Get the look you want. Finish your color grade in your browser. Leumos lets indie filmmakers match footage to a reference image, fine-tune it with creative controls, and export the finished video. You can complete the color grade inside Leumos, from input color transforms through the final creative adjustments and export.
A reference match is one step in that workflow. Your decisions about contrast, skin, atmosphere, and continuity continue in the same Studio. DaVinci Resolve or Premiere is an optional part of a wider production workflow when you need editing, audio, or a specific finishing capability; neither is required to complete a supported color grade in Leumos.
I'm Pravit Gandhi, founder of Leumos and a DaVinci Resolve Certified colorist with a BFA in cinematography. This guide explains the workflow our product supports. It is not a benchmark or a claim that AI makes the creative decisions for you.
Start with the story's look
Before touching a control, choose what the scene should feel like. A restrained conversation, a warm memory, and a cold exterior may need different contrast and color relationships even within one short film.
Choose a reference with lighting and subject placement that make sense for your footage. Look at the black level, highlight roll-off, skin brightness, and how saturated colors sit beside neutrals. Our guide on how to recreate a movie look from a still separates what comes from grading from what comes from lighting, production design, and capture.
A useful brief is specific: “Keep the faces warm, lower the saturation in the room, and leave detail in the window.” That gives you something to judge after the match, beyond whether two thumbnails look similar.
A complete indie-film color grade in Leumos
1. Bring in footage at the quality you want to deliver
Import a supported video file or your assembled cut. Scene detection identifies cuts so you can work on the individual shots. Review the shot boundaries, especially around dissolves, flashes, and stylized transitions.
For an assembled film, complete the edit, sound, and titles in your editing software before bringing the cut into Leumos if those elements need to be baked into the final delivery. Leumos then handles the color grade and exports the graded timeline.
Use a good-quality source. Leumos's export renders from the original footage supplied to the project; a low-resolution file does not become camera-original quality because you choose a larger export size. RAW material such as BRAW needs to be decoded in compatible software and exported to a supported video format first.
2. Confirm the input color transform
If the footage is log, choose the transform that matches its actual gamma and gamut before evaluating the look. The camera name alone is not enough: the same camera can record different profiles. Avoid converting footage twice if the editor already baked a display transform into the file.
Leumos provides named input transforms for supported log formats. See the log-footage guide for why normalization matters and the S-Log3 conversion guide for a Sony example. A log transform does not add RAW decoding or restore clipped highlights.
3. Match a shot to your reference
Select a representative shot, add the still image, and run reference matching. Review the result in motion before deciding how much of the look to keep. A face crossing a window or moving into shadow can reveal a problem that a single paused frame hides.
Reference matching operates on the selected shot. Work through the shots you need to match; you can also copy an approved grade to similar shots and adjust each destination. Copying settings does not independently rebalance every shot, so continuity still needs review. The shot-matching guide explains that distinction.
4. Shape the finished look with creative controls
Continue grading in Leumos. Adjust exposure, contrast, white balance, saturation, and the other available controls to serve the scene. Use Smart Grade's curated looks when you want to explore another direction, then refine the result to taste.
For faces, use the dedicated Skin tone control: inspect and refine its selection mask, then adjust hue, warmth, color boost, brightness, and contrast. Check how the selection behaves through the shot. This gives you a skin-specific adjustment inside the Studio; it is not a claim of general-purpose tracked windows.
Human judgment belongs here, inside the creative process. It does not mean the footage has to move to another application. You choose the emotional result, and Leumos gives you the grading controls to make those choices.
5. Check the sequence, then export the final video
Play across cuts. Compare faces, neutral objects, shadow density, and the brightest areas. Use the built-in waveform and vectorscope to support what you see. Keep intentional changes in mood; continuity does not mean making every location identical.
Once the grade is ready, export the finished graded timeline from Leumos. The Free plan includes watermark-free 1080p 8-bit export; higher-resolution and ProRes options depend on the plan. Check current export options against the actual delivery specification.
Watch the exported file before sending it. Check transitions, color, sound, and the destination's requirements. The exported video can be your deliverable when it meets those requirements; a second color-grading pass elsewhere is not a required step.
When another application belongs in the workflow
Choose additional software for a specific job: editing and sound, RAW decoding, a tracked effect Leumos does not provide, an editable grade-data handoff, or specialist HDR or DCP packaging. Those are concrete production requirements, rather than a reason to describe all browser grading as preliminary.
Leumos exports rendered video. It does not export an editable Resolve node tree, AAF or CDL. Its Edit handoff export gives each graded shot as its own file with handles, plus a Final Cut Pro 7 XML to relink them in Resolve or Premiere. Paid plans can download the grade as a LUT. If a collaborator needs to alter the grade itself, agree on the handoff before grading. If they need the finished video, check the codec, resolution, and bit depth they accept and export accordingly.
Frequently asked questions
Can I finish an indie film's color grade entirely in Leumos?
Yes. For supported footage and export requirements, you can normalize log input, match a reference, refine the creative grade and skin tones, review the shots, and export the finished video in Leumos. Editing, audio, and specialist delivery packaging remain separate tasks when your project needs them.
Does Leumos need DaVinci Resolve or Premiere to finish the look?
No. Leumos includes creative and AI-assisted grading controls and finished-video export. Use Resolve or Premiere if your production needs their editing tools or another specific capability, or if that is your preferred workflow. They are not mandatory finishing stages for a Leumos color grade.
Can I match the atmosphere of a favorite film?
A still can guide the palette and contrast of your footage. Refine the match in Leumos to suit your faces, exposure, and scene. Grading cannot recreate lighting, lenses, costumes, or production design that were absent from the shoot, and one film's palette is not a preset for every scene.
Does reference matching automatically grade every shot?
Not on its own. A reference match runs on the shot you select. Once one shot is graded, Match shots brings the other shots toward it, and shots it sends for a match count against your monthly allowance. You can also copy a grade to similar shots, which uses no match, then fine-tune each result. Review the full sequence before exporting.
Can I use camera RAW files directly?
Decode RAW in compatible software first and supply a supported video file. A named input transform for a camera's log encoding is a color-management step, not native RAW decoding.
How should I try it on a real project?
Start with a short representative scene containing a face, a highlight, and a cut between different angles. Match your reference, refine the grade, and export it. This tests the complete workflow on your footage before you commit the rest of the film.
Start your color grade
Color grade your film from reference to final video → Start on the Free plan; compare plan limits before importing a larger project.