So if I wanted to change or alter maybe the background or the highlight of the background of what's happening here and color grade this a little bit, I like to use something called a gradient map. It's a whole metaphysical conversation for another day. If we didn't put ourself into our work, we could pretty much justify never doing any work 'cause somebody else has already done it. That's why those images are yours and not somebody else's. It sounds crazy but parts of you come out in you. (laughs) Your anger is gonna come out in there. So this is why I typically tell people not to edit while they're angry, okay? 'Cause then the viewer's gonna look at it like, ooh, that's kind of off-putting. This is where you put you into the image, and this is where you make the viewer feel what you felt while you were either editing or how that image made you feel. This is where you put your mood into the image. That's why I don't really care too much for presets that happen on my photo that alter the colors at the very beginning because that's a finishing effect.
I don't try to mix color grading in the beginning. So color grading is something I like to do at the very end of my workflow.
Then there's another thing we can do with this, especially with portraits that I like to do, beyond selecting for skin tones and selecting for those hot-spot areas is to look at color grading.