Color grading is synonymous with DaVinci Resolve, and its biggest strength is still the Color Page. Within the Color Page, you have all the controls and tools you need for adjusting and manipulating colors, creating secondary corrections, reducing noise, and creating looks. It also comes with a built-in color management system, allowing you to process images at full 32-bit float quality with GPU acceleration. No other NLE comes close to Resolve’s color grading toolset.
Color Page Layout
The default layout of the Color page contains the following panels:
Gallery - contains stills which can be used for visual comparison, or for copying grading data. Stills can be generated in Resolve, or imported from an external source, and organized into albums.
Viewer - displays and plays back the selected clip, and offers additional interface controls.
Node graph - allows grades and effects to be structured in order to maximize the visual quality of each clip.
Primaries wheels - controls the tonal and chromatic values of the image on the basis of three luminance ranges (highlights, midtones and shadows).
Custom curves - gives precise control over the chromatic values of the image based on RGB and luminance curves.
Scopes - provide graphic readouts of the luminance and chrominance values of the image for the purposes of balancing and matching.
There are a series of buttons the top of the interface that allow you to show and hide panels as needed. Hiding panels (for example, the timelines or the gallery) will create more space for the viewer and remaining panels.
Primaries Wheels
The Primaries wheels (and the corresponding bars and Log wheels) of the Color wheel palette, allow you to affect the brightness and hue of the image by targeting specific luminance ranges.
Lift - targets the shadows of the image.
Gamma - targets the midtones of the image.
Gain - targets the highlights of the image.
Offset - affects the entire image uniformly.
Master wheels - the dark horizontal sliders beneath the Color wheel which control the YRGB values of those respective ranges.
Clicking the Reset arrows in the top-right corner of each wheel will neutralize the color and master wheel of that range. The entire palette can also be reset by clicking the general reset button next to the palette mode name.
The adjustment controls at the bottom of the Color wheel palette gives additional control over the image with features such as contrast and saturation, temp and tint, etc. Two buttons on the left allow you to switch between pages 1 and 2 of the adjustment controls.
Viewer
The viewer shows the frame that the playhead is currently on. By default, clips are represented the way they will appear upon final render. Some additional features allow you to temporarily bypass grades, see a representation of a clip’s matte, and to compare clips against other media.
Some additional controls at the top and bottom of the viewer maximize the functionality of the tools in the Color page.
TIP You can position your mouse pointer over any tool in the Color page to see its name.
Image wipe - enables you to wipe between a still, reference frame, or another clip in the timeline for visual comparison and matching.
Split screen - places clips alongside one another for review and comparison. It features several modes to allow comparison between clips on a timeline, in the same group, or even versions of grades within the same clip.
Highlight - enabling this mode will reveal the matte that is associated with a
selected node.
On-screen control menu - the drop-down menu in the bottom-left of the viewer features a selection of UI controls associated with some of the palettes and functions of the Color page.
The bottom of the viewer contains a scrubber and transport controls that allow you to navigate the clip like you would in the Edit page.
Palette Panel
A series of buttons under the timeline allow you to navigate between the different palettes available on the Color page. From left to right, these palettes are:
Left palettes - Camera RAW, Color Match, Color wheel, RGB Mixer, Motion effects.
Central palettes - Curves, qualifier, Window, Tracker, Blur, Key, Sizing, 3D
Keyframe editor - Scopes, Keyframe, Info
Use these buttons to navigate between palettes when prompted during the exercises. The name of each palette appears in the top-left corner when clicked, as well as over the button itself when a mouse is hovered over it.
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