Inside Chroma's Smart Grade System

Every image that comes off a camera asks the same questions. Where should the exposure sit? What should the color feel like? What is this image trying to be? Smart Grade exists to answer those questions quickly, so you can spend your time on the answers that matter.

What it actually does

When you open an image, Smart Grade reads it: the distribution of light, the balance of color, the character of the scene. From that analysis it builds a grade. Exposure is balanced against what the image contains rather than a fixed target. Color is corrected toward believable, then shaped toward a style that suits the frame.

The result is not a filter. A filter applies the same answer to every image. Smart Grade starts from what each image contains, which is why two very different frames can both come out feeling considered rather than processed.

A starting point, on purpose

Everything Smart Grade does is non-destructive. Its output lands as ordinary adjustments you can see, change, or throw away. Keep the grade, reshape it, or use it as a reference and go your own direction. The system proposes; you decide.

Local, fast, consistent

Smart Grade runs entirely on your machine. Nothing is uploaded, and nothing waits on a server. That matters for privacy, and it matters for speed: across a large set, fast consistent starting points are the difference between an evening of editing and an hour of it.

The point was never to grade for you. The point is to get you to the creative decisions faster.