In addition Black Magic design have just release the public beta of DaVinci Resolve 18.5. With this update you can now use the Raw controls in the Grading room to control the ISO/White Balance/Tint etc of S-Log3 footage from the FX series cameras. This makes it so easy to adjust for any exposure offsets. https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/davinci-resolve-and-fusion
Blackmagic Designs DaVinci Resolve is a really amazing piece of software, especially given that there is a free version that packs in almost all of the power of the full paid studio version.
Today, post production grading is becoming an ever more important part of the video production process. In the past basic colour correction functions of most edit applications were enough for most people. But now if you are shooting using log or raw it’s very important that you have the right toolset to take advantage of the benefits that log and raw offer.
For decades I have used Adobe Premiere for my editing and it has allowed me to create many great videos from broadcast TV series to simple corporates. As an edit application it’s still pretty solid. But now I shoot almost everything using log and raw and I have never been completely happy with the results from Premiere, even with Lumetri.
So I started to do my grading in Resolve and I have never looked back. The degree of control I have in Resolve is much greater. There are wonderful features such as DaVinci’s own Colour Managed workflow or the ACES workflow which makes dealing with log and raw from virtually any camera a breeze. If you want a film look choose ACES, for more punchy looks choose DaVinci Color Managed. You don’t need LUT’s, exposure adjustments are easy and you can then add all kinds of different secondary corrections such as power windows quickly and easily. The colour managed workflow are particularly beneficial if you wish to produce HDR versions of your productions.
But until recently my workflow was a 2 stage workflow. Edit in Premiere, then grade and finish in Resolve. But the last couple of versions of Resolve have seen some huge advances in its editing speed and capabilities. The editor is now as good as anyone else’s, so I am now editing in Resolve too. It’s a very similar to Premiere so it didn’t take long to make the switch.
One question that I am often asked is where to find good training information and guides for Resolve. Well clearly Blackmagic Design have been listening as they have now released a series of videos that will help guide anyone new to Resolve through the basics. In total there are 8 hours of easy to follow video. The manual is also pretty good!
If you have never tried Resolve then I really urge you to give it a go. It is an incredibly powerful piece of software. It isn’t difficult to master once you see how it’s laid out, how the different “rooms” work and how to use nodes. When I started with it I really found it all quite logical. You start in the “media” room to bring in your material, then progress on to the edit room for editing, finishing in the deliver room to encode and produce your master files and other output versions.
So do take a look at the videos linked below if you want to learn more about Resolve and do give it a try. Remember the free version will do almost everything that the full version will. The full Studio version isn’t expensive and features one of the best suites of noise reduction tools anywhere. It only costs a one off payment of $299.00 USD, no silly subscription fees to keep having to pay as with Adobe!
One last thing before I get to the videos: If you do a lot of grading you really should get a proper control panel. I have the Blackmagic micro panel and this really speeds up my grading. If you don’t have a panel you can only adjust a single grading parameter at a time. With a panel you can do things like bringing up the gain while pulling down the black level. This allows you to see the interaction between your different adjustments much more dynamically and it’s just plain faster. Most of the key functions have dedicated controls so you can quickly dial in a bit of contrast, switch to log mode, bypass a node and boost the saturation all through direct controls, very much quicker than with just a mouse. The use of the micro panel has probably halved the amount of time it takes me to grade a typical project – and – I’m getting a better result because it’s more intuitive.
So here are the videos:
Introduction to Editing.
Colour Grading.
Fusion Part 1. VFX and Graphics
Fusion Part 2. 3D FX
Fairlight Audio Part 1.
Fairlight Audio Part 2.
Delivery and Encoding.
Media Mangement.
DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Read More
Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.
Name
Domain
Purpose
Expiry
Type
wpl_user_preference
www.xdcam-user.com
WP GDPR Cookie Consent Preferences
1 year
HTTP
YSC
youtube.com
YouTube session cookie.
54 years
HTTP
Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third party advertisers.
Name
Domain
Purpose
Expiry
Type
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
youtube.com
YouTube cookie.
6 months
HTTP
Analytics cookies help website owners to understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting information anonymously.
Name
Domain
Purpose
Expiry
Type
__utma
xdcam-user.com
Google Analytics long-term user and session tracking identifier.
2 years
HTTP
__utmc
xdcam-user.com
Legacy Google Analytics short-term technical cookie used along with __utmb to determine new users sessions.
54 years
HTTP
__utmz
xdcam-user.com
Google Analytics campaign and traffic source tracking cookie.
6 months
HTTP
__utmt
xdcam-user.com
Google Analytics technical cookie used to throttle request rate.
Session
HTTP
__utmb
xdcam-user.com
Google Analytics short-term functional cookie used to determine new users and sessions.
Session
HTTP
Preference cookies enable a website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the region that you are in.
Name
Domain
Purpose
Expiry
Type
__cf_bm
onesignal.com
Generic CloudFlare functional cookie.
Session
HTTP
NID
translate-pa.googleapis.com
Google unique id for preferences.
6 months
HTTP
Unclassified cookies are cookies that we are in the process of classifying, together with the providers of individual cookies.
Name
Domain
Purpose
Expiry
Type
_ir
api.pinterest.com
---
Session
---
Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user's experience more efficient. The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site. For all other types of cookies we need your permission. This site uses different types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages.