All language subtitles for DaVinci-Resolve-17-Color-ColorManagement

Hi, I'm Colin Kelly.

I'm a master trainer for Blackmagic
Design, and I'm here to talk to you today

about color management
inside of DaVinci Resolve 17.

Now, before we dive into the way
we can use color management in resolve,

we need to understand
what color management is.

So to do that,
let's take a look at this clip

that I've got here in front of me
in my project.

Now, as you can see, I currently am
looking at this image in a sort of flat

log state.

So the contrast is very low,
don't have much saturation,

and I generally need to get it into a more

vibrant place before I can really begin
to do anything else.

One way that I might approach
that task would be to go down here

into my primary section and begin
to manipulate my contrast and my pivot,

maybe my saturation or my lift
and my gamma and my gain

and really just dial things in by

I until I'm starting to get an acceptable
visual result.

This would be what's known as a display
referred approach to color grading,

meaning that we are literally
using our display

as our reference
for all of our visual decisions.

This is a common way of working and
it stands at odds with color management,

which is about using image, science
and math to transform

what the camera saw into what our display

can reproduce in a systematic way.

It's more efficient
than doing things by hand.

In this display referred method,
and it allows us to do a couple of things.

It's going to allow us to match our
cameras better if we have camera A or B

or C, and it's also going to allow us
to preserve our creative intent

when we are delivering
for multiple displays.

I'm going to reset my grade here for now,
and I want to dive into

how we can tackle this grade
using a color management approach.

So now that we understand the purpose
and the function of color management,

let's talk about how we can actually
employ it inside of Da Vinci resolve.

There's a couple of different
color management frameworks or solutions

available to us in resolve,
and these include ACIS or the Academy

color encoding system
as well as resolve color management.

V two.

Now, these are both equally sound
and equally useful

color management solutions,
but they have slightly different

interfaces and parameters
that they expose to us as the user.

So we're going to talk about both of them.

We're also going to touch on Dolby Vision,
which while it is not a color management

solution in and of itself,
it is part of an ecosystem of color

management in which we are mastering
for HDR as well as SDR displays.

Let's talk about ACES first.

What I want to do is reset
my gray back to its original state here

and I'm going to go to my file menu
and then I'm going to go to my project

settings here

and I'm going to go to my color management
section.

And I want to start by talking about this
very first dropdown menu

that I have up here
at the top called Color Science

right now that's set to Da Vinci Wired.

GB And all this means is that I'm telling
Resolve currently I've got this.

I'm going to take care of everything
in terms of what needs to happen

to get this image from the way
it was shot out to its display state.

This would be a good selection to make
if we were working

display referred as we did a moment ago.

But since we want to try out
some color management

workflows,
we're going to explore the options

available within here and select
something different.

In our case, we want to start with ACIS,
because this is one of the

to working color spaces
for the ACS color management framework.

So I'm going to select this,
and when I do, you'll see several

new options appear down below
that color science dropdown menu.

First, we have our ACS version,
which we can safely leave at it's default,

and the next two menu
items are really the most important.

This is where we are going to be
telling Resolve

what our original camera color space was,
as well as the display

that we are targeting
or that we are using to master our images.

So right now
I have my input device transform

set up to Alexa
because that's what I have here on shot

number one is an array wide color
gamut log C image.

So I want to tell resolve.

This is the original state or color space

of this image as I'm feeding it into you.

And then next, we're going to designate
our output device transform.

There are a number of different options
here, but since I'm doing a traditional

REC seven or nine SDR master,
I want to select rec seven or nine.

And with these parameters selected,
I want to go down to my save button here

and let's look at what happens
to our image when I do.

You can see that

the exact task
that I was setting myself to a moment ago

of trying to normalize my image
and get some healthy contrast and color

out of it, has now been done

automatically on my behalf
by the ACS color management system.

And you can imagine that
if you had a timeline of, say,

20 or 200 or 2000 of these shots,

how much more efficient
it would be to simply designate

an input color space
and an output color space,

and then let your color management
framework

do the mapping for you as opposed
to having to manually dial in the proper

contrast and saturation as a baseline
on every single image in your timeline.

So that is the basic functionality
of setting up your color management

inside of an ACS color management
workflow.

Now, I want to point out
something about these other shots

here in my timeline,
which happened to be raw shots.

These in particular are from a Blackmagic
pocket cinema camera.

Something that's important
to know about ACS or resolve color

management is that when you are loading
in a raw format into your project,

your color management solution
is actually going to pick up on the fact

that that media is raw
and it is automatically going to input map

it appropriately
into your color management pipeline.

So I just want to point out to you guys,
let's go back here to shot number one

and go back to our project settings
and observe

that if I change my input device,
transform, let's do something drastic.

Let's say like rec seven or nine.

If I change this setting and I hit save
and I look at my image,

my image will change
because I am instructing

the color management workflow to perform
the mapping using different assumptions.

Let's go back and set this to Alexa
as we had it before.

And now let's go through that
same exercise on one of these raw shots.

I'm going to once again
go to my file menu project settings,

and let's once again
go from Alexa to rec seven or nine

and see if we get that same dramatic shift
in the character of our image.

Interesting.

When we hit Save here, nothing happens.

This is because in the case of any raw
format such as red

are three d every raw or blackmagic B raw.

Your color management framework
is going to automatically input map

those images appropriately,
so you will not see a change

in the mapping of these images regardless
of how you set up your input device.

Transform.

This is only the case with raw formats
with any other format of image or clip

that you bring into your project.

You want to make sure
that it is being mapped appropriately

from its initial state.

Which leads me to another question.

Let's go back to shot number one here
and once again

go to our project settings
and restore our sound color management.

Or we are starting with Alexa
and mapping out to REC seven or nine

so that when I hit Save here,
I'm looking at a nice healthy level

of saturation and contrast on my image
that I can grade underneath.

But let's now observe another question,
which is this If I go to shot

number two here, you're going to see that
my image changes slightly.

It's being mapped in a different way.

But isn't the point of color management
to give me a common

foundation rather than images
which are mapped differently?

Let's now take a look at shot
number two and observe that

there's actually a discrepancy
between these images and the way

their contrast is being mapped out
to REC seven or nine.

The reason for this
is that this first image is in an area.

Alexa log C color space, which means that

we have appropriately input mapped it.

But this shot shot
number two is in a different color space.

This is actually in Sony's S log three
s Gamma three city color space.

I actually need to designate
just for this shot a different

input color space
in order to get a valid result.

So I can do this within ACS by right
clicking on the thumbnail for a shot.

And just on the basis of this shot saying,
Hey, I want to change

my ACS input transform, it's fine
for all of my other shots

to take the default value
of an Alexa color space.

But in this case, I want to designate
a different input color space.

And because I know that this is Sony
log three

SKM at three Dot City,
I'm going to make that selection here.

And you'll now see that if I

flip between shots one and two,
I have an identical reproduction.

And this is a perfect example of the power
of good sound color management,

which allows you to map material
from different cameras

into a common starting point
so that you can focus on the creative

rather than the technical
aspects of your grade.

Now that we have discussed
the ACS color management workflow,

let's move on and talk about another color
management workflow available to us here

in Resolve Resolve Color Management v

two, which we can access
in the same section

of our project settings
where we were a moment ago.

So if I go to my file menu
and my project settings

and I go to my color management section
here, I now want to return

to my color science dropdown menu
and I'm this time going to select

not DaVinci Y or GB
and not one of my ACS flavors,

but Da Vinci y RG be color managed.

And when I do, we're going to see that our
menu items underneath change once again.

Now by default we have this resolve color

management preset option, which gives us

a very convenient way to quickly
get our color management set up.

I'm going to go to Da Vinci wide Gamut

and you'll notice
that when I am using this preset,

I actually don't have a dropdown menu
for setting up my input color space.

I'm going to need to do that

at the individual shop level
when I'm working with these presets.

However, I do still need to set up
my output color space,

which is currently set to rest
seven or nine gamma to four,

and that's a good default.

When we are mastering
four standard seven or nine SDR material.

With these settings selected,
let's once again save and observe

how our image is going to change.

Whoops. What happened?

We're back to a flat log,
low contrast, low saturation image.

What's going on?

What's going on is we have yet to set up

the input color space of the shots
here in our timeline

because remember, we're not
setting those up at the project level

when using our presets inside of resolve,
color management, what we need to do

next is right click on our image
and go to input color space.

You'll notice that the language
has changed ever so slightly from our ACS

workflow, where we were designating
an ACS input transform,

we're now designating an input color
space, same thing, different name

with our input color space,
we now need to scroll down

and select
estimate three dot Cindy slash s log three

and once we do, you're going to see that
I once again

have a nice normalized image
with healthy contrast and color.

And same thing here on shot number one.

I would want to right click on this shot

and select an input color space
of every log C, which I already have here.

These images have now been successfully
normalized and mapped

inside of my resolve color
management workflow.

And once again, I just want to point out
that all of my raw material

taking place here later in the timeline
is automatically being mapped for me.

And in fact, I don't even have the option
of changing my input color space

because resolve has me covered
and is automatically correctly

mapping that raw image
into my color management workflow.

Thus far, we've talked about a couple
of different solutions

for color management inside of resolve.

I now want to go a little bit deeper
into resolve color management

and talk about some of the extra tools
and parameters that are available to us

if we wish to exert control over them.

So let's go back to our project
settings under our file menu

and return to our color management.

And I want to pay closer attention
now to my resolve color management preset.

You'll notice that we have a couple
of good sensible presets which exist

to help us get our color management going
quickly when we're working in resolve.

However, there may be instances
where we wish to exert

more granular control over the way
that we are shepherding our image

from its original camera
negative state out to our display

and with resolve color management,
we have an extensive set of options

available to us
for controlling that journey.

If I go down here to my custom
preset option,

you're going to see that
I have a number of different parameters

exposed to me, and it's
okay if you don't understand

what all of these are all at once,
because there's quite a few here.

And the best thing that you can do
in terms of getting more comfortable

with what these do is to simply experiment
and spend some time with them.

But I want to walk you through
what each of them does in broad strokes

here today.

We have an input color space,
which, as we discussed a moment ago,

when we are in a default preset here,

we don't have the option of declaring
at the project level at all.

But we now can.

So let's say that we had a timeline
full of every log, see material

and we didn't want to do
what we were doing a moment ago of right

clicking on each thumbnail and saying,
Hey, this is every log C,

We would want to choose the custom preset
so that we can explicitly designate

an input color space for all of our shots

without having to manually
tag each one of them.

So in my case,
I'm going to select every log C for this.

Next, we have a timeline color space.

Timeline, Color space is a more advanced
consideration within color management,

so I would encourage you to leave this
at it's default

of da Vinci wide gamut intermediate
unless you're more experienced

and you have specific reason
to select another color space

timeline working luminance is also

another more advanced
aspect of color management,

which is essentially allowing us
to control the peak luminance of our image

as it moves from its high dynamic
range acquisition state

and into its lower dynamic range
reproduction state.

Again, I would encourage you to leave this
at its default value of HDR 4000

unless you're more experienced

and you are seeking
to get a different visual result.

Next, we have our output color space,
which we've already set up rec

seven or nine Gamma two four
is the standard selection we would want to

make here when we are mastering for SDR
Rex seven or nine.

Next we have our limit output gamut.

Again, a more advanced option
that you can safely leave at it's default

unless you have specific reason
to change it.

And then we have our input
and output d r t.

Again, more advanced options,
very powerful options available to us

when we want to customize the tone
mapping aspect of our color management.

But something best left at it's default
until you reach a point where you are

trying to get a different behavior, then
you are seeing with your default settings.

So these are
some of the additional options

which are available to us
inside of resolve.

Color Management.

This is a more extensive set of options
than we have available

to us inside of ACS,
and this can be a good or a bad thing

depending on your experience level
and on your projects needs.

If you wish to exert more control
over your image and you really need

to sculpt every aspect
and contour of the color

management pipeline, you might wish to go
with Resolve Color management.

Conversely, if you wish to get
something on its feet more quickly,

you might choose to go
with one of the presets here in the preset

dropdown menu, or to use
ACS where the number of parameters

that you need to control
and set are more limited in their scope.

So this is an overall introduction
to some of the more advanced options

available to you
within resolve color management.

But I want to emphasize that
what's important when you are beginning

to use color management
or beginning to use color management

inside of resolve
is to pick out some sensible defaults

and just get comfortable with the system
and understand the overall concepts

that are driving the color management
as opposed to feeling the need to exert

explicit control
over every single one of these values.

And now that we've talked about
resolve color management as well as ACS,

it's time to discuss what the real
practical difference is between the two.

Because I hear the question a lot
Which one should I use?

Which one is better?

And it may not surprised to learn that
there's no simple answer to that question.

But we can make a meaningful comparison
of the two.

And the best way to begin that comparison
is to make a visual comparison

of what ACS will do for us versus what
resolve color management will do for us.

I'm going to return my color management
preset

to my Da Vinci wide gamut preset for now,
because I don't need

to have all of those extra options
available to me at the moment.

Once I do this, I'm going to hit Save

and I want to go back to my timeline here
and just take a look at my images.

I'm going to grab a still of image number
one and a few other of the images

here in this timeline,
because I want to make a comparison

to what I'm seeing here inside of resolve,
color management

versus what I will see
in an equivalent setup inside of ACS.

So now that I've grabbed these stills, I'm
going to go back to shot number one

once again, go to my project settings,

and I'm going to switch my color science
back to ACS CTY and ensure

that my input and output transform values
have remained where I want them to go.

And when I hit save here,

I want to now
go to the still that I saved up here

and compare one to the other.

I want you to notice that
even though I have equivalent

pipelines set up here that are accurately
mapping me from what the camera saw and

to what my display can reproduce, I'm
actually getting different visual results.

This isn't a design flaw or a problem
or a question

of which is more accurate
or less accurate.

This is due to the nature of mapping
high dynamic range, large color

volume imagery like we might get off
of a professional or a prosumer camera

down into the lower dynamic
range and lower

color volume of an SDR
or even HDR display.

There's always going to be

some subjective considerations
involved in that engineering.

And so when we look at the difference
between our ACS display product image

and our resolve color management
display image,

that is the difference
that we are looking at.

We're looking at two equally valid
but distinct solutions to this challenge

of how do we map all of this dynamic range
and all of this color volume

down into the more limited dynamic
range and color volume,

which our display
is capable of reproducing?

That's consideration number one
when we are talking about

which color management framework we should
choose is simply observing

that there are esthetic differences
between the two and be mindful of that

when we select the color management
framework that we use

for a particular project
other than choosing between ACS

and Resolve color management
based on your visual

preference, there's a couple other
considerations that you can make.

The first is
that ACS has been around for a longer time

than resolve color management,
so it enjoys broader

industry support
than resolve color management does.

So if you are working with multiple
vendors in tight collaboration,

you might find that an ACS
workflow supports that better resolve.

Color management, as we've already
explored, has some more granular control

available to us that we don't have in ACS.

So if that's important to you,

that might be a good reason
to select resolve color management.

I want to re-emphasize that

both of these color management
solutions can give you great results

and the right choice for your project
is whichever one works.

Let's now talk about one of the most
powerful tools within DaVinci Resolve.

When we are working
in a color managed environment,

and that is the high dynamic range
palette down here

in the lower
left corner of my resolve interface.

The high dynamic range
palette is unique in resolve

in that
it is one of the few tools within resolve.

That's what we call color space aware,
meaning that it is hooked

into our color management settings
as we established in our project settings,

and it is altering its behavior
on the basis of those settings.

And this is going to allow us
to get more naturalistic

and more photographically accurate
adjustments.

For example, on an image like this one,

I might wish to cool things off
a little bit,

feel like they're a little too warm
where they are right now.

One way that I could go about this

here in the HDR palette would be to go
to my temperature knob and swing this knob

in a negative direction
and in doing so cool things off.

So this is a really nice
objective and photographically

accurate way of making such an adjustment.

And it's going to give me very similar
results to what I would have gotten

if I were to go back in time
and change the color

temperature in the camera at the moment
that this image was captured.

So you can see as I flip this off
and on how naturalistic

that adjustment
is, let's go a little bit further.

Even so that it's quite easy
for us to see.

So there's a good example of an adjustment
that really benefits

from being photographically accurate

and allows me to be more objective
and precise in my adjustment

instead of feeling my way through things
with traditional color correction tools.

And the same concept
extends to exposure as well.

So if I were to go to a shot like this one

and say,

you know, really what needs to happen here
more than the adjustment of my primaries

or my contrast
is that I need to adjust my exposure here

within the HDR palette
because I am color space aware

I can make a photographically accurate
exposure adjustment by grabbing this

global exposure slider here
and moving it in a negative direction.

So again, very organic, naturalistic,
photographically accurate adjustment

that I can make here
within the HDR palette.

These are just a few of the adjustments

that are available to us
within this toolset that really benefit

from a sound color management
framework being set up around them.

You can still use the HDR palette
if you are not color managed,

but it really comes to life and becomes
more powerful when you are working

in a color managed framework
such as ACS or Resolve Color management.

Another one of the key benefits of a color
managed workflow is that it allows us

to target different displays and display
color spaces with the flip of a switch.

So thus far we've been working in an SDR
display space.

So all of our grading
and all of our mastering

is being done
for a rec seven or nine monitor.

But we may also wish to do a master for

say ap3d 65 1000 NIT,

which is a common spec for HDR delivery.

And let's say that I've already gone
through and graded my entire timeline

in an SDR space and I now want to target

that different display color space,
that HDR display color space.

Maybe I've done the SDR grade
and my client has come back and said, Hey,

we would like to do an HDR version
now with color management,

we can flip a switch
and do what's called a trim pass, meaning

make small adjustments,
but we don't need to redo our entire grade

and the bulk of our creative
intent will be preserved.

Let's take a look at how that would go.

I'm going to go to my file menu
and to my project settings

and here inside of my ACS
color management,

I'm going to change my output
device transform

because I no longer want to target a rec
seven or nine display, but an HDR display

specific ap3d 65

1000 nit display color space.

So I'm going to scroll through my options
and find that designation

which is right here.

p3d 65 T 20 84,000 net.

So once I make this selection
and I hit save,

we're going to see a change in our image
and to our eye because right now

we are viewing these images in an SDR rec
seven or nine display space.

The image no longer looks correct.

It's no longer properly
prepared for our display.

But if I were viewing this image
on an HDR reference monitor,

I would now be looking
at the correct preparation

for that monitor
and all I would need to do from here

in terms of delivering migrated master

for that new secondary
display color space would be a trim pass

in which I go through each of my shots
and ensure that my creative intent has

been well preserved in that translation
from my original display

color space to the new display color space
that I'm targeting.

Let's now discuss
how Dolby Vision configures

into a good color management
workflow inside of resolve.

So we've just done a workflow
where we were starting with an SDR

graded master, and then mapping that up
into an HDR display color space.

Dolby Vision allows us to do the opposite.

So let's say we have graded an HDR
deliverable on an HDR display

and we've delivered it for HDR,
but we now need to generate

the SDR version of that image
as we've just learned.

One option for that would be
to go into our color management settings.

So if I went into my
project settings right now,

I could change my output device, transform

from this HDR specification
that it's currently set to

and I could flip back to rec seven or nine

and this would allow me to preserve
my grade and its creative intent in an SDR

rendering of this grade,
which was originally performed in HDR.

But I'm actually not going to do this.

We're going to do it in a different way
now using Dolby vision.

So I'm going to leave this setting
where it was.

I'm going to scroll back up and say p3d 65

Ste 20 84,000 net

and we now want to go down to Dolby

Vision here and say, Enable Dolby vision.

And all Dolby vision is, is a system
for preserving our creative intent

between an HDR master
and a derived SDR master.

When I hit save here,
you're not going to see anything happen.

I'm still going to be looking at an HDR
image that doesn't look quite

right on our displays

because we're all viewing this
on a rec seven or nine display.

But when I hit Save, I'm
going to get a little Dolby

Vision palette available to me
down here in the lower left.

And if I tap on this palette,
you'll see that I have a dropdown menu

for my target display output
and this is where I am

going to tell the Dolby Vision system
what derived master

I would like to be targeting
based on my original HDR master.

Right now I'm at the default
value of 100 nit bt seven or nine

BT 1086 full and all this means is rec
seven or nine SDR

and I'm going to check this enabled tone
mapping preview option.

And all I'm going to do from here
is say, analyze frame like so,

and you'll see that all of a sudden
my image comes to life

and it looks correct for my REC
seven or nine SDR display.

This is because under the hood,
the Dolby Vision system is making

a dynamic analysis of this HDR image
that I'm feeding to it

and it is applying a best fit mapping

from that HDR space down into the space
that I've designated here,

in this case 100 nit, BT seven or nine
BT 1886 full.

So that's how Dolby
Vision configures into the color

management
framework inside of DaVinci Resolve.

And interestingly,
when we are using Dolby Vision, we end up

not generating a second
deliverable at all, but instead we have

what's called a derived master,
meaning that the mapping from HDR

to SDR travels as a piece of metadata
with the HDR master and

it happens on the fly within the device
which is playing back the content.

And furthermore,
if I have a Dolby Vision license,

I can go into my primary trims here

and control on a shot by shot basis.

The exact way that that image
is being mapped from HDR down to SDR.

However, this is not necessary
to use the Dolby Vision system

and it's simply provides
an alternate way of getting an SDR master

from an HDR grade
and in the case of Dolby Vision,

without needing
to generate a second physical file.

Thanks for joining me for this overview of
color management in Da Vinci Resolve 17.

If you have further questions

or you need tech support,
you can check out the Black Magic Forum.

And for more resources on training,
be sure to check out the training section

of the Black Magic website.