How to Color Grade Instagram Reels & Videos

To make a Reel cut from different clips look like one piece, match the clips to each other first (exposure, then white balance), then put one .cube LUT over all of them at once and pull its strength down until skin looks natural. An app filter lands on clips your phone has already processed one by one, so every clip ends up with its own color. The order is the same in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro and CapCut on desktop.

Why one filter gives every clip a different color

Your phone sets white balance and exposure for each scene on its own. A clip in the shade comes out cooler, one in the sun warmer, one under café bulbs yellow. A filter, like a LUT, runs every color through the same table and has no idea what’s in the frame. A cool clip under a cool filter turns blue, a warm one stays warm. The gap between clips stays, and with a contrasty look it can grow.

So a LUT won’t match your clips for you. The order does: remove the differences first, then add the look.

What you feed the LUT: standard video, LOG or HDR

Our LUTs are built for standard Rec.709 video.

• Standard phone video is already Rec.709. Nothing to convert.
• LOG (Apple Log, D-Log, S-Log) is flat and gray by design, and our LUT on top of it gives the wrong color. Convert to Rec.709 first with the camera maker’s LUT or your editor’s color space conversion, then add our LUT as the next step. LOG buys you highlight room, but for phone Reels standard video is often enough.
• iPhone HDR (Dolby Vision, HLG). Many iPhones record HDR by default. In your editor the clip can look different from your camera roll, the LUT won’t land the way it was designed, and after upload Instagram may show it differently from one phone to the next. For predictable color, turn HDR video off in the camera settings or convert the clip to Rec.709 before the LUT.

The desktop workflow

1. Lock the edit. Color comes last. Every clip you swap after grading is extra work.
2. Match the clips. Pick a reference clip, usually a face in daylight, and bring the others to it: exposure first, then white balance. Judge by skin and by anything white or gray in the frame. The sky is a poor reference. In Premiere that’s Lumetri, Basic Correction; in DaVinci, the primaries on the Color page.
3. One LUT over everything. Premiere Pro: an adjustment layer above all clips, then Lumetri, Creative, Look, and load the .cube. DaVinci Resolve: on the Color page switch the node editor from Clip to Timeline and put the LUT on a timeline node. Final Cut Pro: wrap the clips in a compound clip and apply the Custom LUT effect to it. CapCut on desktop loads .cube files too.
4. Pull the strength down. At 100% a LUT is often too heavy for phone footage, because the phone has already added its own contrast and saturation. In Premiere it’s the Intensity slider under Creative. In DaVinci it’s Key Output Gain in the Key palette of the LUT node (step by step in our DaVinci LUT guide). Stop where you no longer notice the LUT, yet the Reel looks bland without it.
5. Fix the odd clip out. If one clip still sticks out, correct it on the clip itself. Leave the shared LUT alone, or every other clip moves with it.

A LUT won’t bring back a blown sky, remove noise or add clarity. It’s a color table and never looks at neighboring pixels.

Editing on your phone

Same order. Match the clips for brightness and warmth in your editor’s adjustments, then put one filter or LUT on every clip at the same strength. Some mobile video editors let you import your own .cube. If yours doesn’t, you’re left with the built-in filter, and matching the clips before it matters even more.

Do the cover and the photos for the same feed in Lightroom on your phone with the same pack. Open the .dng in free Lightroom, tap ⋯ and Copy Settings, then open your photo and Paste Settings.

Export: Instagram will re-compress anyway

Instagram re-encodes every Reel, so the color will shift a little after upload. Smooth gradients (sky, walls, dark backgrounds) and shadow detail go first. All you control is the file you hand over.

• Resolution: 1080×1920, 9:16.
• Codec: H.264, Rec.709. Instagram shows HDR Reels differently from phone to phone.
• Bitrate: 12-20 Mbps for 1080p. It gets compressed again regardless, but a file without first-pass artifacts holds up better. At a low bitrate, skies and dark backgrounds break into bands.
• Frame rate: match your timeline (24, 30 or 60), no conversion on export.

Watch the exported file on your phone before posting. If it already looks washed out there, Instagram didn’t do it: check your export. On a Mac, the editor and the video player can display the gamma of the same Rec.709 file differently. And don’t push the LUT harder to “survive compression”. A strong look on a smooth sky bands, and compression makes it worse.

Photos and Reels in one feed

Every paid CHROMA pack has a preset for photos and a LUT for video made for the same look. The .xmp preset is built on Lightroom sliders, the .cube LUT is calculated separately, and your phone processes photos and video differently anyway. Expect the Reel to come out close to the photo. Not identical. Clarity, Dehaze and masks don’t carry over into a LUT, it holds color and contrast only.

• COLD START (CHR-01). Teal & orange. On video the LUT pushes sky and water toward teal and makes greens denser, but it also cools skin, so keep the strength lower on close-ups. Roads, coastline, mountains, drone.
• NEON MILE (CHR-05). Night city. The LUT brightens dark frames a lot, pushes shadows toward teal and keeps lights warm. Night clips only: daytime footage gets too bright. Smooth skies may band.
• ASPHALT (CHR-06). Cool and dark: blue in every tonal range, deeper blacks, lower saturation. Asphalt, metal, cars.
• CHROMA MOBILE. 15 looks made on iPhone, each as .xmp and .cube, $15. The LUT carries only the color part of the look. Highlights and shadows are handled by the preset alone.
• The CHROMA bundle: six packs (COLD START, HAVANA, DAKAR, SANDSTORM, NEON MILE, ASPHALT), each with .xmp, .dng and .cube. $35 instead of $54.

Related: presets in Lightroom Mobile and the teal & orange look.

Frequently asked questions

How do I color grade Instagram Reels?

Lock the edit, match the clips for exposure and white balance, then put one .cube LUT over all of them and lower its strength until skin looks natural. Export at 1080×1920 and 12-20 Mbps.

Why do my Reels look washed out after uploading?

Instagram re-compresses video, and smooth gradients and shadows suffer first. iPhone HDR clips are shown differently on different phones. Sometimes the file is washed out before upload because of a gamma shift on export on a Mac. Check the file on your phone and export Rec.709 at 12-20 Mbps.

Can I color grade Reels on my phone?

Yes, in the same order: match the clips for brightness and warmth, then one filter or LUT on all of them at the same strength. Some mobile video editors accept your own .cube file.

What export settings are best for Reels?

1080×1920 (9:16), H.264, Rec.709, 12-20 Mbps for 1080p, frame rate matching your timeline. Instagram re-encodes it anyway, but from a clean source.