Image Cinematic Filter
Grade a photo like a Hollywood movie still with the classic teal and orange look. The cinematic filter adds a gentle S-curve for contrast, then pushes the shadows toward teal and the highlights toward orange in proportion to their brightness, which makes skin tones pop against cool backgrounds. Great for portraits, travel, action and urban shots, with intensity from 0 to 100.
Frequently asked questions
What does the cinematic filter change?
First a moderate S-curve adds contrast to each channel. Then every pixel is pulled toward teal in proportion to how dark it is, up to 40 percent in the deepest shadows, and toward orange in proportion to how bright it is, up to 30 percent in the highlights. Midtones are affected least.
Why teal and orange?
Skin tones sit in the orange range, and teal is the complementary color, so placing them against each other makes people stand out from their surroundings. Many films and trailers use this split toning for that reason.
How is it different from the cool or warm filters?
Warm and cool filters shift the entire image in one direction. The cinematic filter splits the image by brightness, cooling the shadows while warming the highlights, and adds contrast at the same time.
How does the intensity setting work?
The graded image is blended with the original from 0 to 100 percent. A value of 50 to 70 often looks natural while keeping the cinematic mood.
Which photos benefit the most?
Portraits, street scenes, cityscapes, beach and desert photos and action shots with people look best. Scenes with no skin or warm highlights can turn mostly teal, so lower the intensity there.
Can I add black bars like a movie?
This filter only changes color and contrast. To get a widescreen frame, crop the image to a 2.39 to 1 ratio with the Image Crop tool or add bars with the Image Border tool.
Is transparency kept?
Yes, the alpha channel stays unchanged. Grayscale images are converted to RGB so the split toning can appear.
Which formats can I upload?
JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, TIFF and AVIF images up to 5 MB are accepted. Animated files use their first frame and images over 4000 pixels on a side are scaled down to fit. The output is PNG.
How is the brightness of each pixel measured?
Brightness is the Rec. 709 luminance of the contrast adjusted pixel. The teal weight grows with the square of the darkness and the orange weight with the square of the brightness, which keeps the transition smooth.
What engine is used?
The grade is calculated per pixel in the tool itself, so no external filter is involved. The result is deterministic and identical for identical inputs.