Most food photographers don’t realize they’re making these mistakes until a client points it out. And by then, you’ve already sent the gallery. Here are the 3 color grading mistakes I see constantly in food photography — and how I fix all three before I even start editing. 1. Introducing color casts that don’t exist in the dish. Blue tones, heavy grading, unnatural hues. The moment the food stops looking like food, you’ve lost the shot. If that color isn’t on the plate in real life, don’t put it in post. 2. Oversaturation. More color ≠ more appetizing. Watch your histogram in Capture One — if any channel is clipping the right edge, pull it back. It’s that simple. 3. Skipping local masking. Global corrections flatten everything equally. A quick dodge on the hero dish, a burn on the background — that’s what makes a viewer’s eye go exactly where you want it. Capture One’s AI Select tool makes this faster than ever. I use the same workflow on every commercial shoot — hotels, restaurants, b...