---
title: colorGrading
framework: SceneKit
role: symbol
role_heading: Instance Property
platforms: [iOS 8.0+, iPadOS 8.0+, Mac Catalyst 13.1+, macOS 10.8+, tvOS 9.0+, visionOS 1.0+, watchOS 3.0+]
path: scenekit/scncamera/1644114-colorgrading
---

# colorGrading

A texture for applying color grading effects to the entire rendered scene.

## Declaration

```swift
var colorGrading: SCNMaterialProperty { get }
```

## Discussion

The [contents](../scnmaterialproperty/contents.md) value for this material property must be a 3D color lookup table, or a 2D texture image that represents such a table arranged in a horizontal strip.

A lookup table is a cube of color values: the red, green, and blue components of an input color map to the x, y, and z coordinates of a location in that cube, and at that location in the cube is a corresponding output color. You can provide data in this cubic format as a Metal texture with the [MTLTextureType.type3D](../../metal/mtltexturetype/type3d.md) texture type.

The 2D representation of a 3D color cube is an arrangement of slices: for example, a 16 x 16 x 16 color cube becomes a horizontal strip of 16 squares, each 16 x 16 pixels (that is, a 256 x 16 image). Each square contains a gradation of red and green components, and together the 16 squares form a gradation for the blue component. To provide a 2D representation of a color cube, set this material property’s [contents](../scnmaterialproperty/contents.md) value to an image.

By using a color table, you can easily create custom color effects that apply to an entire rendered scene:

1. Create a basic color table image such as [Figure 1](1644114-colorgrading.md), where the color value for each R, G, and B coordinate in the cube is the corresponding RGB color.

![]() 2. Use an image editor to create the color effect you want using some other image—such as a screenshot of your game. Apply only effects that affect pixel colors without modifying pixel positions. (For example, you can use hue/saturation, color curves, or color matrix filters, but not blur or distort filters.)

![]() 3. Apply the same color effect you created in step 2 to your basic color table image. You can even perform these steps together: paste the basic color table into your game screenshot, apply an effect to the combined picture, then crop the picture to just the modified color table. [Figure 2](1644114-colorgrading.md) shows an example effect. 4. Assign your customized color table image (such as the example in [Figure 3](1644114-colorgrading.md)) to this property. When rendering, SceneKit looks up the RGB values for each pixel in the rendered scene, and displays the corresponding color values from the color table.

![]()

To enable this behavior, you must first enable the [wantsHDR](wantshdr.md) setting.

## See Also

### Adjusting Rendered Colors

- [contrast](contrast.md)
- [saturation](saturation.md)