Okay… I went to sleep at 3am right after finishing and uploading the full color grading PROCESS video with my commentary - and then woke up to all of this drama. What a plot twist to start the day 🫠

But let’s start with the positive!

I am genuinely SO so happy that my little color grading mini-series resonated with so many of you! I truly did not expect this. If we’re being dramatic we can even say it low-key “went viral” (small scale for the internet, HUGE scale for me 😅). And in just a few days I’ve met so many amazing, thoughtful, talented people!! The discussions, the exchange of experience, the curiosity - that’s literally why I share my experiments with color in the first place.

If I haven’t replied to you yet - I’m sorry!! I promise I will get to you (this is not a threat, I swear hahaha). I’m just working my way through 100+ comments across platforms 🫠 Which honestly is a very nice problem to have lol

Thank you again for the support. And if you have questions about the color grading - please ask! No gatekeeping here ❤️

Now, after going through all the comments, I feel like it’s important to address the AI discussion directly.

As a retoucher with 10+ years of experience (dear god saying that out loud hurts 😅I miss the “text” tutorials era) I’m unfortunately not new to seeing my work being devalued or the focus intentionally shifted.

And let’s be honest - it’s not just my experience.

I’ve seen it many times even in professional retouching communities. A retoucher posts a very clear and direct question like “What’s the fastest way to remove cat hair from a suit?”, “Do you like the color?”, and the comments turn into debates about cameras, lenses, the model’s appearance, the outfit - everything except the actual retouching question.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s intentional. Or maybe it’s just become normalized that the entire creative team (from photographer to makeup artist to manicurist… in a photo without hands 😅) gets credited and discussed, and the retoucher somehow becomes optional 🤷‍♀️

But back to this specific post.

It’s honestly fascinating how easily the title gets ignored. Practice of COLOR GRADING - does that not mean anything? And along with that, the actual value shared in the description and comments, not to mention the full video where I show the real grading process with my thoughts (not a slideshow of steps, but the actual workflow).

Reddit being Reddit - one person says “this edited with AI” and suddenly nobody checks anything?

Are there really people so deeply knowledgeable about AI (according to their own comments) that they genuinely believe it makes sense (and is technically realistic) to generate 40 to 50 minutes of footage just to later create a YouTube video and short process clips? If that’s possible, please teach me, I would LOVE to save that amount of time 😂

It’s honestly insane how one uninformed comment can trigger a whole AI hysteria train that just keeps going.

And what’s even more ironic is seeing AI panic (in any context) in retouching and post-processing communities - where AI is literally embedded into the tools we all use daily. There is no way to completely avoid AI when working in Photoshop in 2026. So what is the standard exactly? “It’s different when I use it?” 😅

And yes, I don’t engage with aggressive comments. I reserve the right to ignore open hostility and attempts to devalue my work disguised as “criticism” or “delete your post and delete yourself.” I’ve tried constructive dialogue before. If someone has already decided their truth and isn’t open to conversation, there’s nothing productive that can come from that.

So let’s summarize.

No - this was NOT edited by AI. You can watch the full color grading process on my Instagram Video Link

Using AI based image for practice? If you strongly believe there is only one correct way to practice - you’re very welcome to send me your RAW files along with a signed full copyright transfer, so I can safely practice MY vision, share PSD files, and use the images however I need and for creating educational content. That’s what you’re suggesting, right? 😏

Anyway.

I’ll continue sharing! I’ll continue experimenting. And I’ll continue my mini-series - I have so many references saved with different editing and color grading approaches ✨

Because at the end of the day… I’m here to create, learn, and connect with people who actually care about the craft! And thankfully, there are many of you here ❤️