Lesson 9

Performing Primary
Color Corrections

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Like editing, audio mixing, and visual effects, Time
color correction is an art form that takes time This lesson takes approximately
90 minutes to complete.
to learn and master. Color is an incredibly
powerful creative tool that can define the Goals
style and convey the mood of your film. If Exploring the Color Page Interface 262
you give yourself the time to practice and
Using the Primary Corrector 265
learn, you’ll be able to master this exciting
Making Quick Adjustments 271
skill and create images that look amazing!
Using DaVinci Resolve Color
These next three lessons provide a valuable Management 273
overview of the most important color- Making Automatic Corrections 277
correction tools to get you comfortable with
Checking Adjustments on Scopes 280
how they work. You’ll learn about the
Adjusting Individual Color Channels 283
primary corrector, secondary adjustments,
nodes, and even applying DaVinci Resolve Using Curves for Primary Color
Corrections 286
FX for special effects. You’ll use the same
tools that Hollywood’s top colorists use to Understanding Nodes 290

correct and finish the biggest blockbuster Using Nodes to Separate

Corrections 290
films, episodic television shows, and
commercials. Experience is key, and with Copying Corrections between
Similar Shots 296
so many controls at your fingertips, these
lessons will give you the start you need
toward learning this creative skill.
 Exploring the Color Page Interface
The exercises in this chapter will teach you how to make color adjustments on clips to
correct commonplace issues like over exposure, low contrast, and incorrect white balance.
All these corrections, along with the creative process of color grading, take place within the
color page in DaVinci Resolve. Let’s start by examining the color page layout.
1 Open DaVinci Resolve to the Project Manager window.
In these three lessons, you’ll learn a color-grading workflow using a documentary
about cattle ranchers in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The project you will use was
archived using DaVinci Resolve. An archive is a self-contained project that includes all
its media. All you need to do is restore the archive, and the project will be available
with all the media already linked.
2 Right-click in the Project Manager window and choose Restore Project Archive.

3 Navigate to R17 Beginner Guide lessons > Lesson 9. Select the Wyoming Cattle Ranch.
dra folder and click Open.
4 In the Project Manager, open the Wyoming Cattle Ranch project, and then from the
edit page timelines bin, double-click the HD Timeline to load the timeline.

This timeline has only four interview clips. All the clips are from a single HD camera.
One of the best aspects of DaVinci Resolve is that editing and color grading are
completely integrated into a single application, so you can easily move between
the two with a single click.

262 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

5 At the bottom of the DaVinci Resolve window, click the Color button to go to the
color page.

The gallery includes saved The viewer shows the frame The Node Editor connects color
adjustments that you can copy at the playhead’s current corrections, image adjustments,
to other clips in the timeline. position in the timeline. and effects to create unique looks.

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The left palettes contain primary The center palettes provide The lower-right
adjustments for color, contrast, access to curves, Windows, area may display
and RAW image processing. tracking, and keying controls. the Keyframes
Editor, scopes, or a
The timeline is divided into thumbnails and metadata display.
a mini-timeline.

NOTE When you’re using DaVinci Resolve on a computer display with

a resolution lower than 1920 x 1080, some panels and buttons will be
consolidated and not look exactly like the images in this lesson.

When you switch to the color page, wherever the playhead was in the editing timeline
remains the location in the color page timeline. The color page does not change or
alter any cuts or transitions; it just provides a way of looking at your timeline that is
more appropriate for color correction.

Exploring the Color Page Interface 263

 6 Click thumbnail number 04, the last clip in the timeline.

An orange outline appears around the selected thumbnail, and the playhead jumps
to the first frame of that clip.
7 Below the thumbnail, double-click the Apple ProRes 422 HQ name to switch to viewing
clip names.
The mini-timeline below the thumbnails displays thin bars to represent each clip.
A bar’s width is proportional to a clip’s duration. Like the cut page, the mini-timeline
shows all the clips in a timeline.
8 Drag the mini-timeline playhead to the left to scrub through the timeline until you reach
the first clip.

As you scrub through the timeline, the clip under the playhead highlights in orange to show
that it is selected, a behavior like the thumbnail display outline. The transport controls
under the viewer, as well as all the playback keyboard shortcuts, are the same as you used
on the edit page.

TIP If a track is disabled in the edit page, it will be dimmed in the color page’s
mini-timeline.

Now that you have a basic understanding of the color page layout, you’re ready to make
some adjustments.

264 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

Using the Primary Corrector
The most popular controls for creating different looks and balancing your shots are found
in the primary corrector. Because DaVinci Resolve includes many controls in the primary
corrector, you will find that you spend much of the time using this palette of tools while
you’re on the color page. In this first exercise, you’ll make a few adjustments just to get
a feel for the controls.
1 In the timeline, make sure thumbnail 01 is the selected clip.

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The primary corrector is divided into five regions: Lift, Gamma, Gain, and Offset. Each
region is split into the color balance controls for adjusting the tint of the image and the
master wheels for adjusting the tonality or brightness.

The Offset adjusts the overall picture. In this first clip, it is a bit bright on the rancher’s
face and hat, and the darker shadows do not appear very dark. To make an entire
image brighter or darker, you use the master wheel, located under the color wheel.

Using the Primary Corrector 265

 2 Drag the Offset master wheel to the left until the image is not as bright and the darkest
shadows appear to be black. The red, green, and blue number fields above the master
wheel should end up around 20.00.

This improves the tonal range, but the clip also has a very orange tint to it.

TIP When you encounter the terms tonal values or tonal range, we are talking
about brightness values as if the image were black and white, with no color.

3 Drag the color indicator at the center of the Offset color wheel toward blue/green until
the Rancher’s hat and skin appear less red.

Adjustments made in the color balance controls are subtle. In most cases, you are just
moving the indicator a few pixels away from the color you want to reduce.
You can target areas more precisely by making color balance and master wheel
adjustments to specific tonal regions in an image, like the shadows, midtones, and
highlights. These three regions roughly correspond to the Lift, Gamma, and Gain
primary controls.

266 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

4 In the timeline, click thumbnail 02 to move the playhead to that clip.

This clip appears too dark overall, so you can start by brightening it with the Offset
master wheel.

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5 Drag the Offset master wheel to the right until the image is brighter. The red, green,
and blue number fields above the master wheel should end up around 40.00.
Although the image is brighter, it lacks contrast, which means the darks are not very
dark and the highlights are not very bright.
The master wheel under the Lift’s color balance control sets the black point for the
image. When dragging it to the left, the darker areas in the image become darker.
6 Drag the Lift’s master wheel to the left until you think the shadows in the picture
appear dark without being crushed. The luminance, red, green, and blue values above
the master wheel should end up around -0.05.
Let’s look at the other end of the spectrum by adjusting the Gain control.
The master wheel under the Gain’s color balance control sets the white point for the
image. When dragging it to the right, the brightest areas in the image become brighter.
7 Drag the Gain’s master wheel to the right until you think the highlights in the picture
appear bright enough. The luminance, red, green, and blue values above the master
wheel should end up around 1.40.

Using the Primary Corrector 267

 By adjusting the Lift master wheel and the Gain master wheel, you have effectively
adjusted the clip’s contrast. Instead of using a simple contrast control, you have exercised
greater control over the black point and white point using the Lift and Gain master wheels.
Now let’s look at Gamma.
The master wheel under the Gamma color balance control adjusts the brightness while
maintaining the black and white points that you set previously. In general, once you set
your black and white point, if you feel the image is too dark or too bright, you can try to
correct it using the Gamma master wheel. We will darken this image a bit.
8 Drag the Gamma’s master wheel to the left to darken the wall to the left of the woman.
The luminance, red, green, and blue values above the master wheel should end up
around -0.05.
When dragging this control to the left, the image becomes darker. Gamma is sometimes
referred to as midtones because it adjusts the middle tonal range of an image.
The Gamma’s color balance control tints the midrange of your image. Let’s add some
magenta into the midrange.
9 In the Gamma’s color balance control, drag the control slightly toward magenta to add
that tint to the midrange area of the picture.

Let’s compare the corrected image you’ve made to the original image.
10 Click the Bypass button in the upper right of the viewer or press Shift-D, to see the
original image. Then click the Bypass button again, or press Shift-D to view the
corrected image.

This last adjustment applied too much magenta to the midrange and was made only to
give you more experience with the feel of the controls. It clearly didn’t produce
anything worth keeping. You can reset each control or the entire primary corrector
using the Reset buttons.

268 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

 TIP On the color page, each clip has its own undo/redo history. Choosing
Edit > Undo will undo previous changes depending on which clip is the current
clip. The edit page also has its own undo history, which is separate from the
color page. The Edit and Fairlight page Undo/Redo commands operate on the
entire timeline, not on each clip.

11 In the upper-right corner of the Gamma’s color balance control, click the Reset button.

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12 In the timeline, click thumbnail 04 to move the playhead to that clip.

13 On your own, adjust the Lift master wheel to set the shadows where you think they
look best, then do the same using the Gain master wheel for the highlights, and finally
use the Gamma master wheel to give the image a darker, moodier feel.
Let’s compare the corrected image you’ve made to the original image.
14 Click the Bypass button in the upper right of the viewer or press Shift-D, to see
the original image. Then click the Bypass button again or press Shift-D to view the
corrected image.
If you want to make refinements, go ahead and adjust the master wheels until you are
happy with the image.
Now, with the tonal adjustments made, you can adjust color using the color wheels.
The actor’s dirty white hat has a very reddish tint. We can shift the highlights clip
towards blue/green using the Gain’s color balance control.

Using the Primary Corrector 269

 15 In the Gain’s color balance control, drag the color balance indicator very slightly toward
blue/green to offset the reddish tint.

To add a bit more red back into his skin tone, you can use the Gamma color balance control.
16 In the Gamma’s color balance control, drag the control slightly toward orange to offset
the blue/green tint you added in the highlights.

The Gamma’s color balance control tints the midrange of your image.
Let’s compare the corrected image you’ve made to the original image.
17 Click the Bypass button in the upper right of the viewer or press Shift-D to see the original
image. Then click the Bypass button again or press Shift-D to view the corrected image.

TIP The Reset button for Lift Gamma, Gain, and Offset resets both the color
balance and master wheel controls. To reset just the color balance controls,
double-click the color indicator.

The Lift, Gamma, and Gain controls are not narrow adjustments that change only the dark,
midrange, or bright areas. In fact, their ranges overlap by a considerable amount. This
overlap helps you make more natural, smoother-looking adjustments, but it also means that
you’ll need to move among the three color balance controls to achieve best results
because adjusting one control visibly impacts the others.

270 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

Making Quick Adjustments
The primary corrector controls that you have used are adjusted mainly to achieve an overall
look by controlling Lift, Gamma, Gain, and Offset within the image. You can also make a few
primary corrector adjustments that you may be more familiar with from other video or photo
applications. The adjustment controls are located across the top and bottom of the primary
corrector panel. Any modifications to these controls affect the entire image, not just the Lift,
Gamma, or Gain.
1 In the timeline, click thumbnail 03 to move the playhead to the start of that clip.

COLOR
The initial impression given by this clip is that it lacks some contrast—meaning that the
shadows are not very dark, and the highlights are not very bright. Instead of using the
Lift and Gain master wheels to add contrast, you can simultaneously expand the range
between the shadows and highlights by increasing the Contrast control.
2 In the adjustment controls above the color wheels, position the pointer over the
Contrast number field.

NOTE Depending on your screen resolution, the names of each adjustment

control may be slightly truncated.

Number fields in DaVinci Resolve can be used as sliders or for typing in a numeric entry.
3 Drag the Contrast control to the right, until the number reaches around 1.2. This will
increase the range between the shadows and highlights.
The contrast adjustment works by increasing the shadows and highlights by an equal
amount. However, the rancher’s’s face and her hat still don’t seem bright enough. You
can modify the highlights using the Highlights number field located in the row of
adjustments below the primary corrector. This will brighten the highlights without
affecting the shadows, similar to the Gain master wheel.

Making Quick Adjustments 271

 4 In the adjustment controls below the primary controls, drag the Highlights number field
to the right to brighten the highlights until the face and hat appear correct to you.

With the tonal balance set, you can now work on color adjustments. This clip appears
too cool or blueish in her skin and on her hat. You can balance the color in a clip for
different lighting situations. This is often labeled as white balance in cameras. The
temperature control above the primary corrector adjusts a clip to be warmer or cooler.
5 To remove the subtle cool tint in this clip and introduce warmer tint, drag the
Temperature (Temp) value to the right until her hat appears more neutral than blue,
somewhere around 250.
Finally, you can adjust the overall color intensity.
6 To decrease the color intensity, drag the Saturation value to the left until it reaches
around 40.

TIP You can reset any adjustment by double-clicking the name next to the
number field.

As always, when you make a significant adjustment, you should compare it to the
original image.
7 Click the Bypass button or press Shift-D to see the original image. Click the Bypass
button again or press Shift-D to return to the corrected image.

Before (left) and after (right).

In most color-correction situations, you would likely bounce between the original and
corrected image a few times while refining your adjustments. Rarely do you set a control
once, compare it to the original, and move on. Color correction is an iterative learning
process. It takes time, but the more you explore your options, the more you’ll find the
adjustments that work best for you.

272 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

Using DaVinci Resolve Color
Management
So far, we’ve had it fairly easy in our color-grading process. We worked with a few controls
and made the HD clips look better. In your projects, if all you ever deal with is HD clips and
output them as HD masters, then you can essentially continue with the process we started
in this lesson.
However, filmmaking is technical and at times complicated. Few aspects of the process
illustrate this as well as cameras and their various file formats. Each camera manufacturer
tries to give you the best-looking image possible by customizing the color palette (Gamut)
and tonal range (Gamma). You’ll often hear these types of clips referred to as log clips due
to their logarithmic contrast profiles. The result of recording log clips is that they don’t look
great on your HD monitor. When using different log clips from different cameras in a single

COLOR
project, you need to manage various gamuts and gamma ranges more efficiently to
achieve consistency in your final output. That’s where DaVinci Resolve’s color management
system (RCM) helps.
1 Above the viewer, click the drop-down arrow next to the timeline name to reveal all the
project’s timelines.

2 Choose Mixed Cameras Timeline.

This project contains the HD clips we had in the previous timeline and adds new
Wyoming scenery clips. The new scenery clips have HDR gamut and gamma, having
been shot with a digital cinema camera.

NOTE These clips were originally captured with a Blackmagic Pocket 4K

digital cinema camera but have been modified for downloading and
teaching purposes.

Using DaVinci Resolve Color Management 273

 3 In the timeline, click the second thumbnail.

Like many clips from digital cinema cameras, these scenic log clips are not intended
to look perfect on an HDTV. Although they have a wide tonal range and a wide color
gamut, they look flat and undersaturated. Your HD monitor (or computer monitor as it
may be) is expecting HD clips, so it has no idea how these digital cinema camera clips
should look. Resolve color management (RCM) is the easiest and most accurate way to
unify different clips from different cameras, so they all match your desired output.
4 Choose File > Project Settings and select the Color Management category.

5 In the Color Science drop-down menu, choose DaVinci YRGB Color Managed.

274 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

 Enabling color management presents a new drop-down menu below the Color Science
menu. This preset menu contains several configurations for color management based
on your source content and eventual output. The default SDR Rec.709 is the choice for
standard dynamic range, HD source media, and output. The media in our timeline is a
mix of log HDR (high dynamic range) source media and HD media.
6 In the Resolve Color Management Preset drop-down menu, choose DaVinci Wide Gamut.

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Although this preset is still targeting HD output, it is the best choice when using a mix
of log and HD clips because it preserves the super bright highlights contained in HDR
source media.
The output color space should be set for your final output delivery. Because our
project will be output to HD, we’ll leave this menu set to REC.709 Gamma 2.4. This is
the standard setting for HD video.
7 Click Save to close the settings but keep an eye on the viewer.

TIP You can change the output color space at any time when you are
delivering to different display devices. This is one of the main benefits of using
a color-managed workflow.

When using DaVinci Resolve color management, some source clip formats like RAW
files, as well as some QuickTime and MXF wrapped files include information about the
color gamut and gamma. If these metadata tags are present in the files, RCM can
automatically read it and automatically apply the correct settings for the source clips.

Using DaVinci Resolve Color Management 275

 This is the case with the clips we have now. They are all tagged and color managed,
so now they look brighter and more colorful on our HD monitor or computer screen.

However, you will likely have some content that does not include the metadata tags,
so let’s walk through how you might manually set the Input Color Space for source clips
that are not set automatically.

TIP Adding the Input Color Space as a media pool column will display the
currently assigned color profile for each clip, whether it is assigned by you
manually or automatically by metadata.

Typically, you want to change the Input Color Space value to match the device that
recorded the imported clips. By default, a REC.709 Gamma 2.4 setting is applied to
clips without metadata. This is probably suitable for your HD recorded clips, but you
will come across other formats.
When you have clips without metadata tags, you can manually set those clips
individually from the timeline or in groups from a bin.
8 Click on the first clip in the timeline.
Graphics are usually created using the sRGB color space. You can set the Input Color
Space for any clip directly from the color page timeline.

276 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

9 Right-click the thumbnail in the timeline and choose Input Color Space > sRGB.

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Note that you have not color corrected these clips, although they may appear better. If the
clips were shot overexposed, they will appear overexposed. If they were shot with the
incorrect white balance, they will display incorrect white balance. All you have done is
correct the different gamma curves and color gamuts, so they are uniformly set to suit your
HD display device and file output. With that done, you can now begin a more structured
color correction process.

Making Automatic Corrections

With a good understanding of how some of the tools operate and our color management in
place, let’s take a step back and start to look at how you might truly approach color grading
one of your projects.
The first phase of color grading a project is to balance or normalize every shot in your
program. Because unforeseen or unavoidable situations occur during production, clips can
be recorded with an incorrect color tint, have highlights that are dull, or muddy shadows.
Balancing, or normalizing, clips is the process of removing these inaccuracies and
inconsistencies from each clip.
Doing so unifies your shots for the creative look you may later apply to them. You can color
balance shots using some of the primary controls we’ve used earlier in this lesson, but let’s
look at an even easier method: a method that makes DaVinci Resolve’s Neural Engine do
the heavy lifting.
1 In the color page timeline, click clip 02 again.
You typically start color correction by adjusting the contrast in a shot, setting the darkest
and brightest points and removing any color tints. Using the black point picker and white
point picker in the color wheels palette, you can make this process more automatic.

Making Automatic Corrections 277

 2 In the upper-left corner above the Lift color wheel, click the black point picker.

Using this control, you will locate and select the darkest point in the image. It should
be in an area that you think represents absolute black in the shot.
3 Move the mouse pointer over the viewer.
An RGB tooltip appears next to the point, giving you a brightness value for the pixel
you are hovering over. The values range from 0 (black) to 255 (white). When selecting
a black point, you want the red, green, and blue values to be as near to 0 as possible
without all displaying 0. If all the values display 0, then there is a chance that there is
no brightness information there.
4 Click the darkest area on the left where the RGB tooltip reads just above 0,0,0.

TIP If you need to zoom in to the viewer, position the mouse pointer over the
viewer, and scroll the middle mouse wheel.

Clicking the shadow area identifies it as your darkest black point and adjusts other
pixels accordingly. It also corrects any tint in the black so that no single color channel
dominates in the shadow regions.
Our image will shift slightly darker and slightly warmer. Now, you will do the same for
the white point.

278 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

5 At the upper left above the Gain color wheel, click the white point picker.

In the viewer, you will locate a bright point in the image and select it. The point should
not be the absolute brightest point, but an area you think should be soft white. In other
words, you do not want to pick the sun in every outdoor shot but rather the white t-shirt
someone is wearing or a white car. In our shot, that might be the white clouds at the
top of the frame.
6 Move the mouse pointer over the viewer, and then click somewhere over the white

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clouds where the red and green tooltip displays 160 or above.

TIP The RGB values that appear next to the pointer have a maximum level of
255. Pixels with red, green, and blue displaying 255 will often be clipped and
not contain any information.

Assuming we clicked on the best soft-white pixels, this shot now has good contrast
and is also color balanced. You can compare it with the original image by disabling the
changes you have made.
7 Click the Bypass button or press Shift-D to see the original image. Click the Bypass
button again or press Shift-D to return to the corrected image.

Before (left) and after (right).

Making Automatic Corrections 279

 When using the black and white point pickers, it’s important to click areas you know should
be near black and soft white in the image or you risk making the image worse. You also do
not want to select areas that are already clipped in the highlights since you’ll find there is no
image data there. That tends to be the problem with automatic tools. They work perfectly on
optimal images but can be less effective when a shot lacks an appropriate white or black
point. But how do you know if you selected the right pixels? In most cases, you need some
way to check the adjustment more objectively.

Checking Adjustments on Scopes

As an objective way to evaluate adjustments made while color correcting, DaVinci Resolve
includes five video signal scopes. You can use the Waveform, Parade, Vectorscope, Histogram,
and CIE scopes to check a clip’s luminance, exposure, hue, saturation and color space.
We’ll start by making a few adjustments to a clip based on our eyes and the monitor we
are using. Then we’ll look at our adjustments on a scope.
1 Click the clip 03 thumbnail to move to that clip.

2 Just based on what you see in the viewer (or on your full-screen display, if you have
one connected), adjust the Lift, Gamma, and Gain master wheels to set your shadows,
midtones, and highlights until the contrast looks correct to you.
3 Adjust the Gain color balance control to remove any inaccurate color tint that appears
in this shot’s white highlights (if you think there are any).
Now, we’ll look at our adjustments more objectively by using a scope. The scope will
also guide us with any additional adjustments we make.

280 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

4 Click the Video Scope button to the far right of the toolbar.

5 Click the disclosure arrow to open the Video Scope drop-down menu.

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You can switch between the five different scopes using the menu, depending on what
you want to monitor.
6 Choose Parade.
The Parade scope graphs each color channel individually. The graph is read from bottom
to top with absolute black at line 0 and absolute white at line 1023. When balancing
shots, the image in the parade, called the trace, should not go below 0 or above 1023.
Otherwise, the image will clip—cut off parts of the image data—and lose detail.

Checking Adjustments on Scopes 281

 NOTE Because you made different adjustments than I did, the parade scope
in this picture may appear different than yours.

Reading the Parade from left to right, each channel corresponds to the image
displayed in the viewer. For instance, the left part of the red, green, and blue trace
corresponds to the image’s left part. This layout makes it easy to look at the scope and
know exactly which area you are evaluating.

TIP You can switch back to the Keyframes Editor and hide the video scopes
to free up your graphics card’s processor and improve playback performance.

Each region can be adjusted using color wheels and master wheels. When starting to
color correct an image, you start with the master wheels to set the tonal range
between your black and white points.
In general, the bottom of the trace should fall somewhere between 0 and 128 on the
graph. If some elements of the shot are absolutely black, then the trace should fall
closer to 0. If the darkest part of your image is more of a dark gray, then it might fall
closer to line 128 on the graph. You can fine-tune the Lift and Gain master wheels for
this shot, so your trace stretches between just above 0 and just above 896.
7 Drag the Lift’s master wheel until the bottom of the trace falls just above the 0 line.

8 Drag the Gain’s master wheel until the top of the trace falls just above the 896 line.
Next, you’ll fine-tune the color imbalance, or color cast, in this shot. However, let’s
discuss a little additive color theory before you evaluate the color. To create pure white
using additive colors, you mix an equal amount of red, green, and blue. A white image
would have the red, green, and blue traces completely level along the top of the
Parade scope. Conversely, pure black would have the three color channels completely
aligned at the bottom of the graph. That being the case, you’ll use the scope to make
color balancing easier.

282 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

9 If the trace is not even along the bottom, drag the Lift’s color balance indicator in any
direction until they are all aligned near the 0 line.
Aligning the trace for all three channels along the bottom removes any unwanted color
tint that may be in your shadows.
10 If the trace is not even along the top, drag the Gain color balance indicator in any
direction until they are all aligned just above the 896 line.

TIP Unless you have a completely black or white frame, a scope will always
display uneven areas. Use the trace as a guide but use your eyes to make the
final decision when performing manual white balance adjustments.

11 Gamma is much more subjective. If you feel the image appears too cool or warm, drag

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the Gamma color balance indicator in the opposite direction to balance the trees,
grass, and dark clouds.
12 Click the Bypass button or press Shift-D to see the original image. Click the Bypass
button again or press Shift-D to return to the corrected image.
You’ve quickly created a balanced, neutral color correction using the primary corrector
and confirmed them using the scopes. However, some shots may require more specific
adjustments. You may need more control over balancing the individual color channels in
your shots. In either case, the primary corrector has deeper controls that can help solve
these issues.

NOTE DaVinci Resolve’s viewers are previews that are not intended to be
color-critical displays, especially for projects intended for television broadcast or
digital cinema. For those purposes, you can use a Blackmagic Design UltraStudio
or DeckLink card to connect to a broadcast or digital cinema calibrated display.

Adjusting Individual Color Channels

A lot of the power in DaVinci Resolve comes from the flexibility of its toolset, which
provides many ways to do the same thing. To learn more about the primary corrector
toolset, you’ll explore another method for creating a balanced correction on a new shot.

Adjusting Individual Color Channels 283

 1 In the timeline, select clip 16.

As in the previous image, this one also requires a tonal and color balance, but instead
of using the Color wheels and Master wheels, we’ll use the individual number fields for
luminance, red, green, and blue below the Lift, Gamma, and Gain to make fine-tuned
adjustments..
These controls allow you to make color and luminance adjustments similar to the
Master and Color wheels but provide explicit red, green, and blue controls and
separate luminance adjustments in the Lift, Gamma, and Gain regions. That being the
case, you may find them more effective tools for balancing specific color channels in
different regions of a shot. For tonal adjustments, the Y, or luminance bar, allows you to
adjust luminance without changing saturation.
This image has very washed out shadows. The scope confirms this by showing the
trace very high in the graph. Yet, looking at the image, there are clearly areas that
should have darker shadows even in a snowy setting like this. Let’s start by setting our
black point more appropriately.
2 Drag the Lift Y number field to the left until the bottom of the trace in the scope is
around the 128 line.

Once again, the darkest areas in the image become darker. The luminance Gain
control can be used to set the brightest part of this image.

284 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

3 To increase the highlights slightly, drag the Gain Y number field to the right until the top
of all three trace channels falls just above the 896 line in the Parade scope.
This has added good contrast to our image. Let’s now turn our attention to color
balancing by balancing the shadows first and then the highlights.
Looking at the image, the shadows appear to have a blue tint. The scope also shows a
blue tint in the shadows since the blue trace is higher than the other two channels.
4 To balance the shadows, drag the Lift blue number field to the left until the blue trace
is more in line with the green and red traces’ bottoms in the Parade scope.

5 Adjust the Lift red and green number fields until all three trace channels are even

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along the bottom in the Parade scope.
6 To color balance the highlights, drag the Gain red, green, and blue number fields until
the tops of all three trace channels even in the Parade scope.
We can go a step further in balancing our shot by adjusting the midtones. Measuring
midtones is very difficult on a scope, so it is more of a judgment call on your part.
7 If you see the image as too dark or too bright, adjust the Gamma’s luminance number
field appropriately.
8 If you see the image as too cool or too warm in the midtones, adjust the Gamma’s red,
green, and blue number fields until the image has the right midtone color balance to
your eyes.
9 9 Choose View > Bypass All Grades or press Shift-D to see the original image, and
then press Shift-D again to view your corrected clip.

Before (left) and after (right).

With these adjustments, the image now has a much better neutral balance and contrast. You
did that quickly. Rarely do you set a control once, compare it to the original, and move on.
Color correction is an iterative process—adjust, compare, adjust, compare. It takes time, but
just like cooking or gardening, the more you explore, the more you find what works best.

Adjusting Individual Color Channels 285

 Using Curves for Primary Color
Corrections
In this exercise, you’ll look at the last method of creating a balanced shot. Using the custom
curves, you’ll have the greatest degree of flexibility for making tonal and color adjustments,
but this also requires a bit more finessing.
1 Select clip 04.

Looking at the image, you might not be able to tell that there isn’t a lot of contrast, but
looking at the scope, you can see how the trace is all bunched up in the middle of the
graph. That is a common trace appearance for low-contrast images.

286 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

You will approach this shot in the same way you did the previous shots: correcting
black point, white point, and color.

NOTE On computers with lower screen resolution, you may have to click the
Curves button to display the curves palette.

The custom curve graph is a plot graph in which you can perform incredibly flexible
adjustments on specific tonal ranges of images. The X axis represents the image’s
tonal values going from the darkest shadows on the left to the brightest highlights on
the right. Along the Y axis are the output, or offset, values with darker adjustments
placed lower in the graph and brighter adjustments placed higher.

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TIP In the color page, each clip has its own undo/redo history. Choosing
Edit > Undo will undo different steps depending on which clip is currently
selected.

The trees’ shadows should be fairly dark but arguably not completely black, so we will
set the black point in the custom curve accordingly.

Using Curves for Primary Color Corrections 287

 2 Position the mouse pointer over the control point located in the lower-left corner of the
custom curve graph.
This point is the black point control. Like the Lift master wheel in the primary corrector,
adjusting this point raises or lowers the black point in a clip.
3 Drag the point to the right until the trace in the Parade is midway between the 0 and
128 lines.

Moving the black point to the right darkens the darkest parts of the image.
4 Position the mouse pointer over the control point located in the custom curve graph’s
upper-right corner.
This point is the white point control. Like the Gain master wheel, adjusting this point
raises or lowers the white point in a clip.
The highlights in this shot are fairly dull and could use some brightening.
5 Drag the point to the left until you have brighter snow, and the tops of the trace are just
reaching the 896 line.

Dragging the control point to the left brightens the brightest parts of the image.
You can further increase contrast by darkening the darker midtones and brightening the
brighter midtones. Stretching the distance between the two ranges will increase the
contrast. This is one of the main areas where the curves interface gives a lot of flexibility.
You can precisely control the contrast by adding two control points to the curve line:
one point in the lower shadows area and one in the upper highlights.

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6 Click the curve line directly over the large hump on the histogram’s left side, about
one-third of the way up from the bottom.

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This adds a point to manipulate the shadows. The large hump in the histogram shows
you where most of the pixels are in the lower shadow range of this image.
7 Add a point about a third of the way down from the top of the curve line.
This adds a point to manipulate the highlights like the snow on the ground.
8 Drag down the lower control point until the image’s shadows look sufficiently dark but
not crushed.
9 Drag up the upper control point until the snow is brighter but you do not lose the
foreground grass.

Using Curves for Primary Color Corrections 289

 10 Choose View > Bypass All Grades or press Shift-D to see the original image, and then
press Shift-D again to view your corrected clip.
Moving both points into this S-shaped curve is a typical form of adding contrast using a
curve control. It offers more flexibly than the Contrast control or even adjusting the Lift and
Gain master wheels. Using the custom curves, you can define how much shadows are
modified and how much highlights are modified, independently.

Understanding Nodes
Like the Fusion page, the color page uses nodes for multiple color corrections. Instead of
stacking color corrections and effects as layers, you can add as many color correctors and
filter effects as you like using nodes. You can view the nodes as a color correction
flowchart for each individual clip. The clip, or the input, starts at the left, flows through each
node, and ends on the right side of the screen with the corrected image output. Unlike
Fusion page nodes, however, each node in the color page is a full DaVinci Resolve color
corrector and not an individual effect that performs only one type of image processing.

The adjustments you made in the preceding exercises were performed using the first node,
which is provided for you automatically in the Node Editor. As you create more sophisticated
corrections, you can add more nodes that target different parts of the image or add effects.

Using Nodes to Separate Corrections

Sometimes, as you balance shots you may decide adjustments are best performed by
isolating tonal problems from more complex color cast problems. You can separate the two
parts of the balancing process using nodes.

290 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

1 Click on the clip 11 thumbnail to move to that shot in the timeline.

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Like the primary corrector’s number fields, you can adjust luminance separately from
the RGB channels using the curves. We will start with tonal adjustments, but unlike the
last exercise, we will keep color saturation separate.
2 On the right side of the custom curves, click the Y button to isolate the
luminance channel.

The tractor’s shadows are fairly bright, so we will set the black point in the custom
curve accordingly.
3 In the lower-left corner of the custom curve graph, drag the black to the right until the
shadows are more black than gray, and the scope has the trace just barely above 0.
Like the Y number field in the Lift primaries corrector, adjusting this point raises or
lowers the black point in a clip without modifying the shadow’s saturation.
4 In the upper-right corner of the custom curve graph, drag the white point to the left
until the clouds are a bit brighter without losing detail. The trace in the Parade scope
should end up just below the 1023 line.
Like the Y number field in the Gain primaries corrector, adjusting this point raises or lowers
the white point in a clip without modifying the highlight’s saturation in the highlights.

Using Nodes to Separate Corrections 291

 Lowering the black point and raising the highlights has increased the contrast in this
shot. We can increase contrast a bit more by separating the lower midtones from the
higher midtones.
5 Add a point along the curve line, about a third of the way up from the bottom. Then
add another about a third of the way from the top.
6 Create an S-curve using the two new control points you added until you have added
more contrast into this shot but not blown out the clouds or crushed the dark areas
in the tractor shadows.

7 Choose View > Bypass All Grades or press Shift-D to see the original image, and then
press Shift-D again to compare your corrected clip to the original.
Now you can work on color balance by adjusting the curve for the individual channels.
Looking at the Parade scope, you can see that the shadows in the red channel trace
appear slightly lower than the blue and green channels. This indicates that there is a
blue/green tint in the shadows.

292 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

 At the top of the scope, the red and green traces appear higher than the blue trace.
This indicates there is a red/green tint in the highlights.
Instead of combining the color adjustments with the tonal adjustments, we can
separate them into two nodes. This will allow us to compare the color adjustments
without bypassing the tonal correction we have made.
8 In the Node graph, right-click node 01, and in the menu, choose Add Node >
Add Serial.

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You can think of a node as a transparent layer stacked on top of your clip. When you
make any color adjustment, those adjustments are applied to the node, and not to the
clip. As a result, every adjustment in DaVinci Resolve is nondestructive because you
can enable and disable a node at any time. We’ll use the first node for our tonal
adjustments and the new second node for color cast issues. Let’s start by naming the
nodes appropriately.
9 Right-click over node 01, choose Node Label, and then type TONAL.

10 Right-click over node 02, choose Node Label, and then type COLOR BALANCE.
Since node 02 is the highlighted node, any adjustments you make will be contained
in that node.
11 In the curve controls area, click the B button to activate the blue curve.
12 Drag the blue channel’s black control point to the right just a hair until the tractor’s
shadows have less of a red tint. The bottom of the blue trace in the Parade scope will
drop to align with the red trace.

Using Nodes to Separate Corrections 293

 13 Drag the blue channel’s white control point to the left until the blue trace in the Parade
scope aligns at the top of the graph with the red trace.

This image still has a green tint in the shadows that need to be removed.
14 Click the G button in the custom curves and drag the black point to the right until the
shadows have no color tint, and the bottom of the green trace in the scope aligns with
the red and blue traces.

Since you have two nodes, you can disable the color balance node without disabling
the tonal balance. This will give you a better idea of how each node is changing
the image.

294 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

15 Click the number 02 in the lower-left corner of the node or press Command-D (macOS)
or Ctrl-D (Windows) to see the image without the hue curves adjustment. Press
Command-D (macOS) or Ctrl-D (Windows) again to view the corrected clip.

Sometimes balancing the white point, black point, and color casts for shadows and
highlights is not enough. Often, you will come across color casts in midtones as well.
The curves are distinctly capable at correcting color casts in midtones because you
can add control points anywhere along the line to pinpoint specific tonal regions that
need correcting. You can even pinpoint the area you need to adjust by selecting it in

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the viewer.
16 In the viewer, click on the grass area on the left side of the image.

The grass in this shot has a green cast to it that needs to be corrected. Although you
are not specifically isolating the grass in the shot by clicking in the viewer, you are
placing the control point precisely along the curve line where the color for that grass
is located.
Adding a point here adds a point to all the curve lines, not just the green. However, you
can drag just the green point to adjust the green channel in the darker midtones where
most of the grass color is located.
17 Drag the green control point down very slightly until the image no longer has a
significant green tint in the grass.

Using Nodes to Separate Corrections 295

 Dragging the point lower in the graph decreases the green in the midtones by adding
more red/magenta.
To compare the changes you just made, you can disable node 02, the node in which
the changes were made.
18 Click 02 in the lower-left corner of the node or press Command-D (macOS) or Ctrl-D
(Windows), to see the image without the hue curves adjustment. Press Command-D
(macOS) or Ctrl-D (Windows) again to view the corrected clip.

Before color balance (left) and after color balance (right).

Nodes allow you to organize your color adjustments in flexible ways. On some simple
grades, you may use only one node. For complete grades, you may add a dozen nodes.
Using nodes, you can quickly navigate to the exact adjustment you are looking for and
monitor your changes.

Copying Corrections between

Similar Shots
Color correcting moving images gets very challenging the moment you edit multiple angles
together into a single timeline. Not only does each shot need to look correct on its own, but
it also needs to look correct when compared to the shots immediately before and after it.
This process of blending the look and feel of two or more shots is called shot matching.
The point of shot matching, or scene balancing, is simple: in real life, as you glance around,
perhaps while having a conversation, you’ll notice a consistency to what you see. Color
saturation, skin tone hues, and brightness levels don’t dramatically alter from glance to
glance unless some external event forces the lighting to change. (For example, a light is
turned on or clouds cover the sun.) If you want to maintain the illusion that your stories are
real, then you need to mimic this consistency by matching shots and balancing
your scenes.
In this exercise, you’ll explore a few of the simplest tools that DaVinci Resolve provides for
moving a correction from one clip to another. You’ll use these tools to create a seamless
flow of sequential shots.

296 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

1 In the thumbnail timeline, select clip 06.

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This wide shot of a snowy field already has a balanced correction applied to it.
2 In the thumbnail timeline, select clip 07.

This is the second shot of the snowy field with the barn. One of the simplest shot
matching situations is when you have clips that were recorded at the same time using
the same camera. That’s the situation you have with clips 03 and 04. Because clip 06
is already balanced, you can apply the same correction to the close-up shot on clip 07.
3 Select clip 06 and choose Edit > Copy or press Command-C (macOS) or Ctrl-C
(Windows) to copy the node’s settings.

Copying Corrections between Similar Shots 297

 4 Select clip 07 and press Command-V (macOS) or Ctrl-V (Windows) to paste the
node’s settings.
Copying and pasting works with one node, so the selected node’s adjustments from
clip 06 is copied and ready to be pasted onto the selected node in clip 07.
As long as you are only dealing with a single node, then copy and paste is quick and
easy. Now let’s look at a method that can handle more than a single node.
5 Select clip 11.

This is the shot of the tractor that you balanced using two nodes. If you want to copy
and paste an entire grade, there is an equally simple method.
6 Select clip 12.

298 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

7 Move your mouse pointer over clip 11’s thumbnail and click with the middle mouse button.
When a clip is selected, clicking over another thumbnail using the middle mouse
button copies the entire grade from the clicked thumbnail onto the selected thumbnail.
The two nodes used to grade clip 11 are node copied onto clip 12.

Saving and Applying Stills

Instead of copying and pasting nodes from one clip to another right on the spot, you can
save your grades into the gallery and recall them whenever you need them. Saving stills
into the gallery has a few benefits over simple copy and paste. Most importantly, it allows
you to compare the saved graded still with any clip in your timeline.
1 Select clip 08, which shows the two ranchers already balanced.

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You can save the grade created on this shot by saving a still into the gallery.
2 Right-click in the viewer and choose Grab Still.

A reference still image is saved into the gallery. The still image also contains all the
instructions to rebuild the correction for that shot. It’s helpful to name these stills, so
you will know later exactly what they do.

Copying Corrections between Similar Shots 299

 3 Right-click the still, and choose Change Label, and name the still RANCHER BALANCED.

Gallery stills make it easy to apply an entire correction to one or more clips.
4 Click clip 14.

This is another shot of the two ranchers, possibly in the same setting, so it should
receive the same balance treatment as the first.
Before applying the grade, you can preview it on any clip in the timeline using the still
in your gallery.
5 To preview the grade from the still on clip 14, hover your mouse pointer over the still
thumbnail and move it back and forth.
The viewer will show you the currently selected clip in the timeline using the grade of
the still you are hovering over. If you like what you see, you can apply the grade.

300 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

6 In the gallery, right-click the RANCHER BALANCE still and choose Apply Grade.

The grade represented by the still in the gallery is applied to the current clip. If only
getting consistency across multiple clips were that easy! These two clips could have
been captured in the same room with the same people, but it may have been on two

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different days and at two other times. The lighting can be totally different between these
two clips, which would make the grade appear different. You need to compare the two
clips, and you need to do it more efficiently than clicking back and forth between them.
7 In the gallery, double-click the RANCHER BALANCE still to create an image wipe.

After double-clicking a still in the gallery, by default, a vertical split appears in the
viewer. The shot from the timeline (thumbnail 16) is on the left. The selected still in the
gallery is on the right.

Copying Corrections between Similar Shots 301

 8 Choose Workspace > Viewer Mode > Enhanced Viewer or press Option-F (macOS)
or Alt-F (Windows) to expand the viewer.
This gives you a better view when you do not need access to the Node Editor
or gallery.
9 In the viewer, drag to the left to position the wipe over the woman rancher’s hat.

By dragging the image wipe back and forth, you will see that the timeline clip appears
darker and a bit cooler.
Also, notice that the Parade scope shows the black levels fairly even but the highlights
being much lower in clip 16. Because the timeline clip has lower highlights than the
reference still, you can use the Gain master wheel in the color wheels to
brighten them up.
10 Using the Gain’s master wheel, drag to the right until the hat in the clip matches the
brightness of the hat in the reference still. Use the Parade scope to guide you as you
match the brightness.
Now that the clip’s overall tonality matches the reference, it is noticeable that the clip is
cooler. You can match their skin tones a bit more by introducing some red into the
midtones. You get a better view by switching from the horizontal wipe.
11 Above the viewer, click the Vertical Wipe button.

302 Lesson 9 Performing Primary Color Corrections

12 In the viewer, drag the wipe so that you can see the male rancher’s face from both the
clip and the reference still.
13 Drag the Gamma’s color balance indicator toward red until their skin tones match
the reference.
14 To disable the image wipe, click the Image Wipe button in the viewer’s upper-left corner.

15 To exit the enhanced viewer, choose Workspace > Viewer Mode > Enhanced Viewer

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or press Option-F (macOS) or Alt-F (Windows).
Shot matching is made easier when you start using the gallery and reference stills to help
your analysis and inform your color-correction moves. You should also use the scopes to
minimize any visual quirks because your visual perception naturally tends to force the shots
to match. The combination of reference stills and scopes will make the shot-matching
process more accurate, giving your entire project perfect color continuity.

Lesson Review 303