Efficient Color Grading Workflow in DaVinci Resolve for Stock Footage

Evan Schneider

Introduction and Workflow Goals [00:00]

The video introduces an efficient color grading process in DaVinci Resolve, focusing on handling diverse stock footage shot in Oregon using different cameras (Fuji X-H2s and DJI Mavic 3). The primary goals for grading this footage are:

• Maintain Client Flexibility: Ensure the grade is not overly strong, allowing potential clients who purchase the footage to apply their own additional grading.
• Enhance Market Appeal: Make the footage visually appealing and distinctive on stock footage websites to increase its chances of being purchased.

Thought Process [00:45]

The overall strategy involves a structured approach to color grading a large volume of footage quickly:

• Initial Look Creation: Develop a general creative look on a "hero shot" that can be applied consistently across all footage.
• Broad Application: Apply this base look to all clips in the timeline.
• Targeted Correction: Perform individual color corrections and adjustments on a scene-by-scene or clip-by-clip basis beneath the main creative look.

Color Management Setup [01:22]

Proper color management is crucial, especially when working with footage from multiple cameras with different log profiles.

• Project Settings:
  • Navigate to the gear icon to open Project Settings.
  • Change Color Science to "DaVinci YRGB Color Managed."
  • Uncheck "Automatic color management."
  • Set Color Processing Mode to "HDR DaVinci Y Gamma Intermediate."
  • Set Output Color Space to "Rec. 709 Gamma 2.4" (or a preferred workflow output).

    

• Assigning Input Color Space: Since the footage (Fuji X-H2s and DJI Mavic 3) does not contain color management information in its metadata, manual assignment is required.
  • In the Media Pool, select all DJI clips.
  • Right-click and set Input Color Space to "DJI D Gamut D Log."
  • Repeat for Fuji clips: select all Fuji clips from the "xh2" bin.
  • Right-click and set Input Color Space to "Fujifilm F Log 2."
  • This converts all log footage to the Rec. 709 output space automatically.

    

    

Creative Look Overview [03:46]

A subtle, stylized look is built using a series of nodes to enhance the nature footage.

• Node Tree Structure:
  • Primary Correction: For individual clip adjustments.
  • Tone Curve: Adds extra contrast.
  • Color Warmer/Cooler Node: Adjusts color balance across tones.
  • Hue vs. Saturation and Luminance vs. Saturation: Fine-tunes specific color ranges and their intensity.
  • Secondary Contrast Node: Further enhances overall contrast.
• Specific Adjustments:
  • Tone Curve: Created an S-curve using editable splines, adjusting highlight and shadow points for increased contrast.
  • Color Balance: Introduced coolness into the shadows, warmth into the midtones, and cooled down the highlights slightly.
  • Hue vs. Saturation: Pushed yellow tones warmer, pulled green tones cooler, and increased red saturation.
  • Luminance vs. Saturation: Increased saturation in the midtones while keeping shadows and highlights relatively neutral.
  • Secondary Contrast: Added a slight increase in contrast and adjusted pivot, highlights, and shadows to make the footage "pop."

    

  • Refinement: Further tweaks were made, such as bringing down red tones and introducing some green into the midtones for a more balanced look.

Testing Grade on Other Clips [06:00]

To efficiently apply and refine the creative look across the entire timeline:

• Saving Looks to Memory:
  • Once satisfied with a look on a "hero shot," save it to a memory slot (e.g., Option + 1) in DaVinci Resolve.
  • This allows for quick recall and application.
• Applying and Iterating:
  • Move to other clips and apply the saved look (e.g., Command + 1).
  • Assess how the look interacts with different shots.
  • Make minor adjustments to the look (e.g., reducing yellow/red saturation, pushing teal bluer) if needed for specific shots.
  • Save refined versions to new memory slots (e.g., Option + 2, Option + 3) to compare variations.
  • Example: Adjusting the Hue vs. Sat curve to reduce overpowering yellow/red tones.

    

• Contrast Adjustment: Identified that the initial tone curve might be too strong for some clips.
  • Adjusted the strength of the tone curve (e.g., setting it to 60%).
  • Saved this refined look to a new memory slot (e.g., Option + 3) for lighter contrast.

Color Correction and Application [08:49]

After creating and refining a base creative look, the next step is to apply it broadly and then perform detailed corrections.

• Global Look Application:
  • Go to the Lightbox view in DaVinci Resolve.
  • Select all clips in the timeline.
  • Apply the preferred memory look (e.g., Command + 5) to all selected clips simultaneously.

    

• Scene-by-Scene Correction:
  • Group clips by scene or similar lighting conditions.
  • Select all clips within a specific scene (e.g., waterfall shots).
  • Make broad primary adjustments to a single clip in that scene (e.g., decrease contrast, lower gain to manage highlights, warm up the temperature, slightly decrease saturation).

    

  • Right-click on the corrected clip and choose "Apply Grade" to apply these adjustments to all other selected clips in that scene, ensuring consistency.
• Clip-Specific Refinements:
  • Cloud Neutrality: For shots with clouds, the goal was to keep the clouds neutral. This was checked by ensuring the color data on the Vectorscope was centered.

    

  • Water Color: For ocean scenes, the teal color was adjusted to a deeper blue by using the Hue vs. Hue curve to pull the water's specific hue down.

    

Workflow Applications [10:10]

This efficient workflow is highly versatile and beneficial for various production scenarios:

• Dailies: Perfect for quickly grading daily footage to provide a consistent look for review.
• Master Timeline Workflow: Can be integrated into a DaVinci Resolve master timeline setup, where a single master timeline contains all project clips, and other timelines reference these. This prevents redundant grading and saves significant time when clips are used repeatedly across different edits.

Export Settings [12:11]

The final step involves exporting the graded footage according to platform requirements.

• Individual Clips: Export all shots as individual clips with unique file names.
• Codec and Quality:
  • For log clips (e.g., for Film Supply, which requires both log and graded versions): ProRes 422 HQ.
  • For graded clips (less heavy grading required): ProRes 422 to save file size.
• Resolution: Export at their source resolution.
• Purpose: These clips are then uploaded to stock footage sites like Film Supply, which handles marketing and sales, providing a supplementary income stream for freelancers.