Color.io - an alternative to Adobe Lightroom?
Adobe Lightroom vs Color.io
Adobe Lightroom is a fantastic general purpose photo editor but its color grading features are a bit underwhelming. Color.io is a powerful new online raw image development app that brings advanced color grading and film emulation tools to digital photography.
Introducing Color.io
Advanced Color Grading for Photographers.
Color.io is an online color grading app that brings cinema-grade color science and film emulation tools to digital photography. It helps you create natural, photographic colors that deeply integrate into your images so that even extreme edits never look artificial.
Comparing Color.io to Lightroom
Achieve natural color. Effortlessly.
Photographers need the ability to create stunningly realistic and rich tones that truly elevate an image without looking artificial. Color.io uses cinema grade color science and powerful gamut stabilisers to achieve a color rendering that is unmatched by any other tool on the market.
Hover over the image to compare a Color.io edit with a similar edit in Lightroom: Color.io protects the natural colors in a way that would require masking in traditional applications.
Exceptional color (and texture) emulation.
Every control in Color.io is driven by an engine that models the complex, non-linear response behaviours of analog film. This allows photographers to easily bring out dense, painterly colors from their images with best-in-class cinema color science, a huge preset library and powerful color transformation tools that enable color grading images unlike ever before.
Online Raw Image Editor
Film-like RAW.
Raw development in Color.io is powered by VisionLog - an ultra-wide-gamut, log-encoded color space compatible with built-in ACES © color managed. The VisionLog curve has a wider dynamic range than a standard linear encoding, which means that it can capture all detail in both the highlights and shadows of an image - a perfect starting point for grading.
Film Halation Emulation
Real Film Halation.
Color.io comes with optical film halation simulation that recreates the effect of very bright light causing orange-red highlight flaring on analog film. It's an important characteristic of many film stocks that can not be created through color grading alone.
3D Gamut Visualizer
3D Histogram.
Preview color transforms in three dimensions in real time.
Online Batch Image Editor
Batch Editing.
Grade hundreds of images at the same time. Multiple documents, batch export - you got it!
Rather than overlaying grain textures like most other software, Color.io deconstructs your image and rebuilds it pixel-by-pixel using synthetically generated film grain. This results in an incredibly organic look because the underlying pixel structure of digital images is entirely reconstructed to match the grain distribution, density, rotation, size, and color gradation of real film.
Advanced Film Grain Emulation
Realistic Grain.
What PEople say about Color.io
"The look I've been trying to get for years!"
Color.io empowers photographers, filmmakers, colorists and artists at all skill levels to craft their unique vision of color - From really small to really big screens. Here's what some of them have said about Color.io:
Philip Vivarelli
Cinematographer
"I’m blown away that these tools are missing in Davinci Resolve. Definitely recommending Color.io to my colorist friends!"
Aaron Kessler
Filmmaker
"After trying it out for a few short hours I knew Color.io was the tool I always wanted - it's the look that I've been trying to get for years."
Cameron Rad
Photographer
"The tools and visualizations in Color.io are so unique and great to mess with. Definitely some of the best color tools out there!"
Chris T. Beck
Senior Colorist
"Just completely re-built my film LUTs for HDR with Color.io, including really complex ones and the color engine captures them perfectly."
Jay Kipling
Filmmaker / D.O.P.
"Probably the best grain and halation sim I've seen and color is top notch. Def my new secret weapon for show looks and custom finishing LUTs!"
Ben Jameson
National Geographic
"As a landscape and wildlife photographer, natural color rendition is paramount. Color.io is the next best thing to shooting on actual film."
Steve Tanaka
Director of Photography
"Color.io is actually pretty insane. Saturation just stays super clean even when I push much further than I would with other tools. Wow!"
Jenny Alvarez
Designer / Photographer
"Just tried Color.io and well, I love it. There's a depth to the colors that I haven't been able to get out of other tools. Thank you!"
Daniel Lichten
Content Creator
"I now use 3 instead of 16 nodes in Resolve and the results are honestly so much better. I'm converting all my LUTs to the new engine for HDR work."
Ready for exceptional color? Start for free!
Use most features and capabilities of Color.io for free, directly in your browser. Upgrade to a Pro Plan when you need more.
