Hazy Shade of Winter: Colourists on Temperature, Climate and Colour

Colour has the power to transport a viewer from their climate-controlled room to a frosty forest or sweltering desert. So the job of colour grading is far more than just a finishing touch when it comes to storytelling.

To really make a viewer feel the environment they’re absorbed in on-screen, and for it to look natural, colourists must carefully balance elements such as tone, highlights and shadows across all scenes – it’s not as simple as placing a filter on top of an image.

To find out how the experts do it, LBB’s Sunna Coleman gathers intel from talent across Freefolk, Curious Productions, Hogarth, Harbor , GATE+ and Vagrants.

Marty McMullan, senior colourist at Freefolk

At its most basic level, shifting global colour temperature towards red/yellow hues evoke heat, while the addition of blues introduce a sparse, colder space, yet applying full strokes of colour in this way often leads to a ‘wash effect’, diminishing separation and colour balance within the image.

Instead it is much more preferable to think of grading nuances that can conjure up a sense of climate and temperature. For example, the introduction of haze or fog, combined with the lushness of foliage through denser greens, can strongly evoke a humid and saturated environment. This was particularly useful in a recent grade for AIB to suggest the sodden grass and dampness of a hurling pitch on a winter's afternoon in Ireland.

To convey the heat haze felt in hot climates, we can work with soft-clipped blacks and whites. Additionally, sky replacements, artificial lens flare, hot spots and subtle lens reflections can be used to enhance the effect, particularly when working with an image that doesn't inherently suggest heat.

Furthermore, subtle sharpening can be very effective in conveying the crispness of a frozen landscape. I used this technique in a Beats by Dre advert to enhance the ice crystals thus letting the vibrant poppy colours of the headphones contrast against it.

Like with any type of grading, it is important to know when these techniques are helping to create more immersive and emotionally resonant visuals without sacrificing image quality or detail.

Rob Lanario, head of colour at Curious Productions

For me, colour has always been a way to guide how a viewer feels before they even realise why. Long before I moved into motion work, I learned through photography and retouching that temperature isn’t just a technical adjustment – it’s an emotional trigger. A shift toward cooler tones can instantly pull someone into a brisk, wintry landscape, while a gentle push into warm hues can wrap a scene in the weight of summer heat. It’s remarkable how colour alone can make an audience sense a chill on their arms or warmth on their face.

When I’m grading with climate in mind, the craft becomes very granular. I’ll often start by anchoring the shadows – pulling them toward steely blues to build a sense of cold density or softening them with a red-brown bias to create that dry desert warmth. A tiny cyan shift in the midtones can make air feel thinner, cleaner, almost alpine; nudge those same mids into warm ochres and the frame suddenly feels humid, heavy. Highlights get the final polish (– crisp, hard edges for icy clarity, or a gentle bloom to mimic heat-haze and sunlight scattering through moisture.

What keeps me fascinated is how instinctive our reactions are. We don’t reason with colour; we just respond to it. A good grade can transport us across seasons in a single cut, turning an image into a place we can almost physically inhabit. That’s the magic of colour.

Ben Rogers, head of colour, Gramercy Park Studios at Hogarth

As a colourist, I help guide the audience’s emotional journey by shaping how different environments feel on screen. With the right balance of tone and palette, we can move viewers from the warmth of a cosy apartment to the sharp chill of a winter landscape. It’s easy to add a cool wash over an image to suggest cold weather, but the real challenge is keeping natural colour separation and holding onto a strong, intentional look at the same time.

Good winter grading relies on subtle choices – cooler highlights, softer contrast, and a gentle shift in saturation – without losing the truth of the scene. Skin tones still need to feel believable, and the environment should support the story rather than distract from it.

Consistent shot matching is also essential. Even the best grade can fall apart if one angle feels colder or more stylised than the next. Bringing all the selected shots together so they flow naturally is key to creating a convincing sense of climate. When done well, the audience doesn’t notice the grade – they simply feel the atmosphere we’ve crafted.

Mara Ciorba, colourist at Harbor

When grading, it’s important to consider how much our sense of temperature depends on light. Each season and climate has its own natural palette, like the cool, desaturated blues of winter, the warm glow of summer, or the soft, humid light in tropical environments. We respond to these qualities instinctively, even if we’re not consciously aware of them.

I try to keep this in mind when creating a look that needs to reflect a climate. Cooler looks are more than just adding blue to the image, they also involve matching the clarity, contrast, and crisp highlights we associate with cold weather. Warmer looks feel more convincing when they come with soft highlights, warm midtones, and a subtle lift in the shadows. That way you can create a realistic temperature shift that feels brisk or hot without making the image look like a wash of blue or orange.

Ben Rozario, colourist at GATE+

One of the beautiful things about colour grading is how it can transport you into a different world. A great example of this is a day for night treatment. How you can watch a scene that was shot in the day and fully convince the audience it was shot at night using effective colour grading.

I think the same can be true for environments as well. Creating warm sunrise tones on what was perhaps an overcast morning. You can trick the audience and help immerse them in the story. And you know it's been done well when no one clocks it's even happened.

In my opinion it's all about the details. The ambient lighting being right. Light sources being visible where you expect them to be and shadows forming in the right places. I think all of these small details add up to build the full picture.

Lennon Mapes, assistant editor and colourist at Vagrants

Just as a film's score can lead you through a thrilling car chase, or a tight close-up with shallow depth of field can isolate the subject and draw you into their thoughts, colour works together with all of your senses to set the mood of the scene.

Working closely with the director or DP, a colourist aims to create visual unity between shots and scenes that enhances the overall tone. Softening and warming shadows for a cozy scene in a cabin in the woods, while the highlights of the cold white snow shift subtly to blue or purple— creating visual harmony with the environment. This invites the viewer to effortlessly step into the film's world and experience the atmosphere of each scene, setting the tone and temperature of what's presented on screen and what's to come.