Color Wheels and RL Color Wheels

Color Wheels are tools for adjusting the tonal balance and color characteristics of your footage. You can choose between Color Wheels for broad adjustments and Range-Limited (RL) Color Wheels for precise corrections in specific brightness ranges. Both share many controls and workflows, making it easy to switch between them without losing your work.

USE CASES
  • Color Wheels: Apply global tonal and color changes to the entire image.
  • RL Color Wheels: Target shadows, midtones or highlights for precise adjustments.
  • Combined use: Balance the image with Color Wheels, then fine-tune details with RL Color Wheels.

Open the Color Grading Window and select Color Wheels or RL Color Wheels in the left navigation.

Switching Between Views

In the Color Wheels and RL Color Wheels sections, you can choose between wheel view and slider view:

  1. Hover over the section heading.

  2. Click the Toggle All Views button to switch all controls in that category between wheels and sliders.

NOTE Switching affects only how the controls are displayed. It does not change the actual grading settings.

Wheel view

FIGURE Wheel view

Slider view

FIGURE Slider view

Show and Focus Individual Wheels

  1. Select Color Wheels or RL Color Wheels in the navigation.
  2. Click the Expand arrow to show all wheels.
  3. Click a wheel to work on it exclusively.

Adjust Wheels and Sliders

  • Select a wheel.
  • Drag the wheel handle for broad adjustments.
  • Drag inside the wheel for fine control.
  • Hold Ctrl while dragging for high precision.

In slider view:

  • R/G/B sliders adjust hue and saturation within the active range.
  • The Y slider adjusts luminance only and leaves hue unchanged.

Keyboard Precision

  • Click inside a wheel to focus it.
  • Use the arrow keys to move the control point.
  • Hold Shift with arrow keys to adjust hue or saturation independently.
  • Hold Ctrl with arrow keys for micro-adjustments.
  • Press two arrow keys at the same time for diagonal movement.
TIP

Double-click a control to reset it to its default value.

FURTHER INFORMATION