Professional Color Grading Techniques in DaVinci Resolve

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This course provides colorists with an in-depth overview of professional color grading techniques and look creation in DaVinci Resolve.

The main concepts discussed in the course are advanced contrast management, balancing techniques and look development. The focus is primarily on higher end color grading, color theory and teaching techniques that took professional colorists years of experience to master.

The course is presented by Kevin P. McAuliffe but is created together with professional colorists that have contributed with insight about their work methods. Kevin uses DaVinci Resolve, but it is taught with the goal of showing techniques that can be used in any color corrector.

The footage used in this course is available for download so that you can easily follow along. In addition, we have included power grades so that you can deeply study the node structures and color grading techniques demonstrated in the course, and a free sample of 35mm film grain from our friends over at Cinegrain.

 

COURSE OVERVIEW

 

LESSON 01: S-CURVE MANIPULATION

The curve is the key component of contrast creation, and in the first lesson we look at the basics of the curve and curve shaping.

LESSON 02: CORRECTIONS IN LOG SPACE AND GAMMA SPACE

We continue to explore how brightness affects the curve in log- and gamma space, and how to manipulate the curve in a log workflow.

LESSON 03: COMPRESSION TECHNIQUES

In this lesson we look at how to disturb the luma vs. distance ratio of the curve with compression techniques to challenge the contrast and create a printed look. This technique is often used as a base to create a painterly feeling with limited dynamic range.

LESSON 04: LOW LUMA COMPRESSION TECHNIQUES 

We dive deeper into compression techniques and how to compress low luminance levels, add speculars and  details with gamma stretching and the log controls.

LESSON 05: PRINTER LIGHTS FUNDAMENTALS

Now that we have a better understanding of contrast management, we look at the fundamentals of printer lights that we will use to balance and create looks later in the course.

LESSON 06: PRINTER LIGHTS WORKFLOW

In this lesson we look at using printer lights in a log workflow and watching the results through our curves.

LESSON 07: BALANCING TECHNIQUES

Now it's time to analyze and match shots with the help of what we have learned about printer lights. We also take a closer look into using the RGB-parade and the vectorscope. We will also discuss some thesis questions related to balancing in general.

LESSON 08: BOUNCING TO CREATE LOOKS

We are ready to create our first desaturated and moody look by bouncing in colors though a defined node structure.

LESSON 09: UNDERSTANDING COLOR HARMONY

Colorists need to understand what makes an image look pleasant to the eye and in this lesson we discuss the important of color harmony. We are building on the look from the previous lesson to create color separation and tweek the colors into an analogous color scheme.

LESSON 10: COLOR CHANNEL MIXING TO CREATE UNIQUE LOOKS

In this lesson we look at how to create a modern and cold look with the help of channel mixing and opacity control.

LESSON 11: GRIT AND TEXTURE

We will go though techniques to bouncing luma controls agains each other to bring out texture, create silver tints to add rawness, clip the blacks and advanced sharpen techniques to bring out grit.

LESSON 12: NODE COLOR MIXING

Node color mixing is a very important skill to master for every colorist, and by combining colors and strengths we will get access to unlimited color combinations that can be used in look development. We will see how our color combinations blends onto the tonal range we have established.

LESSON 13: PIPING A KEY DOWNSTREAM

In this lesson we work with separate streams and color transforms to pipe super clean keys.

LESSON 14: LOCAL EDGE SOFTENING

This lesson is about isolating the local edges in the images and working with them to create a softer image without loosing the overall sharpness.

LESSON 15: CREATING VOLUME IN THE WHITES

We will look at another important compression method for creating volume in the highlights and reduce the sharp thin feeling of digital images. 

LESSON 16: EVENING OUT SKIN TONES

Going through a very popular technique to even out skin tones and take care of imperfections.

LESSON 17: SOFT SATURATED LOOKS

In this lesson we will dial in a soft contrast and create color contrast with varying hue strenghts.

LESSON 18: FILM EMULATIONS AND GRAIN TECHNIQUES

In our final lesson we will create a new look with a Film Emulation LUT, the log controls and add texture with a 35mm fine grain sample (that you will get for free sponsored by Cinegrain). We will look at different techniques to enhance the structure of the grain.

 

 

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Excellent course.  Very practical. Could someone share their opinion on what would be the ideal position of the compressed print light S curve (Lesson 03) in the complete node tree ? As a contrast adjustment in the primary adjustment or as part of the looks in the secondary adjustment or  at the end  of the node tree just before the LUT? Thanks

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What you are seeing in this image is the result of cinematic LIGHTING first and foremost, grading and correction secondarily.  Notice how the men on other side block the practical lights from shining too much into the camera, but allowing lots of beautiful side-lighting to fall on the leg.  The light on the woman's face and shoulders is much easier to conceal by placing it out of the shot altogether.

Never underestimate the power of getting the image you want by starting with the light that hits the sensor...

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Michael Tiemann...  I couldn't agree with you more.  Most of my career was spent shooting film, where if you didn't get it right, there wasn't a whole lot you could do to make changes (aside from overall color balance).  When I stepped into the world of HD and Digital Cinematography 22 yrs ago, it became evident that post would play a key factor in image creation.  Sure, I did what I could on the set. Sometimes, the location, budget, schedule, etc wouldn't allow the complete "paint job" envisioned. And often, color grading is the only way to achieve the "look".   I make it a point to attend color grading sessions whenever possible.  I suggest to any cinematographer today to become well versed in that aspect of post and make it part of your tool set going into every project.   Because, if you're not there... someone else will be making critical decisions for you.

Jonathan West ASC

Edited by John Wastaferro
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How are people using the RAW controls in grading workflows? I'm working with primarily Canon Cinema RAW Light footage and am not sure what the best approach is. I can normalise the image using the RAW controls, but bypassing them (or just adding a minimal adjustment to contrast and saturation) and grading behind the Arri Rec709 LUT seems to generate a more pleasing image, espcially when it comes to skin tones.

I'd be interested any insight.
Thanks,
Sandeep.

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New guy here. I’ve watched pretty much every lesson and I’m wondering if anybody else here has experience using these techniques with Blackmagic RAW footage.  
 

in each lesson he begins with a curve (tech LUT) specifically for Arri. When he applies it, the job looks mostly done. Nice amount of saturation, good contrast, etc.

I have been messing around and I’m not sure if the best method for me is to

- do a CST (blackmagic to Arri) at the very beginning, and then drop the Arri LUT at the end, and then work in the middle. 

or

- drop a technical LUT for blackmagic...blackmagic design film to rec.709

When I have tried using the blackmagic to rec709 LUT, it doesn’t look all that great. Not as much sat, kind of so-so contrast, etc. 

 

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Hi @Justin Oakley. Kevin is using the ArriK1S1 LUT because the footage in course is shot on ARRI with this LUT. When you apply the workflow demonstrated in this course with your own footage, you should switch the Arri LUT with the LUT that that your footage was looked through on set.





 

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18 minutes ago, Emily Haine said:

Hi @Justin Oakley. Kevin is using the ArriK1S1 LUT because the footage in course is shot on ARRI with this LUT. When you apply the workflow demonstrated in this course with your own footage, you should switch the Arri LUT with the LUT that that your footage was looked through on set.





 

I gotcha. I personally haven’t used LUTs when filming. For my purposes. So when I apply the blackmagic 4K film(?) to rec.709 LUT in Resolve’s LUT menu, is that maybe why it doesn’t look all that great? 
 

Or is that even a proper LUT to use?  To bring my BRAW footage to rec709?

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5 minutes ago, Justin Oakley said:

I personally haven’t used LUTs when filming

Sure about that? Have you shot log and watched log on your monitor without any log to linear transform?

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