** In trying to keep my explanation simple in this beginners guide, my explanation of Display Referred grading in the first few minutes has not come across quite technically correct, however my intention was correct. Display referred grading means to grade AFTER the display profile has been assigned - in my explanation I use an example where you don't assign it and therefore just grade to the display. BOTH my way and the technical way mean that then switching to a different output space after grading is not going to work, so ultimately it's the same result - I just didn't explain very well here. Had I applied a LUT or CST to REC709 and then graded this would be display referred - I skipped that step. However grading with no colour management at all (as in this episode) is still Display referred grading as I demonstrate here. Grading UNDER a display CST, colour management or LUT is Scene referred as I demonstrate correctly here. Apologies for any confusion. Nothing I show in the video is incorrect technique. There is a balance in making beginners guides as to 'how deep to go' in explain something and I appreciate that its very hard to please everyone's level of understanding.. This is why I always clearly label my BEGINNERS episodes. This is from the DaVinci Resolve MANUAL... The default DaVinci YRGB color science setting, which is what DaVinci Resolve has always used, relies on what is called “Display Referred” color management. This means that Resolve has no information about how the source media used in the Timeline is supposed to look; you can only setup and judge color accuracy via the calibrated broadcast display you’re outputting to. Essentially, you are the color management, in conjunction with a trustworthy broadcast display that’s been calibrated to ensure accuracy. This is how I correctly demonstrated in this episode.
Darren, since I can't think of a better place to ask for some clarity, I'll ask it here-- We simply tell DaVinci our output is a REC709 *2.4* space. However, when researching methodology for accurately calibrating a display, there's much chatter about REC709 computer displays being gamma *2.2* Where is this discrepancy coming from? Does this hold true within Display P3? Mole hills quickly turn into mountains within forums and the web, so I'm hoping you can provide insight. One fly in the color ointment seems to corrupt the chain when aiming for purity of process, you know? Bonus- I'm using the P3 display in my 2019 iMac for my safari into color grading.
@@aroefilms Hi. Its a great question. Broadcast TV specifies a REC709 Gamma 2.4 delivery. This is what you should set your output to in Resolve, however this also needs to match your display. No point setting Gamma 2.4 and viewing it on P3 setting monitor. They need to match! Gamma 2.2 is standard for web/youtube delivery, but if your monitor is calibrated to 2.4 there is no point in changing it. They need to match so recalibrate or switch your monitor to be Gamma 2.2. I hope that helps. Gamma 2.2 is sometimes call sRGB although this is not 100% accurate in some cases, but might be your closest match. All the best, Darren
This was brilliant, Darren. The penny's finally dropped with CSTs here :) I've watched all your previous episodes too....I've no excuses other than an uncompliant small brain. That only took *cough* 12 months. Thank you, sir. I cannot wait for your next masterclass!
Pleased to hear that Andy. Next Masterclass should be early 2025. Sign up to the free email newsletter link at the bottom of the video description for updates. Wish you all the best with your new found colour management knowledge! Darren.
Really amazing stuff you're putting out there. You've literally saved me (and others I dare say...) quite a few hours working through various half baked truths and misunderstandings that are out there on the internet. Kudos to you sir, you are one hell of a teacher!
Hi Darren. I’m a retired scientist and an artist, and I can’t compliment you enough about the quality of your presentations and the value of the information that you provide. EXCELLENT! I currently use Premiere Pro and plan to learn Resolve before my Adobe subscription renews. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but it appears that Premiere Pro color grading tools are amateurish compared to Resolve. I’ve watched a few videos that compare color grading in each application, and it appears much more difficult to get acceptable results in Premiere Pro. You’ve demonstrated a broad knowledge of color science and the ability to broadcast stunningly delicious colors. I’m envious your skills. Thank you for the education. 😊
Perfect timing for this video as i am now trying to deepen my knowledge and understanding of various standards (eventually want to get into commercial and movie/feature work). But what I really came here to say is thank you. Because of you and a couple of others on youtube, I have been able to start a business in this career space and have my first 2 continual clients. This has given me an opportunity to get out of poverty while still managing my disabilities. Literally saving my life giving out information like this and i absolutely cannot wait to take your masterclass in the future. Thank you so much.
Very helpful video! I would love to see a in depth video dedicated to setting up your project color management settings. The various ways and why you would use one over another.
Exactly what I expected, another great explanation of a color grading topic so I can understand it the first time I hear it instead of having to work hard to just try to make sense of what the presenter is saying. Keep up the great work, Darren.
I feel less hesitant now to give ACES a try after watching the entire video. Hmm I'll give it a try on an old project to get comfortable with it first! Amazing episode. Thank you so much for the beautifully explained overview, especially about ACES. Really appreciate it!☺
Hi Chi!! As long as you are aware of the differences its certainly worth playing with. The gamut mapping in ACES is usually nicer - I forgot to mention that in this episode, but we covered it in the masterclass.
@@DarrenMostyn Got it! I’ll play around with it tomorrow. Might take some time until I’m comfortable enough to do a real job in ACES. But I’ll definitely keep you posted once I do🤗 GN
Thank you Darren for these excellent videos. I'm watching from a purely hobbyist/recreational perspective, but your teaching and presentation skills are outstanding. Your content makes me spend my spare time productively rather than getting lost in random content. Keep up the great work!
I’ve just created my Aces workflow node tree now & along with your DWG workflow node tree, I’ve got a choice now without having to change my project settings. Thankyou Darren, great tutorial! 👍😝👌🙌
Thanks for another excellent video Darren. I love the CST workflow you use throughout your other videos and it's great to see this can also be applied for ACES too!
Superb video and I am so relieved that my « guessing game technique » when the production is not knowing the camera log they shot with, is mentioned in this video 😂 I feel less alone, thank you Darren !
Thank you for this one! The last bit was particularly useful for me. I am a total beginner in colour management, using footage that was recorded on a Canon EOS 7D back in 2014. So, that's all the info I had, with no connection to the person who filmed the footage, and no idea what Input Colour Space or Gamma was used. In any case, this helped me get a general idea of where to start with this kind of footage. Much appreciated!
Your videos are always a highlight in my learning journey. You have an incredible talent for breaking down complex topics like color management in DaVinci Resolve, making them accessible and understandable. It's clear that you put a lot of thought and effort into your content, and it truly shows. The depth of your explanations and the insights you provide are simply unmatched. I can't thank you enough for sharing your expertise and helping us unlock the full potential of this powerful software. Keep up the amazing work - we're eagerly awaiting your next video!
What a great video! Thank you - I learnt tonnes! Quick question (if that's ok). You mentioned 2.2 is for Web and 2.4 is for broadcast- what technically would be wrong with uploading a 2.4 to, say, RU-vid or Vimeo? Or another way of putting it - what is the difference between 2.2 and 2.4? Thank you - and more videos for 'dummies' please - it really helps 'join the dots' for a much better understanding. Bravo! :)
Fantastic. A comment on color management in general. I'm a complete amateur (actually a musician) and started messing with image - CGI, After Effects, editing etc - until I learned DaVinci Resolve and did some experiments with color correcting, grading etc. Someone I was doing the music for liked what I did and asked me to work as the colorist for a job. (What??) It was all non-commercial stuff, so I said yes and the first thing I asked myself when I got the footage (all log) was "what do I do with this" - meaning BEFORE starting to grade or correct. No one knew. I asked some friends who work professionally (VFX, colorists etc) and none could even understand my problem. They just start correcting it (display referred grading?). Only after watching your video about color management, I understood the problem. So, strangely, even professional people (here in Brazil at least) don't seem to understand what color space is. They just learn the process without really understanding it, which can be confirmed by looking at some series and ads here, where you can see the look jumping all over the place. There used to be even a "style" here called "francesinha" - little french - which is a greenish log look, if you can believe that. An error turned into a style. So, thank you so much for explaining so well what should be obvious, ha ha. Cheers.
Im so pleased to read your detailed comment and the fact you understand where i'm coming from means a lot! Good luck in your career path - sounds like you'll go far! All the best, Darren
@@DarrenMostyn Thanks, Darren. Not much of a career, only one job, and I'm old already (60) but it's all good. Here the VFX mafias won't let you in. Tried for years and nothing, but this one job is good enough. I do the music and the color correction, chroma key etc. It's already a lot. All the best to you, sir.
Thank you for this incredibly informative and interesting explanation of ACES. I have played with ACES a little (I mostly use DWG) but this will help me in future projects when I decide to go down the ACES path. I can see some occasions where the higher contrast baseline of ACES might be useful. Thanks again, it was a great session.
Great insight, Darren! I’m looking forward to your future content! The biggest issue I’m facing is color matching scenes. They aren’t in LOG profile (REC709 Cinestyle) and I’m struggling to match the clips even though they all use the same camera sensor. Would love to know your technique color matching scenes🙈 Anyways, superb content as always! Keep rocking it!
Darren your tutorial videos are fantastic and I've learned so much about DaVinci Resolve and Color Correction and Grading watching them. This is a bit off the main track but have you ever done a video about how you set-up and use your pen tablet? I searched your channel but didn't find anything about tablets other than videos about the iPad. I assume you use a pen tablet with that stylus sometimes appearing in your right hand. I know several editors have switched from using a mouse to a pen tablet - I bought a Wacom Intuos Pro and for the past month have been struggling while trying to use it. Reluctantly going back to using my mouse until I can sort-out the tablet setup better. Advice about how you set-up your tablet/pen and how you use it would be very useful for me, and a few other subscribers as well I suspect. Keep up the great work! Thanks.
Very good episode! very well explained. Thanks for this video. If you allow me, I would love to see how HDR works, I think it would be a good episode to watch. Thank you so much
Thanks Darren, that was very informative. I understand color spaces better now. I consider myself an advanced freelance colorist, but most of my experience is with student films and music videos shot in RAW or Prores 422 and delivered in Rec.709, even for theatrical releases. I'm concerned about future projects that require Rec.2020, P3, or HDR delivery. I've learned so much from your videos and they've significantly improved my color grading skills. I would really appreciate it if you could make a video explaining these color spaces and the technical considerations for working with them. This would help me prepare for such projects.
What a phenomenal guide! Could you also make a video on how to grade and export (without color shift (rec.2020/DCI-P3)) in aces/DWG as the tools behave quite differently compared to display referred grading.
Great overview Darren. I see you use macOS. Can you please shed some light on tackling the color space on Mac? The videos I found use Display grading, I think they set Timeline color space to Reg 709-A. But I'd like to work in Color Managed workflow with DaVinci WG/Intermediate. Shall I just set Output color space to Reg 709-A? I did not see you doing anything like that. I did set Use Mac display color profiles for viewers and Automatically tag Reg 709 clips as Reg 709-A - is that it? Do I need to set the tags on the export settings? Thanks so much!
New to DR and color correction/grading ... while you lose me at times (enunciation, cadence and terminology) as I have no experience with any of these color profiles, I did get the fundamentals for setting the input color space and consider what the output color space should be and even how to set up a workflow among color spaces. I'm nowhere near fully understanding color management, but this start was really good, thank you, Darren! PS: Feel a bit overwhelmed at present as there's a whole science behind optics and color and sound, not to mention multiple programs to learn. But it's fascinating esp at the right pace!
A great solution with the ACES color space. But, I'm still working in the DWG space However, ACES has a number of advantages when working with both a large dynamic range of colors and compatibility with other production facilities. I consider ACES to be the future, as it accurately interprets color with greater coverage and greater compatibility
Ive just returned from a holiday in Sicily with my two daughters. It was averaging 35 degrees which is harsh for a colourist!! Not burnt, just glowing!! I am very careful to apply lots of suncream! Glad you enjoying the tutorials anyway! Im off to Ibiza in a few weeks so expect me to look even redder soon!! Im nowhere near hitting the skin tone line on the vectorscopes right now!! All the best, Darren
As always a great video Darren, you always manage that fine line of including beginnings and taking us to quite an advance position in an easy to follow style. One question, no worries if it’s missed, Timelines, are they always Rec.709? Can it be changed?
Daren, thank you for excellent lesson. Would love to see a lesson from you which explains the end-to-end flow for HDR videos. Especially case where we start from S-Log3/S-Gammut3 and end up having HDR video uploaded on RU-vid.
Masterfully explained as always! I’ve only worked in aces years ago and had no idea about the AP0->AP1->AP0 background process 😮 Can you recommend some article to nerd further on the subject?
But what about shifts after exports? I never get what i made in davinci except i set everything to rec709A. It would be so amazing if you could to a video about that topic - specially for us Mac users 🙌
Try this as well. Change your display preset to hdtv. Go into fine tuning and turn off system gamma boost and dial in your preferred screen brightness. Then just grade in resolve using standard rec709 2.4. when you render, tag your video 709/709.
fantastic explanation! would love to see how to grade and deliver for youtube in hdr. im already doing it with nikon nraw nlog footage but im pretty sure im not doing it correctly.
Always enjoy your episodes! When you went to RCM, you selected the Input Color Space and the the Canon Log2. But I have noticed an Apple Log option. What is that? Curious minds want to know.
Darren, a little late to comment but, we use Davinci Resolve Color Managed (VS CST nodes). We are usually grading our own footage (usually shot in raw) so it pretty automatic and quick starting point. If footage is not raw, we change the input color space as you specify here. Great workflow and "simple". However I feel that so many color grading "experts" suggest or encourage the use of CST nodes for color management (CST in, GRADE nodes in middle, CST out at the end). My opinion has been, why do the extra work of adding CST nodes if I understand resolve color management, and is properly doing it for me? Sometimes I feel like Im not "pro" if I use a "color management workflow" vs CST nodes. Other than spending more time adding CST nodes, what am I missing out on by using DRCM? .... BTW really appreciate your videos and sharing of this information!!
Hey Darren, great video as always! I have a question though: What’s the reason to use ACES transform instead of CST? I see that CST has transforms for ACES as well. Am I missing something? The reason I’m asking is because ACES transform has WAY less source options than CST.
Hi Darren, got a question: In the section where you grade in a CST workflow, you set your timeline color space to DWG. Yet you go into a ACES color space with the transforms. Wouldn't that mean that your tools are now assuming DWG and not the ACES that you transformed to? You do set the color space correctly in the film look creator, but you would have to map every node between the IDT and ODT like that manually? Shouldn't the timeline color space then be ACES and not DWG?
Correct - even when doing color management manually with CSTs, one should set their working color space correctly in the project/timeline settings as it affects what color space aware tools expect.
because the first CST and the last CST are ACES then the tools behave like DWG however it wont affect the ACES workflow. You could of course set the timeline to anything you like. I like how the tools behave in DWG but your way would also work. and yes probably a better workflow. However if Im doing that I might aswell jsut set colour mamangement to ACES globally. I like the DWG baehaviour of the tools more than ACERS. Hope that helps.
Hi Darren, @DarrenMostyn I really enjoy your videos, but I'm often a bit unsure about the output gamma settings. I notice you almost always set it to 2.4, and I assume that's because you're delivering for broadcast and your monitor is calibrated to gamma 2.4. But what do you do when you need to deliver for both broadcast and web? Do you set the output gamma to 2.4 and 2.2 respectively when exporting? And do you switch your monitor back and forth between 2.2 and 2.4? I assume that if you choose gamma 2.2 and are delivering for web, you won't see the result correctly on your gamma 2.4 monitor, right?
Hello. Thank's for your videos. I'm colorist since 12 years, but I allways learn things with you. I have a question about ACES, why we don't specify the output gamma and only Rec709 ? Rec709 could be 2.4 or 2.2 or 2.6. Is Rec709 in Aces is 2.4 by defaut ?
Hello, thank you very much for your explanations. At the 19min24 you put your timeline in DaVinci Wide Gamut, but work after it, between your CSTs, on Aces CCt. Do you do this, to keep the commands of your panel reacting has usual? Thanks for your answer
Great video, thanks for putting this together. How do you create exr sequences for vfx in aces if your original footage is standerd 8bit sRGB? What if you dont know what camera was used?
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