For most photographers, color grading stands firmly in the realm of “professional-only,” or at least on the surface.
And in truth, it could take months to learn how to properly color grade and apply various color theories to get the lighting, contrast, and depth just right.
That’s why I’m so particularly curious about how AI can be used to its fullest here, as the actual process of applying color grading is rather rote and based on templates.
And in that realm, Fylm.ai, a browser-based AI color grading platform, brings a fairly unique value proposition of providing professional-grade tools on a budget and in an intuitive interface. So let’s dive into how this tool could be used to level up your photoshoots within minutes.
What Is Fylm.ai Exactly?
Unlike traditional professional tools that require a standalone app or program to be installed on the device, Fylm.ai does everything on a browser-based platform (regardless of your subscription level).
One of the major benefits here is that you can access it from anywhere you need, and the tool’s relatively small CPU power requirements (since it needs to fit on a browser) means you don’t need a high-end PC to get excellent image editing capabilities.
Of course, there’s a potential downside where the entire platform does need a consistent internet connection to function. You can’t really go out in the wilderness and edit your photos using this tool.
From the setup side, the tool is seamless. All I needed to do was make an online account at the tool’s registration page and verify my email. Then, I just created a new project and uploaded my files.
The most important perk here is that the platform supports most common image file formats, including DNG and RAW files.
Notably, however, Fylm.ai develops RAW files differently, so it’s not an exact match from what you’d get with Lightroom.
This means that you’re usually better off fully editing the image in one platform or the other rather than trying to mix-and-match. Or, you can export the image as a JPG or PNG, then edit it to your exacting standards.
What does set Fylm.ai apart from traditional options like Lightroom is the depth of its color toolset. Fylm.ai uses the ACES color management system, which is the same standard used on professional film and TV productions.
However, the tool also comes with other contemporary models if you’re more used to them. From a practical standpoint, ACES results in colors that are much better preserved and displayed across different media, allowing you to showcase your photos both digitally or on a canvas if needed without losing detail or fidelity.
Key Features
Without further ado, let’s get into what makes this AI tool potentially groundbreaking.
Magic Mode
If the terminology surrounding “color grading” is still a bit confusing, then the “Magic Mode” will basically be your be-all-end-all for editing.
With this tool, the platform provides a 12-step guide explaining exposure, white balance, contrast, warmth to specific color tones (yellow, green, and blue).
The tool automatically adjusts color grading here and provides you a single option per transform model. All you have to do is click on each setting, open its preview panel, then select the option you like most.
The tool also comes with a nifty side-by-side view to showcase exactly how it’s changing the picture from the original or between input transforms that I found particularly useful.
For casual photographers, this is by far the best option I’ve seen. It distills color grading to a more visual view and allows you to simply focus on picking the best-looking result without needing to know the underlying systems in detail.
NeuralToneAI
This is Fylm.ai’s “flagship” feature and likely what you’ll use when you’re still figuring out what it can do for you.
This works similarly, if not even slightly more intuitively than the Magic Mode. Once the AI “runs” through the image, it will display previews for color grading based on the specific context and content of the image.
The tool will analyze what’s on the screen (objects, subjects, faces, skin tones, shadows, etc.) and apply color grading based on that context.
After that, all I had to do was pick the option that suited the original intent of the photo. The tool then allows you to go slightly more in-depth into editing, including changing the exposure, contrast, white balance, and tint.
Based on what I’ve seen through my testing, NeuralTone can cut down the editing time (specifically for color grading) by around two-thirds, which is a marked improvement in how you can streamline your workflow.
NeuralFilmAI
This option is reserved for the photographers that prefer the look of analog film and old-school Polaroids over digital media.
More specifically, the tool uses its neural network and existing database to process how film develops color and contrast. The AI obviously has a lot of images to pull from when making its color grading choices, as there’s a clear difference between the “original” NeuralTone and the “Film” version.
Fylm.ai also uses the subtractive CMY model for displaying and processing colors here, which leads to richer and more saturated shadows (exactly evocative of analog photography). The images will have more warmth and depth than the NeuralTone option.
AI Color Match and AI Color Extract
These two features solve the problem where images need to look consistent across different locales and shooting studios (which come with varied lighting conditions).
AI Color Extract (a legacy tool) allows you to take an image and get the exact color grading parameters used in it (or at least the AI’s approximation of it). Then, the AI creates a LUT that shifts the colors exactly the same way as in the source image.
You can use this by saving an image as a “Match,” which will then become available as a template for future projects.
Alternatively, the AI Color Match (or Colour Match, since the tool uses British spelling) allows you to do the same thing en masse. By simply saving the image as a match, I was able to use the AI to save the image as a template for color grading any image you want.
Note that this isn’t exactly perfect, especially if you pull images from different sources (cameras). You will likely need to change the input and output transforms to match them, since the tool doesn’t seem to be able to nail that every time.
Of course, there’s also the matter of the images needing to have a similar composition in the first place.
Just take a look at the previous sample where the source was a landscape shot while the image being edited is a closer-up portrait. The AI simply can’t reconcile the differences here.
Other Color Options
Beyond the “main” AI tools, the platform has most color grading options and settings you’ll find in Lightroom. These are all accessible through the toolbar on the side (but you may need to go to the legacy options if needed).
The naming scheme for these tools should be simple enough for you to easily grasp what it’s supposed to do and how it should be used.
I tried some of the general options I’d use in Lightroom (or at least their analogues) and found that I could usually get very close to the same edit in the same time.
This will likely only get better for you the more you learn how to use the tool more effectively and skip the manual parts by applying precise template matching.
Handling RAW Files in Fylm.AI
As mentioned, Fylm.AI won’t be a direct replacement for a traditional RAW editor, simply because every editor uses slightly different color models and methods to edit the image.
What I’ve found is that typically, if I needed to create finalized edits in Lightroom, it was better to export the image as a PNG (which Fylm.ai natively supports). For the other way around, the TIFF file using the sRGB transform produces the closest match to the “original” image as seen in Lightroom.
From a workflow standpoint, this won’t matter much if you plan to use Fylm.AI as your only color-grading tool. However, this brings us to the major caveat: there are no other editing options available.
If you simply want to crop the image, extract layers, or remove objects, this platform doesn’t have any tools to do so.
Instead, you’ll need to use Photoshop or Lightroom to make those edits first, then export the image as a TIFF and import it into Fylm.ai to proceed with actual color grading.
While this might sound tedious, it can actually be a good time-saver if you’re not that well-versed in the nuances of color grading in Lightroom. With the Magic Mode, the AI does most of the heavy lifting.
Then, you can get a high-resolution download from Fylm.ai which can be used directly in your material as needed. Or you can export it as an XMP back to Lightroom if you need to perform further batch changes (though not available with the free version).
Collaboration and Team Workflow
One of Fylm.ai’s most distinctive features is the real-time collaboration layer built into the platform.
You can share your project privately with clients or team members, who can then leave comments directly alongside specific grades. Everyone sees the same image, in context, without needing to email previews back and forth or describe color notes in text.
For solo photographers, this might not be as useful. But for anyone working with clients who have strong opinions about the final look (which includes me), it helps you all get on the same page.
The platform also integrates directly with Adobe Premiere Pro through a standalone extension. This allows you to export the images directly with the grading saved without having to go through the download and upload process.
Ease of Use
Beyond having plenty of features and a streamlined AI to do most of the color grading for you, the big part of why I think Fylm.AI is worthwhile is its ease of use.
The workflow structure is somewhat similar to using Lightroom, but for some editors it might be more familiar to video editing, meaning working in layers and building the grade one piece at a time.
One of the few quirks here is that the AI doesn’t take kindly to trying to “undo” edits. In some cases, when I tried to apply a filter, then undo it, the resulting image was nowhere near the original.
This might prompt you to save your edits more often and keep track of exactly what you’re using for future reference. However, the general AI editing is simplified enough to be accessible to even the most casual of users out there.
Pricing
One of the best things about Fylm.ai, by far, is that it’s available for free and lets you evaluate color-grading features at that level. It also comes with the ability to save three projects in the cloud and download images at 2048px.
Premium subscriptions (at $7, $15, and $30 billed annually) are also offered and features a number of other perks including AI auto correct and color extract.
Additionally, you get more options to save your projects in local or cloud storage, as well as access to the aforementioned collaboration tools and customer support.
Who Is Fylm.AI For?
Ultimately, I believe that the tool does what it says on the tin, and it does it well. You’ll get good-quality color grading options from a platform that works on any browser and is relatively independent from your PC’s hardware capabilities.
Considering that you also get all the editing and AI options for free (provided you don’t overload the projects with images), the only barrier to using Fylm.ai is simply the time it will take to learn some of its quirks.
All things considered, I’d highly recommend this for either an amateur photographer who wants to spend as little time as possible editing, or a professional who wants to clean up images in bulk with their favorite color-grading settings, then fine-tune the results to perfection.
Either way, you can save quite a lot of time if you need to work on a lot of images.
