Color Filters for Product Demos: Warm, Crisp, Mono, and When to Use Each
Which color filter to use on a product demo or screen recording: what Tella's Warm, Cool, Crisp, Fade, and Mono presets change, which camera-only looks exist, and how to apply one without leaving the editor.
For most product demos, put Crisp on the screen recording and Warm on the camera. Crisp adds contrast and a little saturation, so the UI looks sharp without its colors changing. Warm fixes the cool, slightly blue look most webcams have under office lights. Both are in the Tella editor under Style → Filters: press B, pick Camera or Screen, and click a preset.
Below: what each preset changes, which ones to keep off your product UI, and how to go further when a preset isn't enough.
What color filter presets does Tella have?
Tella has six presets for every recording and five more for camera footage. Every recording, camera or screen, gets these six:
| Preset | What it changes | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| None | Nothing | Resetting, or a screen you want pixel-accurate |
| Warm | Warmer temperature, slightly brighter | Webcams that look blue or grey |
| Cool | Cooler temperature | Faces that look orange under warm bulbs |
| Crisp | More contrast, a little more saturation | Screen recordings, flat webcams |
| Fade | Less contrast and saturation, slightly brighter | A soft, editorial camera look |
| Mono | Black and white, a little more contrast | Intros, quotes, or a deliberate style |
Camera recordings and uploaded footage also get five looks tuned for faces. Screen recordings don't, because on UI they mostly get in the way:
| Camera look | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Golden hour | Very warm, brighter, a little more color |
| Vivid | Much more saturation, more contrast |
| Noir | High-contrast black and white, slightly darker |
| Dreamy | Brighter, softer contrast, a pink tint |
| Night | Cool, darker, muted |
Which filter should a product demo use?
Use Crisp or None on the screen and Warm (or Cool, depending on your lighting) on the camera. A product demo usually has two jobs: the screen shows the product accurately, and the camera makes the presenter look like they're in a well-lit room. Choose the filter for each separately.
Screen: Crisp or None
Your product's UI has exact colors: brand buttons, status badges, charts. Any filter that shifts temperature or tint shifts those too. A Warm filter on the screen pushes a blue primary button toward a duller, off-brand shade, and viewers who use the product notice.
Crisp is the safe choice. It raises contrast and saturation without moving hues, so text edges look sharper and colors a little richer. It's most useful for recordings that look washed out next to the live app.
Leave the screen at None when accuracy matters more than polish: design reviews, bug reports, anything where someone will compare what's on screen against the real product.
Camera: Warm, then adjust
Most webcams under overhead office lighting come out slightly cool and underexposed. Warm raises the temperature and lifts exposure a touch, and that corrects both.
If your room already has warm lamps and you look orange, use Cool instead. If the image looks flat, try Crisp on the camera too.
The camera-only looks are for when you want the presenter to have a distinct style:
- Vivid for high-energy social clips and launch videos.
- Golden hour for founder updates and customer-facing messages where warmth reads as friendliness.
- Noir or Mono for an intro or outro that sets itself apart from the demo.
Mono and Fade: use deliberately
Mono removes all color. On a camera, it's a style choice. On a screen recording, it removes information: red and green status colors both become grey, and charts stop reading. Use it on screens only for a short section, like a "before" state you're about to contrast.
Fade lowers contrast and saturation. It's a flattering camera look for a calm talking-head video, but on a screen it makes small text harder to read.
How do you apply a color filter in Tella?
- Open the video in the editor and select a clip.
- Press
Bor click Style. - Under Filters, choose Camera, Screen, or Media.
- Click a preset. The preview updates immediately.
The preset applies to that kind of recording in every clip in the video. Your camera gets the same look throughout, and so does your screen. To give one clip its own filter, open Customize and check Apply to this clip.
When a preset isn't quite right
Click Customize to open the full Filters panel. Choose the closest preset, then open Advanced and adjust:
- Exposure if the face is still too dark or bright.
- Temperature if Warm went too far, or not far enough.
- Tint if office lighting added a green cast.
- Saturation if Crisp or Vivid is too much.
Once the sliders no longer match a preset, the filter is custom. To go further, use the LUTs section below the sliders. Tella has three film looks built in (Portra, 800T, and Wes), and you can upload your own .cube file. Choosing a LUT replaces the preset and resets the sliders, and moving a slider afterwards removes the LUT, so in the editor you use a preset and sliders or a LUT, not both. How to apply a .cube LUT to a screen recording goes through it step by step.
Filters and the rest of the polish
Color is one layer of the finish. The others in a product demo:
- Auto Zoom so viewers can read what you click.
- Animated cursors for a smooth pointer.
- Blur over customer data.
- A background and layout that match your brand.
All of them are in the same editor as the filters, and the share link updates when you change any of them.
Related reading
- Adjust your video's colors with filters: the help center reference.
- How to create a killer product demo video.
- Match brand colors across camera and screen.
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