captured in front of the lens creates the DNA of the look. Creating appropriate tonal contrast so images sit right is a big part of grading. I do that using custom curves, DCTLs or different DRTs in Resolve, depending on the material. Shaping light is also critical. I rely heavily on windows, tracking and Magic Mask [more on which later] to guide the audience’s eye, in much the same way as dodge-and-burn techniques in still photography.

Maintaining continuity across scenes

This is one of the most challenging aspects of grading. I prefer to choose as few reference images as possible per scene and match everything else against them.

It’s also important to commit to a consistent set of tools. I often use colour-space-aware tools for exposure and white balance, such as Resolve’s HDR Grade tool, because the maths is very clean and respects the source material. Another approach I use is working in linear gamma with gain for exposure and white balance. The key is consistency.

Once shot-by-shot balancing is done, I use the Group Post-Clip node tree for scene-wide corrections. On Kraken, colour management was handled manually in a DaVinci YRGB project using nodes and input DCTLs. For animated features, I usually prefer ACEScct, but for live action, I still like a more hands-on approach.

Fjord landscapes

For the fjord exteriors, the goal was to keep foliage and skies natural but present. I relied heavily on the Tetra2 DCTL by Juanjo L. Salazar to tweak foliage hues, with very clean results. I also used the ColorSlice tool to add subtle density to greens without flattening highlights. Cloud texture in the skies was preserved through contrast control rather than saturation.

Kraken is the first Scandinavian feature film to be graded in Dolby Vision for theatrical release! For this additional version, Hopkin graded two days on Resolve with an advanced panel in Dolby’s reference theatre in London’s Soho. “It was an amazing experience: next level cinema,” says Hopkin.

Fish farm control room

The fish farm control room needed to feel grimy and industrial, in contrast to the high-tech control screens. It was shot in a studio with exterior views created using an LED volume, allowing precise control of time-of-day lighting while maintaining accurate reflections.

After establishing the base look, I added a subtle amount of green using primary offsets, similar to printer lights. That small adjustment added grit and helped sell the environment.

Fish farm exteriors: day and night

The fish farm exteriors had a weathered, oily quality with plenty of patina. Daylight scenes were graded with softer contrast and a colder Nordic feel.

At night, sodium vapour lighting dominated. I pushed the blacks deeper to add more bite and reinforce the industrial mood.

Kraken Underwater sequences and transitions

Underwater shots varied significantly, combining live action, CG, day-for-night and fully stylised sequences. Most daylight underwater scenes leaned green-cyan, while nighttime scenes moved more towards blue.

There were exceptions. During the nighttime kraken attack, surface lighting mixed strong sodium vapour with cooler sources. When submerged and looking up, I pushed highlights towards orange to connect the underwater shots to the surface action.

For shots moving between above and below the surface, I used keyframed grades in dynamic nodes to animate colour transitions. The HDR Grade tool, offset controls and hue-vs-hue curves were central here.

Submerged luxury restaurant

The submerged luxury restaurant was shot in a studio using an LED volume. I compressed the colour palette slightly using hue-vs-hue, managed saturated skin tones with hue-vs-sat, and controlled saturation depth with ColorSlice. The aim was restraint, keeping the environment immersive without overpowering performance.

In the restaurant, some wide shots suffered from LED moiré. I analysed which colour channels were affected and used a splitter-combiner node structure with Color Compressor, Debanding OFX and subtle directional blur, applied via qualifiers and masks.

Fish farm attack and fog

During the early evening fish farm attack, the Scandinavian light was at its best. I added subtle warmth along horizon lines and introduced fog behind Johanne using Cinematic Haze OFX.

I used Resolve’s masking tools and planar tracker to lock haze masks in place, excluding mountain silhouettes with HSL qualifiers. In total, I added fog and haze to around 40 shots.

In one canoe sequence, several shots lacked fog entirely. I tested Cinematic Haze, showed the results to the director, DP and producers, and ended up completing the remaining shots.

I like the control Cinematic Haze offers: finding the right depth-map sweet spot first, then adjusting airlight, density and resolution loss.

Laboratory bioluminescence

In the lab scenes, a green bioluminescent liquid needed to feel more prominent. I qualified the bioluminescence, added Add Flicker OFX for a smooth pulse, and used ColorSlice to push subtractive saturation into the green hue.

Red alert and the nighttime finale of Kraken

The red-alert sequence marked a deliberate escalation. This was the first nighttime attack on the fish farm, and the images needed to feel crisper and more aggressive than earlier scenes. Saturation increased due to intense red warning lights, but it was important to keep those colours under control. I relied on the Sat-vs-Sat curve to keep the reds vivid without tipping into a digital look, with gamut-mapping used where appropriate.

In the nighttime finale, Johanne leaves the fish farm by boat before the sequence cuts to day-for-night material. From that point on, the scene had to be transformed into a believable nighttime environment with a softer Scandinavian summer-night feel. I used Resolve’s HDR Grade tool for most of the heavy lifting and introduced a warm sodium-vapour tone to maintain a visual link to the fish farm. Tracked masks and Magic Mask helped preserve detail in Johanne’s performance while keeping the environment dark and moody.

Magic Mask and selective grading

Magic Mask has changed the way I work. Tasks like face relighting used to rely on tracked windows or rotoscoping, which could easily introduce halos. Magic Mask can select faces, clothing, vehicles and more with minimal setup. It’s not perfect every time, but with some tweaking, it solves complex selections efficiently. On Kraken, I used it extensively for relighting faces, isolating creatures and excluding actors from background colour manipulations, often in combination with keyers and windows.

Camera shake and lightweight VFX

In several action scenes, the DP Sjur Aarthun, wanted additional camera shake to increase impact. Solving this during the grade is far quicker than sending shots back to VFX. I used Camera Shake OFX for constant vibrations, and custom Fusion setups with damped-spring expressions for impact shakes, always with motion blur enabled. Working in Resolve allowed real-time review and better control over the scene’s flow.

Dylan Hopkin (IMDB | LinkedIn | Website) is a senior colourist based at one of Europe’s leading post-production facilities, Nordisk Film ShortCut Oslo, with more than a decade of experience specialising in high-end creative colour grading for feature films, TV dramas and commercials. He originally trained as a motion graphics designer before transitioning into finishing and online work.

Hopkin’s credits span award-winning cinema and television projects showcased internationally at festivals such as Sundance, Cannes Series, Tribeca and the Oscars circuit. He is also a certified DaVinci Resolve trainer, has created masterclasses on grading strategies and teaches at film schools across Europe.

The post Grading Kraken: insights from the colour grade first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: FilmLight’s Baselight is a professional colour grading and finishing system used across film, episodic and advertising pipelines. It integrates with Avid, Nuke and Flame, and extends to Baselight for macOS for flexible desktop workflows.

Complexity simplified

FilmLight has released Baselight v7, a major update to its colour grading and finishing platform. The release focuses on matte handling, machine-learning-assisted segmentation, and performance for complex, VFX-driven projects.

A redesigned matte and channel architecture underpins the release, with the new matte channel picker offering list or thumbnail previews of internal and external mattes, including cryptomattes and depth maps. Up to 128 inputs are now supported in Matte Merge, which displays thumbnails for every matte input, simplifying the selection and combination of layered mattes.

Smarter mattes, finer edges

Machine-learning tools in Baselight v7 include the Segment Anything Flexi Effect, which isolates objects using simple region selections or control points. Artists can layer multiple selections and manage visibility via the integrated Blackboard panel interface. Edge handling has been improved with an updated Edge Filter and the new Matte Refiner, which recovers fine edge and hair detail for better composite blending.

The Depth Map generator automatically extracts depth from live-action footage. Its output feeds directly into the new Depth Keyer and Depth-based operators such as Haze and Bokeh, enabling depth-informed grading and atmospheric or optical effects. All generated channels can be passed downstream or exported in multi-channel EXRs.

Streamlined finishing tools

Baselight v7 adds the Transition operator, offering multiple transition types including Flow Blend, Dissolve, Wipe, Transform and Dip to Colour. Flow Blend can repair missing or damaged frames and smooth jump cuts, effectively replicating Avid’s Fluid Morph behaviour. Additional tools include Spill Suppression for removing colour spill on chroma-keyed material and a new Chromatic Aberration operator for optical correction or simulation.

Transform Matching automates alignment between offline reference and conformed shots by analysing scale, rotation and position. It can process individual frames or full sequences, automatically generating keyframes when needed. Track roles can now be assigned, such as “Offline” or “Messed up by the DIT”, simplifying comparison workflows.

Under the hood

Texture Smoothing provides subtle skin cleanup while maintaining fine texture detail. A revised caching system improves responsiveness and reliability during client reviews. Cache protection prevents critical files from being overwritten, while the new Cache View provides visibility into active and protected scenes. Processing-intensive effects, including Flexi-based operators, now support default strip caching to pre-render complex operations. Enhanced animation graphs allow per-keyframe interpolation control across transform and retime operations. Baselight v7 also integrates ACES 2.0, Dolby Vision review, and OpenTimeline I/O.

Flexi: the plug-in brain

Flexi, FilmLight’s effects and machine learning framework, now extends to developers. It supports custom models, including Segment Anything, and exposes interface primitives such as point lists, keyframe animation and tracker-linked regions. According to FilmLight, this allows facilities to integrate their own AI-based tools directly into Baselight’s stack architecture.

System and support

Baselight v7 runs on FLOS 8.4 or later and macOS 14–15 (or macOS 26 Tahoe) on Intel or Apple Silicon. Minimum recommended memory for machine-learning features is 48GB VRAM or 64GB unified memory. NVIDIA NVS 510 and K600 GPUs are no longer supported.

FilmLight describes the update as a refinement aimed at handling modern post-production complexity. Colourists are encouraged to test v7’s machine-learning features within controlled environments before full deployment.

FilmLight Baselight v7 Datasheet
https://www.filmlight.ltd.uk/products/baselight/overview/

The post Baselight v7 refines the colourist’s toolkit first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.