How to Color Manage using Nodes in DaVinci Resolve 

Well said. it's new every day.

Curious about this as well.

Exactly

A Color Space Transform from Rec709 to DWG is the exact inverse of a Color Space Transform from DWG to Rec709, assuming the tone mapping settings aligned. The Rec709-to-DWG transform will stretch out (tone map) the tonal range of the Rec709 into DWG and the DWG-to-Rec709 display transform will compress it back to its original range. Thus, the input transform and the display transform cancel each other out leaving you with your original result. This is why it's important to have a display trasnform which is invertible. I believe ACES has had some issues with exactly this.

This is exactly why I was suggesting this in the group the other day. Also remember that depending on source file tagging, in RCM, the input space may or may not need adjustment.. Most 2.2 or 2.4 will get set properly... but if not.. it usually gets set to 709 Scene. Always bypass and check for a NULL result comparatively with any transform of 709 IN/OUT.

yea currently strugging in this area..As of now doing Blackmagic film->Davinci WG/Int workflow. Still experimenting the work flow

I've been there. Look what your CDNG convertion is using as a gammut. If u use Atomos Pro Player, u can make sure that you're using the same gammut as shot. (Latest version can handle V Gammut output) In resolve, use the camera raw data tab in project setting to make sure resolve use the right gammut for your raw sequence. Then you can use CST to grade in DWG for example, then CST Out to rec 709

@@alexandreear I purchased the assimilate license to convert prores to CDNG. Honestly idk what gammut it's using.

@@photoartisansecuador If u have the latest version, you can select the gamut, in that case, V-Gamut

same question

Great question! You can choose to apply them at the group level if you want!

You need to cst those on the clip level. Timeline level cst also influences what dissolves look like.

@@simonrabeder1599 Using them at clip level means that you have to copy and paste the CST nodes on every clip. It's more convenient to use the CST nodes at group level to save time and effort.

@@bastienchill That's what I'm doing and it works fine with Groups. Next question is if we should/could move LUTs/ Halation/ Texture to the Post-Clip tab, now sitting empty.

Exactly. What's missing from this video is WHY do it this way. Setting up ACES in a project preset is trivial and saves a huge amount of work! P.S. Blackmagic really needs to give us a better interface than clicking on tiny dots to navigate between node groups!

Same question. If I have two different RAW camera files, should I use the RED profile and Color Science anyway?

Bleach bypass is basically a contrast push without the color component. This is how the HDR wheels work as well when you add or decrease luminance so that's a good place to start.

@@Huttersvuur true but cullen always manages to find the most efficient way of doing things so id be interested in his take

Hey Dominic! Color managing manually with nodes does give you a bit more flexibility, however, you are still able to select each clip's input color space when managing at the project level. I personally like to be able to visualize the color pipeline within the node graph as well!

I was wondering the same thing.

Yes! In this example, we are using Davinci Wide Gamut/Davinci Intermediate as our timeline color space and Rec709 gamma 2.4 as our output color space. I would be sure to set both of those to match within the color management tab of our Davinci Resolve project settings.

@@CullenKelly Thanks

may I ? : projet : DaVinci YRGB (not managed)/ Timeline space color : DWG intermediate / Targeted timeline's space : Rec 709 gamma 2.4

Great question! Typically when we are in the grade, we would be using the original footage instead of a proxy.

@@CullenKelly okay thanks. So work flow wise you could use your proxies while editing, then when you move to grading just swap back to the originals?

That's correct!

The most important thing would be to make sure you know exactly what the LUT is expecting, along with what it is returning. In the case of the Resolve Film Looks, they're were built to return Rec709 with a gamma of 2.4. So in this example, we wouldn't need a traditional ODT like we would when using something like my Voyager LUTs since those are purely creative transforms. Hope that helps!

@@CullenKelly That makes more sense. Thank you for the response!

Hey Matt! Try adding a serial node either by right clicking in the node graph or by using opt + s. Resolve won't typically add a node there for you like it does at the other three levels.

Great question! Here’s a video showing several different methods for applying your CST and or look globally while still mainintaing flexibility for things like graphics: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ReHA9bhT168.htmlsi=HchZFGtJX6tAA_r6

@@CullenKelly Thanks. Seems like an adjustment clip might be the way to go for me since I'm using group clips for camera CSTs

Ideally, we're doing all of our grading within that "working color space." In the case in this video, that would be Davinci Wide Gamut/Davinci Intermediate. It's a good rule of thumb to setup your look and do all of your grading in a scene referred color space, vs a display color space like Rec709.

@@CullenKelly Right! That makes sense.

Tone Mapping is basically an irreversible process that takes you out of a scene referred space. Yes, it is technically invertible but not with the tools built into Resolve and to reverse it is a poor idea in general. Thus, if you want to remain in a scene-referred space and have accurate transforms to scene linear or accurate exposure adjustments etc, you want those transforms to have Tone Mapping set to None. That's why the IDT and also right clicking on a node and setting the gamma both have no tone mapping.

@@thatcherfreeman Thanks Thatcher. My thinking was that DWG is a larger gamut ( for pretty much most footage ) and the tone mapping is not needed because there would be no hard clipping of luma values or saturation. That was only an assumption though.

@@JimRobinson-colors There is an issue that some camera gamuts do extend outside of DWG. If you're having problems with that, my recommendation would be to use something like the saturation compression gamut mapping in the IDT, but I still wouldn't use Tone Mapping in the IDT in that scenario for the reason I previously described.

@@thatcherfreeman You misread my comment - I'm not having problems with your comments at all. I was explaining what I assumed the ( no tone mapping ) reason to be. Never claimed a problem. In fact was thanking for your explanation above.

@@JimRobinson-colors Oh I didn't think you had an issue with my comment, I just wanted to address your discussion point about large camera gamuts, which is absolutely a valid issue and a great thing to bring up. I just think that if you were to run into oversized primaries (say, with RED footage) it *may* be better addressed via saturation compression than doing nothing or tone mapping. There's maybe even an argument to be made about whether tone mapping should be used if the camera's dynamic range exceeds DaVinci Intermediate, which like you said, is rarely the case. Even then, I might argue the answer in principle is still no, but then you may have highlights that are >100% in DI that could be a little annoying to manipulate and control just due to Resolve's UI. Overall, I think the best thing to do is just to be aware of the downsides of each tool so you can know when you want to make compromises.

I struggle with this too. I’m most likely missing something trivial, but I seem to have to grade one multicam clip and then copy that grade to all the other “clips” using the same base clip (same camera/clip) instead of being able to grade each clip once and have it affect all the clips/instances of that clip in the multicam timeline.

My main issue is that I can't have an output transform to Rec.709 inside the multicam timeline because that affects the entire project, which in turn affects other assets in the main timeline. I apologize and am not explaining it very well! @@robfxdls

@@BigFlavorFilms Sound like my issue is different from yours. In your case (and perhaps in mine) perhaps Color managing via the project settings may be easier and just as good a solution?

Hey Maurice! The short answer is either “neither” or “both”, depending on how you look at it. Happy to discuss further in Grade School, but for now I’ll just say you really always want your Timeline Color Space dropdown in Project Settings to match whatever space you’re actually working in (ACEScct in your example). When these are mismatched, you’re not creating custom color management, you’re essentially guaranteeing incorrect behavior on Resolve’s part. But gotta say, I love your thinking here!

@@CullenKelly Thank you for your response. I would love to touch on this further in Grade School. If I'm not mistaken you do those on Friday mornings correct?

They are variations i think and sometimes refreshers. some were done over a year or two so it's nice and i think welcome. Also it's not the easiest to come up and curate a video on grading every single week.

people still ask for it!