Hey this is Denver Riddle with
Color Grading Central
and this is a 20 minute crash
course on color grading
in DaVinci Resolve 15
you'll learn how to use it
you'll learn the tools
and together we'll create
this really amazing look
that you can download as a LUT
or look up table
so you can easily create this
same look on your own footage.
Also, I want to let you know
about a free live training event
I'll be doing...
I'll be sharing with you my top
color grading secrets
you can ask me questions
it's free to attend
Details are below this video
in the description.
Alright, let's do this thing!
DaVinci Resolve is divided
into 6 pages
following a left to right
workflow
where we import footage
in the Media Page,
assemble our edit in
the Edit page,
work on VFX or graphics
in the Fusion page,
do our color grading
in the Color page,
design and mix our audio
in the Fairlight page
and finally export our project
from the Deliver page.
It's just that simple.  
The Media page is where
we can preview clips
by double clicking
on them
and import them
into the project 
by dragging them
into the Media Pool.
I'm just going to import
a few pre trimmed clips
and once they are in
the media pool
we'll go to the Edit page
and create a new timeline
by going to File,
then New Timeline.
we'll give it a name
and then click create.
This will create a new timeline
and we'll drag those clips
into the timeline.
Now we can make any editorial
changes if we like,
Resolve is an editing program
after all...
and once our edit is
looking the way we like it,
we are now ready for
our color grading.
Now because our primary focus
is going to be on color grading,
we'll just briefly touch
on the Fusion page
so you can at least know
that it is there.
In the Fusion page we have
the nodes section
with an input and an output.
The input is for our original
image coming in
and the output is for
our image going out.
In between is where we can
do vfx and compositing.
So let's say for instance we
want to add a blur effect
over our talents face,
we'll go to the effect library,
choose Blur effect
and this will be added
to the node tree.
We'll then go to the inspector
and increase the blur value,
but you'll see however this
affects the entire image
so we'll need to add a mask.
Going back to the
effects library,
I'll choose mask
and ellipse.
A node representing the mask
is added to the node tree
as a property of the
blur effect  
and we can position and
resize the mask on the viewer
or use the options in
the inspector tab.
We can also use a merge node
to merge multiple effect
over the same image too 
and this will allow us
to do tracking,
3d compositing,
all kinds of stuff;
now for most people
they won't need to use
the Fusion page
but it is here for vfx artists
and finishers.
Alright let's go ahead and
delete this blur effect
and let's jump to
the Color Page.
At the top we have the viewer,
the nodal tree,
where we keep track
of our corrections,
In the middle section we have
all the clips in the project
represented as thumbnails.
And the bottom section is
where we have our color tools.
Now before we jump in
and start grading this thing,
let's discuss basic terminology
for how we define color.
The three basic terms that
we use to define color are
Hue
Saturation
and Luma
Hue is the name we call colors.
Saturation is the intensity
or vividness of a hue.
And Luma is the brightness
or shade of hue.
It's also important to know
how to read the video scopes,
which can be super beneficial.
We'll bring up the scopes
by right clicking on the viewer
and selecting show scopes.
The two scopes I always use are
the Waveform in color
overlay mode
and the Vectorscope with
the flesh line turn on.
The waveform let's us correct
for exposure
and with the color overlay
mode turn on,
unchecking the Y,
it allows us to correct for
white balance issues
when the color channels
line up evenly.
If I overlay an image
on top of the waveform,
you can see that the trace...
the stuff you see here...
actually corresponds with
the image of the guy walking 
when I play this back.
The Vectorscope, corresponds
directly with the color wheel,
and I've overlaid it here
for convenience.
It shows what colors are
in the image
as well as their saturation.
The further the trace extends
from the center of the scope,
the more saturated or vivid
the colors are.
Here's a simple but powerful
workflow for color correction
We first correct the exposure
or brightness of the image,
second the white balance or
color temperature
if there are any issues
and lastly the saturation by
either increasing or reducing it
This will make more sense as
we actually do it! 
I'll choose this clip as
our Hero Shot.
Let's first make a correction
to the exposure of this image
using the primary color wheels.
The horizontal wheels
adjust the exposure
and the pucks in the middle
of the color wheels
adjust the color.
The lift mostly adjusts
for the shadows
or darkest parts of the image.
The gain for the highlights
or brightest parts of the image.
And the gamma for the midtones
or everything else in between.
This fourth wheel is the
offset control,
which adjusts the entire image
and there are some instances
where you use it.
Now looking this is really flat,
this is very common to see
when you capture in a Log
or flat profile.
So how we'll correct this shot
is we'll adjust the shadows
first with the lift control
while watching the waveform.
We want to bring the trace
and the shadows down
until the darkest parts of
the image sit right above zero.
Then we'll bring up the highlights
so the brightest parts
of the trace
sits right about here
near the top.
Then I'll bring the
midtones down
by pulling down
on the gamma slider.
This gives us good contrast
and exposure. 
Next we'll fix the
color temperature,
since our image seems to be
a little too warm or reddish.
We can clearly see the red trace
dominating the middle
and top of our Waveform.
Our goal is to neutralize
or white balance the whites
so the way to do that
is to first find something in
the image that is white.
In this case we can use
the gal's white shirt
and it's corresponding trace
in the waveform.
Our goal is to get the color
channels to align evenly
and when they do the trace
will turn white
indicating that we've
achieved white balance.
A quick and easy way to do this
is with the white balance
eyedropper
found under the lift wheel.
Keep an eye over on the trace
as I click on the white shirt.
And voila!
The trace for the highlights
is NOW white,
indicating we have achieved
white balance.
And just in case you're not
happy with the result
or if you think the whites
look too sterile or clinical,
we can manually adjust this
using the temperature
and tint sliders
found under the number
“two”.
Lastly let's boost the color
a little bit
by increasing the saturation.
Here's what the clip looks like
before and after the correction.
Doesn't that look awesome!
If it does go ahead and give
this video a like!
Alright! Now that our
hero shot is color corrected,
let's move one.
On the next shot we'll
repeat the procedure,
going for a nice balance of
exposure with the lift,
gamma and gain controls. 
The color temperature in this
shot looks off too,
so we'll use again the
white balance eyedropper,
this time,
using the white wall.
Lastly we'll add
some saturation too.
Moving to the next shot 
we wanna match it to the first
shot for obvious reasons,
for obvious reasons,
since this is just a tighter
version of the hero shot.
To give us a good starting point
let's copy the correction
from the first clip to this one.
To do that we'll go
to the first clip,
open up the gallery,
right click on the viewer
and select grab still.
What this does is it adds
a still to the gallery 
saving our correction
so we can use it later on.
Now coming back to this clip
we'll right click on the still
in the gallery
and select apply grade.
And bada bing, bada bang!
That's gives us a good
starting point
but you'll see that we do
have some matching issues.
To help us with matching
this shots
let me just share with you my
preferred method for doing this.
We'll turn on the Split
screen view
and change the dropdown
to Selected Clips.
If we now command, or control
click if you are on windows,
on shot 1,
we can see the images
side by side.
We can also see them side
by side in the waveform scope
which makes matching a breeze.
To match the traces better
we'll bring shadows,
midtones and highlights up
with the offset control.
Then to improve the color match
we'll drag the tint to the left,
and the temperature to
the right to warm it up.
That's a nice looking match!
In the interest of time
I've already gone ahead
and performed color correction
to this remaining clips.
But in this next shot
You'll see that the bricks in
this building in the background
are looking too yellow
when I think they should be
more reddish or orange in color.
To fix this we'll create
a new node,
and we'll use one of
my favorite tools
to do quick secondary fixes
and that's with the
HueVSHue Curve,
where we'll place two points
on the color spectrum
to isolate the yellows,
then add a center point
and drag up a little bit
o lean those yellow Hues
more towards red.
Now, if I disable and
enable this node,
you'll notice that this
correction also affects
the yellow painted lines
on the asfalt.
We don't want that.
So a cool ninja trick
I wana show you
is we can further qualify
or isolate our correction
with a power window.
Going to the windows panel,
we'll turn on a Curve Window
and draw a mask shape
around the building.
Then we'll add some softening
or feathering to the edges
so the window isn't so apparent.
And Voila!!
Our correction now only
affects the building.
But you'll see that when
we play the clip back
the camera moves making our
power window move out of place
So we want to address that.
Going to the tracker panel
we can easily and effortlessly
track the shape
by clicking on the
track forward button.
Isn't that awesome!!!
This is one of the things
that I absolutely love
about DaVinci Resolve.
Now we've completed
our basic color correction
for all 5 shots.
But, let's say that for
whatever reason,
our client decides
that they don't like
the girl's red sneakers
in our first shot.
Instead they want them
to be say purple in color.
 Well the cool thing is
we can fix it post
with the HSL Qualifier Tool.
To do that we need to
add a new node
and then going to
the qualifier panel
and with the eyedropper tool
we'll drag through
the red sneakers
to isolate them.
To see what we've selected
we'll turn on the
highlight feature,
the magic wand you see here. 
To refine our key we'll
change the width
and center of our hue selection
and pull the saturation low
to the right.
We'll further clean up the key
with the matte finesse tools.
Ok now let's turn
the highlight feature off
and drag the Hue control
to the right
until the sneakers turn
a purple color.
Haha, yes! Isn't that so cool!
Now keep in mind this
isn't the only shot
where we see
the red sneakers
so we'll wanna copy
this correction
to the other shot
of her dancing.
But before we do that,
let me show you something
really cool
if we right click on the node
we have an option
to choose Save as
Shared Node.
You'll see it now gets
labeled as Shared Node 1.
Now when I go to copy this
correction to any other clip
and say I now want to change the
color of the sneakers
to say green...
I can right click on this node,
turn off the Lock Node option.
Make the change...
and because it's a shared node
it's automatically updated
on the other shots
that have the same shared node.
Pretty cool, right?!!
Ok, now to the really fun part,
and that's creating an
awesome look for these clips.
I'm gonna show you a quick way
to apply the same look
on top of all of these clips
and this we'll save you
a ton of time
and ensure that you have
a consistent look
across the board.
You're welcome!
Okay to do that we'll select
all the clips in the timeline
using the shift key to
select a row
then right click and
choose the option
Add into new group.
We'll give it a name
we'll call this
Orange/Teal Look
since that's the look we are
going for...
Then click OK.
Then we'll change this dropdown
from clip to group post clip.
What this simply means is that
when we want to make a change
it's applied to all the clips
in the group.
Alright, now let's
create the look.
The Orange/Teal Look is a
really popular look
it uses principles of
color contrast
to make the skin tones
or our talent
stand out from the background.
And frankly it just looks
awesome
so you're going to love this!
In the first node let's dial up
the contrast for our look.
To stay organized we'll
right click on the node
and choose Node Label.
In this case, 
I'll just call this Contrast.  
For this part of the look
we'll use the Custom Curves
which allow us to make complex
adjustments to the exposure.
Now just a quick crash course
on the way this works...
the bottom point adjust
the shadows,
the top point adjust
the highlights
and we can make as many points
along the curve in between
to fine tune the contrast.
In this case we don't want
to affect
the highlights or the
shadows too much
so we'll create contrast
in-between these areas
known as the undertones
and midtones.
I;ll make a point here in the
midtones and drag up.
This improves our exposure
but makes the undertones
look a little washed out.
So let's add another point here
and drag it down
to adjust the density
of the undertones,
there that looks nice,
now we have much
richer contrast.
For color, let's add another
node and name it Teal.
Here we'll push teal colors
into the overall image
with the offset control.
This is where we'll start to
see that color contrast.
Next we'll add a parallel node
or a color adjustment at
the same stage in the grade
and we'll bring out
the skin tones.
We'll just label this node
Skin Tones.
Now this is where we'll
get them to pop,
going to the Hue VS Sat curve
and using the eyedropper tool
we'll click on the skin tones
to auto set the points
on the curve.
Then dragging up on
the center point
we can make the skin tones pop
without affecting anything else.
We'll then just refine the curve
o make sure that all the warm
in the skin
are saturated evenly.
Lastly because we pushed teal
into the entire tonal range
with the offset control
it's making our shadows
also look teal,
so we'll want to clean them up
so that we can have
clean shadows.
To do that I'm gonna show you
a really awesome trick.
We'll add another node...
call it Clean Shadows...
and go to the Luma VS Sat Curve
Now the way this tool works is
the shadows are to the left
and the highlights are
to the right,
and anywhere that we
place points on the curve,
we are gonna affect
the saturation
for that part of
the tonal range
by either pulling up
to increase the saturation
or pull down to
decrease it.
So this is really cool way
for selectively reducing the
saturation in the shadows
without affecting
anything else.
So we'll place a point here
so that nothing above
is affected
and then we'll drag
the left point
all the way down
to reduce the saturation
in the shadows.
I'll then just adjust it
a little bit more,
and voila our shadows
are nice and clean.
If I toggle this node off and on
again a few times
you can see the difference
it made
in pulling the teal out
of the shadows
on the side of this blue car 
as well as in the the
dark metal on the windows.
Okay, so don't forget that
cool trick.
As a final touch,
I want to apply one of the
free LUTs from Ascend
that you can download
when you sign up for
the free online workshop.
I want to show you how
we can actually preview LUTs
in realtime in DaVinci with
the LUT Browser
and this totally amazing
that we can do this!
We didn't always have
this ability. 
At the top left of our screen
we'll find the
LUT Browser option,
let's go ahead click on it
and now we have a list
of all our LUTs.
Now this is also the same
as if you
right click on a node
to view the LUTs
but the big difference is that
we can a visual preview
of the LUT
before we actually apply it
and this makes finding the
right LUT for your project
so much easier!
I'll navigate to the Ascend LUTs
and hovering the cursor
over the LUTs thumbnails
you'll see a real time preview
of each LUT in the viewer.
We'll choose the 3strip LUT
by double clicking on it
Yuck!!!
That's too strong
but that's okay because
we can dial it back to taste
by going to the Key panel
and pulling back on the
output gain control
until we have a result
that we're happy with.
Now let's play this
whole thing back...
What an amazing look!!
Alright to wrap this all up
I'll jump to the Fairlight.
Although we've been primarily
focused on the color grading,
I think it's worth pointing out
that Fairlight page
gives us professional
audio tools
that you would normally
only find in highend
tv and film production tools
So that's really amazing that
we've been given so much.
Just let's just explore briefly.
Here we have access to
the media pool
we have the effects library
which will list any VST
audio plugins
that you have in your system.
the Index section which
displays the Tracklist
and markers.
We have the timeline
and transport controls.
A mixer, meters
Metadata section
an inspector to see the
characteristics
of any audio clip.
And pretty much anything
else you'd need
to make a really sweet
audio mix.
In my particular case
I don't have any audio
associated to these clips
so we can just jump to
the Deliver page,
but I wanted you to see
that this is all in here.
Now the Deliver page has
four sections.
The Render settings,
the viewer,
the timeline
and the render queue
where we basically press go.
For this project we'll output
for uploading to youtube,
so we can choose from one of
the convenient presets.
We can change the output
resolution to 1080p,
specify a location
for exporting,
and finally click add to
render queue,
then Start Render.
It's as easy as that.
Now, I know I went
through a lot
and I skipped over
a lot of details,
but what I wanted to give to
you is the big picture
and if you liked this tutorial
and you'll like to see more
and download the FREE LUTs
I mentioned
hen sign up for my free online
training at the link below
at the event I'll share with you
my top color grading secrets
you can ask me questions
so to reserve your seat
visit the link below
and I promise you it will be
well worth your time
and you'll get a lot better from
one simple one hour training.
So I hope that you enjoyed
this crash course
as much as I enjoyed
creating it for you
and I look forward to
seing you on the webinar
Have a great day!
