DaVinci Resolve Color Grading: Understanding and Using Lift, Gamma, Gain, and Offset

Summary:

This video provides a foundational guide to color grading in DaVinci Resolve 18, focusing on essential primary tools. Key topics include:

User Interface Tour: A walkthrough of the Color page, including the viewer, clip strip, node graph, toolsets (Primaries, HDR Wheels, Curves), and scopes (RGB Parade, Vectorscope).
Project Settings: Detailed instructions on configuring project settings for optimal grading, covering timeline format, video monitoring, data levels, and custom color management with DaVinci Wide Gamut Intermediate, illustrated by a screenshot [Image 6].
Camera RAW Settings: How to properly set up Camera RAW settings for Red footage, including Color Science (IPP2), Gamma Curve (Log3G10), and enabling specific metadata.
Input Color Space: Guidance on tagging individual clips with their correct input color space within the color-managed workflow.
Primaries Palette Explained: A practical demonstration using a grayscale ramp to illustrate the function of Offset, Gain, and Lift [Images 8, 9, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 25].
- Offset: Affects linear exposure and introduces color tints across the entire image.
- Gain: Controls highlights and their tint.
- Lift: Adjusts shadows and their tint.
- Gamma: Manipulates mid-tones and their tint.
Practical Color Grading: Applying these primary tools in a node tree (Exposure, White Balance, Contrast) to grade various footage types:
- A Red raw clip for basic exposure and white balance correction.
- A Sony S-Log3 clip, demonstrating matching shots using a reference still [Image 27].
- A challenging creative shot of a street scene for a mysterious thriller vibe [Image 29].

Introduction [0:00]

Douglas Dutton introduces himself as a professional colorist based in Paris, France, specializing in grading commercials, music videos, and longer-form content [0:00].
- An example of his work setup is shown with the colorist [Image 0].
- Examples of his diverse portfolio include a car driving [Image 1], a person running through a forest [Image 2], a skier spraying red powder [Image 3], a person with balloons [Image 4], and dancers [Image 5].
He launches a new YouTube channel dedicated to color grading, covering topics from basic principles to advanced techniques and workflows. [0:20]
The video uses DaVinci Resolve version 18, as version 19 is still in beta and not recommended for real-world projects yet. [0:39]

User Interface Overview [0:57]

Color Page Layout [0:59]
- Viewer: Displays the selected clip. [1:12]
- Clip Strip: Located below the viewer, it contains all the clips in the timeline. [1:19]
- Node Graph: Positioned on the right, it functions similarly to a layer stack in Photoshop or Premiere Pro, where each node represents an adjustment. [1:22]
- Tool Sets: Below the clip strip, various tabs offer different grading tools. [1:31]
  - Tabs include Primaries, HDR Wheels, Curves, Qualifiers, Power Windows, Tracker, Magic Mask, Blur, Keyer, and Sizing. [1:37]
  - This video focuses on the Primaries toolset, specifically Lift, Gamma, Gain, and Offset. [1:44]
- Scopes: Located at the bottom right, crucial for objective color analysis. [1:50]
  - Recommended scopes for beginners are RGB Parade and Vectorscope. [1:50]

Project Settings Configuration [2:01]

Accessing Settings [2:04]
- Click the cogwheel icon at the bottom right of the DaVinci Resolve interface. [2:04]
Master Settings [2:07]
- Timeline Format:
  - Timeline Resolution: Set to the project's native resolution (e.g., 1920x1080 HD). [2:10]
  - Timeline Frame Rate: Match the project's frame rate (e.g., 25 frames per second). [2:10]
- Video Monitoring:
  - Video Format: Match the timeline resolution. [2:24]
  - Data Levels: Set to 'Full' for computer screens, 'Video' if using an external video monitor that expects video levels. [2:36]
Color Management [2:50]
- An overview of the color management settings in DaVinci Resolve is displayed [Image 6].
- Color Science: DaVinci YRGB Color Managed is selected for simplicity in this tutorial. [3:05]
- Color Processing Mode: Set to 'Custom'. [3:07]
- Input Color Space: 'Use Separate Color Space and Gamma' is checked. [3:12]
  - Input Color Space: Select the color space matching the camera footage (e.g., Arri LogC3). [3:15]
- Timeline Color Space: DaVinci Wide Gamut Intermediate. [3:27]
  - This is a large color space, bigger than most camera spaces, ensuring maximum color information during grading. [3:32]
- Timeline Working Luminance: Custom, set to 10000 Nits to avoid constraining dynamic range during grading. [3:40]
- Output Color Space: Rec.709 Gamma 2.4. [3:50]
  - This is the standard output for most displays and is suitable for YouTube. If targeting computer screens, Rec.709 Gamma 2.2 might be preferred. [3:58]
- Limit Output Gamma to Output Color Space: Checked. [4:06]
- Input/Output DRT:
  - Input DRT: Set to 'None' to prevent automatic tone mapping or gamma compression by DaVinci Resolve at this stage. [4:09]
  - Output DRT: Set to 'DaVinci'. This option is preferred for how it handles flames and skin tones under specific lighting conditions. [4:24]
Camera RAW Settings (for Red footage example) [4:44]
- RAW Profile: Red. [4:50]
- Decode Quality: Full Res Premium. [4:50]
- Decode Using: Project (ensures consistent decoding for all Red RAW clips). [4:57]
- Project Settings:
  - Color Science: IPP2. [5:03]
  - Gamma Curve: Log3G10. [5:07]
  - Untick 'Apply Metadata Curves' and 'Embedded Audio'. [5:10]
- Decoder Settings:
  - Chroma Noise Reduction: Enabled. [5:13]
  - Flashing Pixel Adjust: Low (helps with dead pixels). [5:17]
- Use Camera Metadata: Ensure all options (ISO, Exposure, Color Temp, Tint) are selected to retain cinematographer's intent. [5:22]
Setting Input Color Space for Individual Clips [5:38]
- Right-click on a clip in the clip strip. [5:44]
- Go to 'Input Color Space' and select the appropriate camera's color space (e.g., Arri LogC3, Red RAW, Sony S-Log3). [5:50]
  - DaVinci Resolve often auto-detects the input color space for color-managed workflows. [6:04]

Primaries Palette Functionality [6:29]

Demonstration with Grayscale Ramp [6:31]
- Temporarily disable the Output Transform in Project Settings (Color Management > Output Color Space > Same as Timeline) to work on a linear signal. [6:54]
- The initial waveform for the grayscale ramp shows a straight line [Image 7].
- The DaVinci Resolve UI shows the grayscale ramp with the Primaries - Color Wheels open [Image 8].
- Offset Tool [7:23]
  - Affects the entire image signal linearly, similar to adjusting the iris on a camera. [7:28]
  - The Offset tool ring is highlighted for adjustment [Image 9].
  - Dragging the ring adjusts overall brightness without altering contrast (moves the entire waveform up or down). [7:28]
  - The waveform shifts upwards when the Offset ring is adjusted to increase brightness [Image 13].
  - Dragging the center of the color wheel adds a color tint across the entire image. [7:54]
  - The Offset color wheel is shown being adjusted [Image 15].
  - The grayscale ramp shows a green tint when the Offset color wheel is moved [Image 16].
  - The grayscale ramp shows a blue tint when the Offset color wheel is moved [Image 18].
  - The RGB Parade scope shows the three color channels separating when a color tint is applied via Offset [Image 19].
- Gain Tool [8:29]
  - Primarily affects the highlights (brighter parts) of the image, with some influence on mid-tones. [8:33]
  - Dragging the ring adjusts the brightness of highlights. [8:33]
  - The waveform shows the top part expanding upwards when Gain is adjusted to increase highlights [Image 21].
  - Dragging the center adds a color tint specifically to the highlights. [8:38]
- Lift Tool [8:45]
  - Primarily affects the shadows and blacks (darker parts) of the image, with some influence on mid-tones. [8:49]
  - Dragging the ring adjusts the brightness of shadows. [8:51]
  - The waveform shows the bottom part expanding downwards when Lift is adjusted to decrease shadows [Image 25].
  - Dragging the center adds a color tint specifically to the shadows. [8:54]
- Gamma Tool [8:58]
  - Primarily affects the mid-tones of the image. [9:01]
  - Dragging the ring adjusts the brightness of mid-tones. [9:09]
  - Dragging the center adds a color tint specifically to the mid-tones. [9:12]
- Re-enable the Output Transform in Project Settings (Color Management > Output Color Space > Rec.709 Gamma 2.4). [9:21]

Practical Color Grading Examples [9:47]

Node Tree Setup [9:47]
- Create three serial nodes: Exposure [1], White Balance [2], and Contrast [3]. [9:50]
- Apply this node graph to all clips in the timeline. [10:06]
Red Raw Clip Grading (Example 1) [10:29]
- Exposure Node [1]:
  - Use Offset to shut down the iris of the camera slightly for a darker, moodier exposure. [10:31]
- White Balance Node [2]:
  - Use Offset to cool off the white balance by moving the color wheel towards blue/cyan to balance the warm light. [10:43]
- Contrast Node [3]:
  - Use Gain (increase) and Lift (decrease) to add contrast to the image. [12:15]
Sony S-Log3 Clip Grading (Example 2 - Matching Shots) [1:16:54]
- A shot of a woman floating in water, which is overexposed and has a magenta tint, is shown [Image 27].
- Problem: The shot is overexposed and has a magenta tint in the vectorscope. [1:18:00]
- Exposure Node [1]:
  - Use Offset to shut down the iris/exposure slightly. [1:38:58]
- White Balance Node [2]:
  - Grab a still image of a well-balanced shot to use as a reference. [1:43:55]
  - Use the wipe tool to compare the current shot with the reference still. [1:49:38]
  - Use Offset to shift the color balance towards green to compensate for the magenta tint. [1:50:00]
- Contrast Node [3]:
  - Use Gain (increase) and Lift (decrease) to match the contrast of the reference. [1:53:49]
Creative Grading (Example 3 - Street Scene) [1:23:45]
- A street scene is shown being creatively graded [Image 29].
- Goal: Achieve a dark, mysterious thriller vibe, with a slightly desaturated and cool street in the foreground and warm light in the background. [1:23:45]
- Exposure Node [1]:
  - Use Offset to darken the image substantially. [1:29:48]
- White Balance Node [2]:
  - Use Offset to cool down the overall image by shifting the color wheel towards blue/green. [1:30:57]
- Contrast Node [3]:
  - Use Gain (increase) and Lift (decrease) to add contrast and enhance the mood. [1:32:15]

Conclusion [1:8:09]

The speaker reiterates that Lift, Gamma, Gain, and Offset are very powerful, broad, and organic tools that do not break the image, providing natural-looking results. [1:8:09]
He advises using these primary controls first in your grading workflow. [1:8:09]