Lessons
Getting Started in DaVinci Resolve
We'll start this course by getting set up in DaVinci Resolve. I'll explain what databases and projects are, and I'll give you a quick overview of the layout.
We're focusing on color grading here, so this video just gives a quick overview of the layout—if you want more detail on getting started in DaVinci Resolve, check out our getting started guide or watch this course:
Setting Up Your Project
When importing media to your project, you need to use the right settings. So click the cog wheel in the bottom-right to open the Project Settings window shown below.
The main thing to do here is to set the Timeline frame rate to 25 instead of the default of 24. Otherwise, the default settings mostly work, but I'll show you a few things you may want to change in certain cases.
Using Scene Cut Detection to Import Your Footage
After you've chosen your settings and hit Save, it's time to import your footage.
To do that, first find the file containing your edited footage in the Media tab. Right-click on it and choose Scene Cut Detection.
After that, just hit Auto Scene Detect in the window that opens up, and DaVinci Resolve will automatically go through and find all the cuts in your footage.
Generally the tool does a good job of finding the cuts, but occasionally it misses some, so you'll need to check the results. What you're looking for is two identical images on the right and a different one on the left, as shown below.
If you find a place where a cut has been missed, just align the red bar in the right place and hit Add to make the cut. Then, when you've finished with Scene Cut Detection, just go to the bottom and choose Add Cuts to Media Pool.
Now close the Scene Cut Detection window, and you'll see all your edited footage in the Media Pool. Select it all, right-click, and choose Create New Timeline Using Selected Clips.
Now you're ready to start color grading!
In-Depth Overview of the Color Tab
To do color grading in Premiere Pro, you'll need to understand the Color tab. So watch the video to get a comprehensive overview of the Color tab and how you can use it. Here are some highlights:
Gallery
This area in the top left is where you create stills to apply a color grade to other footage.
LUTs
Next to the Gallery, you can choose from a selection of LUTs to apply premade effects.
Media Pool
And next to the LUTs you'll find the Media Pool, which is where you can access all the media you've imported to your project.
Nodes
The Nodes area on the right is where you'll do most of your color grading work—read on to learn more about it.
Primaries Color Wheels
Along with the Nodes, this is where your color grading work gets done. It's where you can play with the hues, brightness, luminance, etc.
How to Read Scopes
Scopes can be difficult to read, but they're vital to understand and use when color grading. That's because computer monitors tend to display color slightly differently, and you can't rely on what you see by eye. Scopes are the best way to see exactly what's happening with the colors in your footage from a technical perspective.
Here are the main types of scope and how to use them:
Waveform
This is a graph that plots the luminance of each pixel against a horizontal position. So it shows how light the different parts of the image are from left to right.
Parade
This is the same as Waveform, but instead of measuring overall luminance, it provides separate graphs for the red, green, and blue channels.
Histogram
This is similar to Parade, but turned on its side, so that black is on the left and white on the right, and each channel moves further to the right as it gets lighter.
Vectorscope
This is very different from the other three charts. It shows the color wheel and how much the image skews towards one color or another. If every pixel were in the middle, it would be absolute white, and as one color gets stronger, the pixels stretch towards the edge of the wheel in the appropriate direction.
Pro Color Grading Workflow
Now you understand the most important features of the Color tab in DaVinci Resolve. But how do you actually use them? I'll take you through a professional color grading workflow you can use.
Start by setting up a Node Tree. Click on the first node and then keep hitting Option-S to create new ones, labeling them as shown below.
When you have your nodes set up, it's time to start color grading. And the first step in that process is to color correct to create a neutral image, so that you can start tweaking the colors from a good, stable starting point. We'll see how to do that next.
What Do the Primaries Color Wheels Do?
We'll start our color grade by working on the Primaries Color Wheels:
Here's what each color wheel affects:
- Lift: shadows
- Gamma: midtones
- Gain: highlights
- Offset: the entire image
When you grab the little dot in the center and push it towards a particular color on the wheel, you're saturating the image with that color. For example, in the image below, I've used the Lift wheel to push the shadows towards red. You can see the effect on the footage, and also on the scopes and nodes.
You can also drag the bar underneath each wheel to increase the luminance (drag to the right) or decrease it (drag to the left). And you can type new values in the boxes above and below the wheels to change the contrast, saturation, etc.
The first thing I'm going to do is increase the saturation to see more of what's happening in the image. Then I use the Scopes window to see if there's too much red, green, or blue in the shadows or highlights and make adjustments to bring things into balance. I also increase the contrast. And this is what I end up with at this stage:
Color Correcting Skin Tone
Let's work on the Skin node now. To color correct skin tone, it's best to use the Qualifier tool to select the skin, experimenting to get as accurate a selection as possible.
Then you can use the Pen Tool to draw around the hand and make an even more accurate selection. It doesn't have to be perfect.
Motion Track Your Grade Using the Tracker Window Tool
Now go to the Tracker window and hit Track Forward and Reverse. DaVinci Resolve will then track the hand through the rest of the clip, ensuring that the changes you make will be applied to the skin even as the hand moves around in the frame.
Now we can make small adjustments to the colors and other settings until it looks just how you want it. This is a great way to get more detail and make the skin look more vibrant.
For noise reduction, I tend to use the same standard settings each time, and then tweak as necessary. So go to the Noise Reduction node, and then go to Motion Effects and choose the following settings:
This is a great way to get your footage to look instantly cleaner. Feel free to play with these settings to get the exact look you're after.
How to Refine Your Color Grading
We've made the cheese and the skin tones more vibrant, but a great way to make them stand out is to bring down the background. So we'll go to the Ambience node and bring down the highlights and also reduce the saturation of the background, so that the important elements really stand out:
Dialling in the 'Look' for Your Color Grade
Now we can move on to the Look node to make the final adjustments. Remember that, because this node is near the right, it won't affect any nodes to the left. So it's a good place to make minor adjustments.
In my case, I think there's still a bit too much red in the image, so I'll push it slightly towards cyan. But that affects the skin tone too, so I'll go back to the Skin node to offset that.
Adding Finishing Effects Like Film Grain
Finally, let's go to the Effects node on the right. Then you can open the Effects panel and explore all the cool effects that come with DaVinci Resolve.
When you find one you like, just drag it onto the node you want the effect to be applied to. I like to add a Film Grain effect to create a subtle film grain, and Halation can also be a great way to add a glow to the background.
Delivering Your Grade to the Editor
We've finished our color grade in DaVinci Resolve! Here's a look at how our footage has changed throughout the process, from the original washed-out footage through each step of the color grade.
When you've finalized your entire color grade, it's time to send it back to the editor. To do this, you'll need to go to the Deliver tab.
It's best to choose the settings that the footage originally came in—in this case Apple ProRes 4444 and Frame Rate 25. Then click Add to Render Queue and, when you're ready, Render All.
Creating a Custom LUT From Your Grade
Of course, in this tutorial, we only color graded a single clip. What if you wanted to apply the same color grade to the rest of the clips in your footage? Don't worry—it's easy to do.
You can create a custom LUT from your color grade by using the Gallery that I mentioned earlier. Just right-click on your footage and Grab Still. Then right-click on your clip and choose Generate LUT > 33 Point Cube. Save your LUT and give it a name. Then you can apply this LUT to any footage you like, even in a different program like Premiere Pro.
So that's it for our tutorial on color grading in DaVinci Resolve. There's plenty more to learn, though, so if you're ready to take it further, check out the free tutorials highlighted below.
Learn More About DaVinci Resolve
Want to learn more? These four videos will teach you some more advanced video-editing techniques in DaVinci Resolve.
And be sure to check out the other DaVinci Resolve tutorials here on Envato Tuts+ as well. Here's a selection to start with:
