Up next in 10
In this walkthrough by Leighton Milne you'll get a feel for color grading with DaVinci Resolve and learn how to use the editing features in the program. He'll go over using nodes, reading and understanding the waveform, adjusting curves/colors/light, and more.
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0:02
hello and welcome to the filter great
0:04
tutorial my name is Leighton in this
0:05
video we're going to go into the basics
0:06
of color grading in DaVinci Resolve
0:08
as well as my general workflow whenever
0:09
I color grade my videos if you don't
0:11
already have DaVinci Resolve I would
0:12
highly recommend getting it you can
0:13
download for free and it's a fantastic
0:15
all-around editing app that specializes
0:17
in coloring resolved as become the
0:18
industry standard and post-production
0:19
coloring but is easy enough that anyone
0:21
can navigate through its windows and
0:22
modules to create beautifully graded
0:24
videos so I've already imported my Clips
0:26
here into the media pool so let's go
0:28
ahead and get in the Edit tab down here
0:29
click that and this will take you to the
0:31
editing tab resolve actually has a
0:33
really good editing software that most
0:35
people overlook to create program if
0:37
you're trying to make a small edit or
0:38
something for Instagram maybe that's
0:41
what I mainly use it for the editing
0:42
layout and hotkeys are similar to Final
0:45
Cut Pro so the easier if we come from
0:47
that into resolve as opposed to premiere
0:49
but it's a fairly simple editing program
0:51
that you can understand how it works in
0:53
a matter of minutes so I've already got
0:54
my Clips aligned here in the timeline
0:56
this isn't really a project that I'm
0:58
working on but it's just a collection of
0:59
clips that are very different in color
1:01
and temperature and overall look just so
1:03
I can show you how to color different
1:04
types of clips from different settings
1:06
so I'm not going to go over too much of
1:08
how to edit in here it's pretty
1:09
straightforward
1:10
this color tab here is we're going to
1:11
look for you can see all my clips are
1:13
lined up here that I can just click
1:15
through check the histogram check the
1:18
waveform curves if this doesn't pop up
1:21
for you all you have to do is click
1:22
clips in the top and it brings them back
1:24
up same with timeline if you'd like to
1:26
see a different layout and that shows
1:29
the length of your clips I like just
1:31
leave those clips tab open sometimes
1:33
I'll get rid of it completely there so I
1:34
can get a bigger screen and I can see
1:35
what exactly I'm working on if you have
1:38
a second screen that you edit with how
1:39
to recommend putting this display on the
1:41
other screen just so you can maximize
1:42
your workspace here as sometimes these
1:45
different options and different windows
1:46
can make the interface feel crowded
1:47
since what the color tab looks like when
1:49
you initially go into it up here you
1:51
have your nodes which is similar to
1:53
layers in Photoshop allows you to make
1:55
adjustments on a separate layer that's
1:56
non-destructive to that you can turn on
1:58
and off different adjustments just to
2:00
see how they look and if you make a
2:01
mistake you can just get rid of a single
2:03
node as opposed to all your adjustments
2:04
that you made in total makes for a lot
2:06
easier and quicker color grading if you
2:08
don't have to keep hitting undo undo and
2:10
do getting rid of something that you
2:11
probably didn't want to be hi to you
2:13
because you
2:13
do it on a separate note sit down here
2:15
you got your standard curves adjustment
2:16
you can adjust the highlights the
2:19
shadows the mid-tones get a standard
2:21
contrast curve going here
2:23
I like the darkest parts of my video to
2:25
be dark in the brightest parts of my
2:26
video to be bright so as you can see
2:28
here in the waveform scopes this is the
2:30
view I like to use you can use parade
2:33
and vectorscope histogram but I find
2:35
that waveform is good for me that I can
2:37
see everything at once and all the
2:39
information is right there for me so I
2:40
tend not to bring any colors lower than
2:43
zero but I do want a nice dark darks and
2:47
nice bright brights but not too bright
2:49
that you're losing some information in
2:51
detail in the highlights and shadows
2:52
such as the standard contrast curve and
2:56
here you have a hue hue which changes
2:58
the colors changes how you see Reds how
3:00
you see greens you can pinpoint the
3:02
colors by just clicking a yellow-green
3:04
it allows for specific color adjustments
3:07
just in the greens or the red the
3:09
yellows because you can see I'm kind of
3:12
just changing hue of the greens here
3:14
making a little bit more bright almost
3:16
part official-looking so you can mess
3:19
around that for a while keep clicking on
3:21
and on you can find the hue/saturation
3:23
so if you go down its limits the
3:27
saturation if you go up it saturates a
3:28
little bit more and you can pinpoint it
3:30
again just by adding points on this line
3:33
here next one Q versus luminosity so
3:37
change the brightness of the colors as
3:39
you see if I raise the whole line up the
3:40
whole scene looks brighter you want to
3:43
pinpoint a certain color turn the greens
3:46
up turn everything else down nice bright
3:50
greens this is the luminosity saturation
3:52
so this can just change brightness and
3:54
saturation of the colors in both the
3:56
highlights and the shadows so if you
3:57
want a nice bright saturated highlights
4:00
maybe you want some dark d saturated
4:02
shadows and mid-tones springing down
4:04
like this sort of like a contrast curve
4:07
but for color and brightness
4:08
finally have your saturation saturation
4:11
which changes the saturation only in the
4:14
highlights shadows mid-tones so again
4:17
you can just mess around with this it's
4:19
good to have a plan before you go into
4:20
actually grading your footage that way
4:23
it's a lot quicker and you know what
4:24
you're looking for up here you have a
4:26
whole bunch of
4:27
options I like to use the color wheels I
4:29
just find it's easier to work with and
4:32
it's a good visual aid so let's get rid
4:34
of the clips here we move onto the next
4:37
clip minimize that so we can see it's a
4:39
little bit better so as you can see in a
4:41
waveform you got a little bit of peaking
4:42
here in the highlights so I'm gonna go
4:44
ahead and go to gain which is highlights
4:47
and I'm going to bring this down just by
4:48
clicking here and dragging to the left I
4:51
just want that down not so it's peaking
4:54
and same with the shadows which is lift
4:58
here you can bring this down just by
4:59
scrolling on this wheel here a little
5:02
bit more contrast in this video because
5:04
it's kind of an overcast day I mean if
5:05
there's not a lot of shadows to begin
5:07
with so I'm going to try to darken it a
5:09
little bit more gamma that's just a
5:11
mid-tone so you can brighten it up if
5:13
you like I'm just going to add a little
5:15
bit here not too much just so I can get
5:17
some extra luminance out of that offset
5:21
of the overall exposure adjustments and
5:23
color adjustments if you want to adjust
5:25
the white balance or give your video a
5:27
certain kind of color cast you can just
5:29
click the middle button here and drag it
5:32
this is obviously extreme showing you
5:33
what happens when you go into different
5:35
colors of the wheel this is more of a
5:36
cinematic look if you pull it down into
5:38
kind of a teal blue area I'm just going
5:40
to go ahead and bring it up just to warm
5:42
it up a bit because it feels like a very
5:43
fall warm scene and you can do that with
5:46
all the gamma gain lift if you want some
5:48
cold shadows it's generally I like to do
5:51
not two months just bring that down
5:53
towards the blues here I like to leave
5:56
the gamma gain maybe just a bit to the
5:58
yellows just to give that feel of
6:00
sunlight so down here it's easily missed
6:03
but these are very important controls
6:05
here you've got contrast pivot
6:06
saturation to you luminosity mix these
6:09
adjustments here are standard in most
6:11
color correction or photo editing
6:13
software's so you've got your standard
6:15
contrast here saturation user will very
6:18
common pivot I find those works
6:21
sometimes but you really got to go to
6:23
extremes it's sort of like clarity in
6:27
Lightroom where it doesn't necessarily
6:28
pinpoint the brightest brights and the
6:31
darkest darks of your video clip but
6:33
kind of in-between mid-tones the gray
6:35
area hue
6:36
is similar to what we used before in the
6:38
curves just can change the color of the
6:41
colors giving it yellow maybe a more red
6:44
or pink look or a green the opposite
6:46
direction you can make a look at some
6:48
crazy magical tree here if you just mess
6:51
with it enough and if you hit the two
6:53
button here this takes you the second
6:54
round of adjustments if you want to
6:56
specifically target the color
6:58
temperature there's a temp button right
7:00
here you can click for colder warmer I
7:04
think it's good right on there I already
7:06
kind of give it a little bit of offset
7:07
the tin here is common again with most
7:09
photo editing and video editing coloring
7:11
software either green or pink sometimes
7:14
certain lenses or cameras have a green
7:17
or pink color cast to it depending on
7:19
the lighting you're working with as well
7:20
color boost is also a powerful tool I
7:23
like to use it just kind of it's not
7:25
necessarily saturation but it's more
7:27
similar to vibrance in Lightroom so look
7:30
at that a little bit of a boost the
7:31
shadows here is just more accurate as
7:33
opposed to using lift you can just
7:36
target the shadows a lot better darken
7:37
them up so usually start off with the
7:39
curves get my exposure right then I'll
7:41
go to the color wheels sometimes I'll go
7:44
to the RGB mixer this allows for more
7:45
precise adjustments on the RGB channels
7:48
which you can also edit in curves let's
7:50
cool it resolve it has multiple editing
7:53
windows where you can almost do the same
7:54
things but these different windows can
7:56
access specific colors or tones give
7:59
them more accurate readout more accurate
8:01
manipulations for certain colors if you
8:03
specifically want to adjust one shade or
8:06
tone in the video there's so many
8:08
options in so many ways you can go about
8:09
doing it
8:10
so here you can adjust your read output
8:12
green output blue output it's all here
8:14
if you want a little more green in the
8:16
Reds a little less red in the Reds a
8:17
little more blue and the green a little
8:19
more blue in the blue
8:21
the turquoise you kind of feel takeaway
8:23
bit of red and the Greens here this just
8:27
takes away the saturation from the green
8:28
grass really exaggerated s-- the pink in
8:31
the tree here one of them in these last
8:33
two clips is I've just added my
8:36
adjustment to the single node which is
8:37
not really the best way of doing it but
8:39
if I'm trying to go fast or making a
8:41
small edit for either Instagram or maybe
8:43
like a one-minute YouTube clip I'm not
8:45
too picky and how I'm coloring and I
8:47
just want to rip through as fast
8:48
possible all generally go about doing it
8:50
this way but I would recommend if you're
8:53
doing a bigger project or you just want
8:56
to be more precise into colors all I
8:58
have to do is right click add node add
9:00
cereal and you've got a second note here
9:02
that you can add adjustments to will go
9:04
back into the curves adjustment window
9:05
and here we can adjust exposure so to
9:08
bring everything up it's only effects
9:10
this node here so if maybe I don't like
9:14
what I've just done all I have to do I
9:15
didn't reset no degrade and that will
9:17
take me back to zero and leaves whatever
9:20
adjustments I've already done this is
9:22
definitely the best way of doing it if
9:23
you're working on a large-scale project
9:24
or you just wanna be very specific with
9:27
how you're editing it's going to know a
9:29
different scene here I'll put Clips down
9:33
here just so I can see my display better
9:36
if you go to the next clip here it's
9:38
actually the same video but just split
9:40
in the edit so in these scenarios where
9:43
there is two separate clips part of one
9:46
video I want to make sure that these two
9:48
here are similarly color graded so what
9:51
I'll do I'll put the clips down I'm
9:53
going to add another node by
9:53
right-clicking the node add node add
9:56
cereal and I'm going to add all my
9:58
adjustments to this one here so we're
10:00
going to go into the color wheels here
10:01
I'm just going to brighten the whole
10:04
scene as you can see here in my wave
10:06
form there's not a lot of highlights
10:07
going on so I'm going to use the offset
10:09
and kind of boost the exposure all
10:11
around but go to the shadows
10:12
specifically in the lift here and bring
10:14
those down just so I can get a nice dark
10:16
hand all this stuff down here is good I
10:18
might add a little bit of color just to
10:20
that fire when it does pop up really
10:21
really sticks out so you're on the
10:23
window tab this is where you can add a
10:25
vignette effect or radio filter like in
10:27
Lightroom all you have to do is click
10:29
this little circle here and it adds a
10:30
circle window or you can add a square
10:34
you want to edit a certain area it's
10:36
going to get rid of that square by
10:37
clicking the square again from here you
10:39
can change the size you can adjust what
10:41
the feather is doing maybe if you want a
10:42
nice even dispersion of lights
10:45
please look over the node here you can
10:46
see what this filter is done all around
10:49
the outsides all gray and not being
10:51
affected here we can go over back into
10:54
curves or color wheel I like to go back
10:56
in the color wheel whose to highlight so
10:57
that when the snow does come into focus
11:00
it does pop because it's highlight I'm
11:03
going to increase the contrast just so
11:05
that this helps bring the focus of the
11:07
viewer into the hand which I want the
11:09
center focus point to be this means that
11:11
around the outside it won't be as
11:13
contrast II kind of have a more soft
11:16
especially with the lens I've used here
11:19
it's a little more blurry on the outside
11:21
I'm not going to adjust too much of the
11:22
color in this video clip here because
11:24
it's mostly black and white so if you go
11:26
back to the right of Windows there is a
11:28
tracker tab this allows you to track an
11:31
object so if you brighten someone's face
11:33
you can select their face and they will
11:36
track it and continue that adjustment
11:38
just on their face not on the rest of
11:40
the clip but for the purpose of this
11:42
video clip here my hand isn't really
11:44
moving and I do you want the center
11:46
point to be the focus no matter what and
11:48
because I'm going to be copying this the
11:50
next clip I don't want a moving object
11:53
to be searching for something that's not
11:56
really there in the second clip so as I
11:58
mentioned before I want to add the same
12:00
color Corrections on this video clip to
12:02
the video clip after it because they're
12:04
from the same overall video all you have
12:06
to do is make sure that this node that
12:07
you've corrected is selected hit command
12:09
C go to your next clip right click add
12:13
node add serial make sure this one's
12:16
clicked command V and that will add your
12:19
adjustment that you just added in this
12:21
clip here to this clip here so if you
12:23
play it out the slo-mo clip here you can
12:25
see clear ending here transfers over to
12:28
this next clip maintaining the contrast
12:31
in the center once the focus comes
12:33
around kind of a softer outside so let's
12:35
show one more clip here just some
12:37
last-minute adjustments so a lot of
12:39
these different adjustments and tabs you
12:41
probably want to have to use if you
12:43
already know what color match and cam
12:45
raw settings our odds are you know how
12:47
to use these tabs so this last one let's
12:50
go into the color wheels it's going to
12:53
add a another node here at serial except
12:57
for this one we're going to actually add
12:59
a LUT right click go down to three let
13:03
and go down to keno LUT our 709 because
13:07
this is the rec.709 file is not shot in
13:09
a log or raw video format go to my
13:12
exposure variations brighten it up a bit
13:16
let's just warm it up just a tad see
13:19
what it does okay so this lot is a
13:21
preset color profile that just speeds up
13:24
my entire workflow I almost always use
13:27
lots unless I'm doing a very minor
13:29
adjustment where I want to really be
13:31
specific with what I'm trying to capture
13:33
with these colors so just by adding this
13:35
LUT instantly the shadows got a nice
13:38
teal blue hue to them work the
13:41
foreground has a little bit more warmer
13:43
feel gives this video a nice cinematic
13:45
look but I'm not really satisfied with
13:47
how dark it is and if you look down here
13:49
in my waveform it's the really is
13:51
nothing right in this video so I'm just
13:53
gonna increase the entire offset bring
13:56
the exposure up everywhere go back down
13:59
to the left so I can just keep the nice
14:02
dark parts of the video dark I won't
14:06
mess around with the color casting here
14:08
just because the LUT has already done
14:09
that for me and I'm pretty impressed
14:11
with what it's done I might go add a
14:14
little bit more saturation a bit more
14:16
contrast for more of a dramatic feel
14:18
number two color temperatures fine tint
14:21
got a bit of a green tint but I like
14:22
what it's doing in this video here there
14:24
really isn't a whole lot of color here
14:26
so I'm gonna bother color boosting
14:27
shadows just more specifically
14:30
pinpointing the dark parts I'm using a
14:32
decrease out a bit adding more of a
14:34
darker feel so there you have it I've
14:37
shown is very different types of Clips
14:39
here
14:40
there are some clips here that I'm just
14:42
going to throw a quick nut on just to
14:44
save time
14:45
just to show how to do it this is all
14:48
shot in rec.709 so I'm just going to go
14:51
right make it warm - nice seascape some
14:55
really nice tone there and again here a
14:59
note add serial 3d lut now you can
15:04
download lots online if you go to filter
15:06
grade comm that's where I get most of my
15:08
Lots I like to create more of a
15:11
cinematic feel in all my videos it
15:13
increases the drama in the video and
15:14
will give the whole film kind of a more
15:16
of a professional feel even though it
15:18
was just me and not necessarily a large
15:20
film crew so I'm just go down here let's
15:22
let's make this one cool just to show
15:24
what it can do right away it's just
15:26
drastically changed the look of my video
15:28
it would probably would have taken me
15:30
maybe 20 minutes to recreate just
15:33
getting into all the different tabs
15:35
editing the colors by themselves
15:38
hue/saturation luminosity everything so
15:40
lots are just great time savers it's
15:42
going to be of an idea what kind of a
15:44
look you want to give your footage that
15:46
way you can just find a lot you want and
15:47
in a couple clicks
15:48
we've got great footage so that just
15:50
takes it to a whole other level there
15:51
whenever you add a color adjustment you
15:53
have these little kind of rainbow
15:55
squares around each numbered clip that
15:58
shows you which one you corrected so if
16:00
we go through all of them are colorized
16:02
and edited what's your satisfied with
16:04
the coloring just go down to deliver so
16:06
in the deliver tab you can choose where
16:08
you're going to export this to whether
16:09
it's a hard drive or external drive you
16:12
can also click export which is great to
16:14
want to put it right to YouTube or if
16:17
you like to put it back into one of your
16:18
editing software's and use if you want
16:20
to get back to final cut or premiere to
16:22
add some last-minute adjustments maybe
16:23
some audio touch-ups some texts I
16:26
usually tend to do all you have to do is
16:28
go through the settings here render
16:29
everything you can change the codec
16:32
format I like to use Apple ProRes 4 - 2
16:35
it's just the best for me especially on
16:37
a mac resolution just make sure you got
16:40
the right resolution that you're looking
16:41
for frame 8 you can go down to advanced
16:43
settings but most of the time you don't
16:45
need to mess with this
16:46
once you hit start render your video
16:47
render and export wherever you decided
16:49
to put it there you have it those are
16:51
the basics of color grading in DaVinci
16:52
Resolve and
16:53
what I tend to do in my workflow or how
16:55
I color my video and as always for the
16:57
best Photoshop actions Lightroom presets
16:59
and video let's check out they'll do
17:01
great calm