How do I use color wheels in Premiere Pro to achieve a vintage look?

March 10, 2026 · caitlin

Mastering the Vintage Look: Your Guide to Premiere Pro Color Wheels

Achieving a vintage look in Premiere Pro involves strategically using the color wheels within the Lumetri Color panel. By adjusting the shadows, midtones, and highlights with specific color tints, you can evoke the nostalgic feel of old film stocks and analog photography. This guide will walk you through the process.

Understanding the Color Wheels in Premiere Pro

The Lumetri Color panel is your central hub for all color grading in Premiere Pro. Within this panel, the color wheels are powerful tools for making precise adjustments to different tonal ranges of your footage. Understanding how each wheel affects your image is the first step to creating that desired vintage aesthetic.

What are the Color Wheels?

Premiere Pro’s color wheels are divided into three main sections: Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights. Each wheel has a central point and a color slider. Moving the point towards a specific color will tint that tonal range with that hue. The further you move it from the center, the more intense the tint becomes.

Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights Explained

Shadows: This wheel affects the darkest parts of your image.
Midtones: This wheel influences the areas with medium brightness.
Highlights: This wheel controls the brightest parts of your image.

By manipulating these three areas independently, you gain granular control over the overall color cast of your video. This is crucial for replicating the specific color shifts seen in older film formats.

Crafting a Vintage Look with Color Wheels: Step-by-Step

Creating a convincing vintage look isn’t just about slapping on a preset. It requires thoughtful adjustments to mimic the characteristics of historical film stocks and photographic processes. Here’s how to use the color wheels to achieve this.

Step 1: Set Your Base – Neutralize and Expose

Before you start tinting, ensure your footage is properly exposed and has a neutral white balance. This provides a clean slate for your color grading. Use the basic correction tools in Lumetri to adjust exposure and contrast.

Step 2: Tinting the Shadows for a Nostalgic Feel

Many vintage looks involve a specific color cast in the shadows. For example, old black and white films often had a slight blue or cyan tint in the dark areas. To achieve this:

Select the Shadows color wheel.
Drag the control point slightly towards blue or cyan.
Experiment with intensity. Too much can look unnatural.

This subtle shift in the darkest parts of your image immediately begins to suggest an older aesthetic. It’s a foundational step for many vintage film effects.

Step 3: Adjusting Midtones for Warmth or Coolness

The midtones are where you can introduce the dominant color cast of your vintage look.

For a warm, sepia-toned effect, drag the Midtones wheel towards yellow or orange.
For a cooler, more muted look, consider a slight push towards green or a desaturated blue.

The midtones will significantly influence the overall mood and color palette of your footage. This is where you can really start to define the specific vintage color grading you’re aiming for.

Step 4: Shaping the Highlights

Highlights can be used to add subtle nuances or to further enhance the vintage feel.

Often, vintage looks have slightly desaturated or even a hint of a complementary color in the highlights.
For a faded look, you might push the highlights slightly towards yellow or even a pale green.
Be cautious here; overdoing highlights can make your image look blown out.

The interplay between shadows, midtones, and highlights is what creates a believable and sophisticated vintage video look.

Common Vintage Color Palettes and How to Achieve Them

Different eras and film stocks have distinct color characteristics. Here are a few popular vintage looks and how you can approximate them using Premiere Pro’s color wheels.

Sepia Tone

A classic for a reason, sepia evokes old photographs.

Shadows: Slight blue/cyan tint.
Midtones: Strong yellow/orange tint.
Highlights: Very subtle yellow or neutral.

Faded Kodachrome

Known for its vibrant yet slightly muted colors and distinct blue skies.

Shadows: Deep blue/cyan.
Midtones: Slightly desaturated reds and blues, with a push towards green.
Highlights: Neutral or a very pale yellow.

Black and White with a Tint

Even "black and white" often had subtle color casts in early film.

Shadows: Blue or cyan.
Midtones: Neutral or a very slight green/yellow.
Highlights: Neutral or a hint of yellow.

These are just starting points. The best approach is to find reference images or film clips you admire and try to match their color characteristics.

Beyond the Wheels: Other Lumetri Tools for Vintage Effects

While color wheels are powerful, other Lumetri Color tools can enhance your vintage look.

Saturation and Vibrance

Reducing saturation is key to a faded, vintage feel. Lowering vibrance can also help desaturate the image without losing detail in the skin tones.

Curves

The Curves tool offers more precise control over tonal ranges. You can use RGB curves or individual color curves to fine-tune specific color shifts that the wheels might not fully achieve.

Creative LUTs

Premiere Pro offers built-in Creative LUTs (Look-Up Tables) that can provide a good starting point for a vintage look. You can then use the color wheels to fine-tune the LUT’s effect.

Tool	Primary Function for Vintage Look	Best For
Color Wheels	Tinting shadows, midtones, and highlights for specific color casts.	Broad color shifts, creating dominant vintage color palettes.
Saturation	Reducing overall color intensity for a faded, aged appearance.	Achieving a desaturated, "worn-out" film look.
Curves	Fine-tuning specific color and tonal responses.	Precise adjustments, replicating subtle film stock characteristics.
Creative LUTs	Applying pre-made vintage looks as a starting point.	Quickly establishing a vintage mood, then customizing further.