2 February 2026

Why we grade stills with the film

Matching a retouched still to a show LUT is not a courtesy — it is how a campaign holds together in a media mix.

When the stills go to a retoucher and the film goes to a colourist with no shared stills, the campaign splits in public. Feeds, sites, and OOH start arguing.

We pull stills from the same colour-managed timeline, or we send the retoucher a show LUT and a set of control frames. Skin, product whites, and black level are decided once.

Platforms compress both stills and video. A common grade is what survives that compression as one brand. A ‘prettier’ still that ignores the LUT is a different product.

HDR delivery does not excuse a rogue SDR still. We check both, on the same display, with the same stills open beside the timeline.

Agencies that traffic six months of cutdowns thank us when the stills folder is not a forensic project. That is the point of grading together.

We produce commercial photography and motion for brands and agencies. The still and the film are planned together so the campaign does not split in public. The studio in Brno holds a cyclorama, tabletop, and a colour desk. We travel in Europe with a core crew.

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