Color & Post-Processing Standards | Bounty_OS Docs
Color space, exposure, grading, and filter guidelines for Bounty_OS campaign content to ensure accurate product representation across TikTok and Instagram.
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Production ▸ color.txt
Color & Post-Processing Standards
Color grading and filters can elevate your content — but they can also misrepresent the product you're promoting. Bounty_OS requires that post-processing enhances without deceiving. This guide covers the standards for color accuracy, exposure, and acceptable grading practices.
Color Space
All campaign content should be delivered in the Rec. 709 / sRGB color space:
- Rec. 709 is the standard color space for HD video and is what TikTok and Instagram use for playback.
- sRGB is the web equivalent and is functionally identical for social video purposes.
- If you shoot in Log or HDR (e.g., iPhone Cinematic, Sony S-Log), you must convert to Rec. 709 before exporting.
- Avoid exporting in DCI-P3 or Rec. 2020 — these wider color spaces may render differently across devices, making colors appear oversaturated or washed out.
Why This Matters
When a viewer watches your content on a budget Android phone vs. a calibrated MacBook, Rec. 709/sRGB ensures the product looks as similar as possible on both. Wider color spaces introduce unpredictable color shifts across devices.
Exposure Guidelines
Proper exposure ensures the product and subject are clearly visible:
- Subject exposure: The subject (you or the product) must be properly exposed — not too dark, not blown out.
- No blown highlights on product: If you're showing a white product or packaging, ensure details are still visible. Blown-out highlights lose product information.
- No crushed shadows: Dark areas should retain some detail. If the product has dark packaging, make sure textures and text remain visible.
- Histogram check: Your exposure histogram should not be clipping at either end. Most editing apps show this in the color correction panel.
Color Grading Limits
Color grading is allowed and encouraged — but within limits:
| Allowed | Not Allowed |
|---|---|
| Warming or cooling white balance slightly | Drastically changing the color temperature to misrepresent product color |
| Adding subtle contrast and vibrance | Crushing blacks to hide product details |
| Light skin retouching for evenness | Heavy skin smoothing that makes the video look artificial |
| Consistent color tone across clips | Different color grades in the same video that confuse the product appearance |
| Desaturating background to make product pop | Oversaturating the product to make colors appear more vivid than reality |
The core principle: the product should look like it does in real life. Enhancing the mood and aesthetic of your content is fine as long as it doesn't change what the product actually looks like.
Filters & LUTs
Using preset filters or LUTs (Look-Up Tables) is acceptable under these conditions:
- Natural skin tones must be maintained — the filter should not make skin look unnaturally orange, green, or grey.
- Product colors must remain accurate — a blue product must still look blue, not purple or teal.
- Intensity matters — applying a LUT at 50–70% opacity is usually safer than 100%. Most LUTs are designed for cinema, not social video.
- In-app filters (TikTok effects, Instagram filters) are fine for style but should not distort the product appearance.
- Black-and-white or heavily stylized filters are generally not appropriate for product-focused campaign content unless the brand specifically requests them.
Platform-Specific Rendering
TikTok and Instagram render colors slightly differently. Before posting campaign content:
- Preview on both platforms by uploading a draft or test post. Colors that look great on TikTok may appear differently on Instagram due to different compression and rendering pipelines.
- Check on multiple devices — at minimum, preview on your phone and one other device (friend's phone, tablet, or web browser).
- OLED vs LCD screens display colors differently. OLED screens show deeper blacks and more saturated colors. Content that looks great on an iPhone may look washed out on a budget LCD phone.
- Dark mode vs light mode — the app UI surrounding your video can make colors appear slightly different. Check both.
Product Misrepresentation = Rejection
If a reviewer determines that your color grading, filters, or post-processing makes the product look materially different from its real appearance — different color, different texture, different size — the post will be rejected. This protects both consumers and the brand's reputation.
Rejection Triggers
Content will be flagged or rejected for these post-processing issues:
- Over-filtered content that distorts the product's true colors or appearance.
- Excessive skin smoothing or beauty filters that make the video look unrealistic.
- Blown highlights on the product where packaging text, labels, or details are unreadable.
- Color casts that shift the product into a visibly different color than reality (e.g., a warm filter turning a white product yellow).
- Inconsistent grading across clips within the same video — the product should look the same color throughout.
- Heavy vignetting that obscures the product when it appears near the edges of the frame.
Related Guides
- Content Standards — full quality requirements and production minimums.
- TikTok Content Specs — TikTok-specific video format and export requirements.
- Instagram Reels Specs — Instagram-specific format, cover image, and rendering details.
41 objectsUpdated 2026-02-10