Adjust shadows, mid tones, and highlights

Last updated on Oct 10, 2025

Learn how to refine the brightness and contrast of your footage by adjusting shadows, mid tones, and highlights in Premiere on iPhone.

These adjustments help you control the light distribution in your video. You can enhance details, correct lighting issues, and give your footage a more balanced look.

Tap the photo you want to edit in the timeline.

From the options at the bottom of the screen, tap Adjust to open the adjustment panel.

In the adjustment panel, select the Grading tab.

Adjust the Shadows, Mid Tones, Highlights, and Global settings to fine-tune the brightness and contrast of your footage.

Each of these sections includes settings for:

  • Hue: Adjusts the overall color tone of the clip. For example, shifting the hue can change a blue sky to a purple or green shade, helping create a mood or correct color balance.
  • Saturation: Controls how vibrant or muted the colors appear. Increasing saturation makes colors more intense, while reducing it creates a softer, washed-out look.
  • Luminance: Alters the brightness within shadows, mid tones, or highlights. You can brighten dark areas or dim bright areas to create contrast or balance exposure.
  • Blending: Defines how strongly the adjustments are applied to the clip. A higher blending value applies more of the effect, while a lower value gives a subtle change.
  • Balance: Fine-tunes how adjustments are distributed between shadows, mid tones, and highlights. For example, you can boost shadows without affecting highlights too much or create a more even look across the image.
Grading tab open showing options for Shadows, Mid Tones, Highlights, and Global with further settings like Hue, Saturation, Luminance, Blending, and Balance to adjust color and brightness in different areas of the footage.
Fine-tune your footage by adjusting shadows, mid tones, highlights, and overall settings for better color and brightness control.