The biggest color grading mistake on YouTube

Even big KZbinrs teaching people how to color grade get this one wrong.
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[@supercurioTube]

As a developer who wrote color management code and worked on color camera and display calibration, it hurts every time I see tutorials on how to "grade" images using curves and saturation, ending up with most of the colors being off due to mismatched primaries. Then when watching content I see so many being only the log image with a bit of contrast added, it's crazy. Something I found effective is to describe a colorspace or log as "encoding": it often helps understanding what it is, as well as why it requires a specific "decoding" to get the normal colors back. Then grading, and output transform, in that order.

[@MartinAaberge]

I think this is because a lot of beginners (or people who don't want to or have time to dive into color management and grading) find it extremely confusing. If the world of standards wasn't bad enough, here you have 1 million ways to set up attributes to get the image right - or wrong. For someone who just wanna shoot some vlogs and get footage out of the door, the contrast plus saturation gets them "back" to what they saw... ish. In the end, I guess we need to be aware of the differences between scientifically correct, which is important in a professional setting, vs. just getting something to look OK for your KZbin channel without investing in a Ph.D. in Color. We also need to be critical of what we watch. Amateurs should also be allowed to make tutorials on what works for them even if it is incorrect. Then it is up to the person watching (and other professionals who can supply additional information, like the video we just watched) to digest the material. Lots of people who aren't professionals just want a one-click solution.

[@PopoRamos]

And what makes the matter worse, is that people that don't know what they doing, paired with customers that don't know what they want ultimately create a trend to a point where when other clients see it, they want it because its different, i had people request the "Smokey look" lol

[@omerlikos2549]

the camera file defines black and white at an specific luminance level in the file… why is that so? why doesnt the file just leaves it as it is to max black and max white? if we change the display format like rec 2020 HDR and so on, the levels dont change. So for me, the coded form of light in the file doesnt make the image more flexible for different colorspaces.??

[@Fireandagrill]

So CST node to Widegamut, grade, then final CST to Rec 709 for the output?

[@supercurioTube]

@@Fireandagrill yes or in my case transform to Rec.2020 PQ last, with KZbin SDR preview with a custom LUT to check.

[@zbigniewvolkov7952]

Im new to colour grading. On every forum Ive visited, they all recommend you. I understand why! I have been going through your videos all week. I greatly appreciate that you share your knowledge and experience with us common folk. 🙂 Thanks a lot!

[@TubeSilva]

Very classy and concise, Cullen! Thanks for helping us understand the world of color science. Please don't stop putting out videos. I'm looking forward to Grade School this Friday!

[@givebackdocumentaryproduct5981]

Each video is so clear to understand. I have been pretty much terrified of grading my own documentary film but since I invested in a Tangent Ripple , I have decided to learn the basics of colour grading and to be completely honest, it was not until I started watching your videos that I now have some understanding how how to start the process of colour grading so thanks Cullen truly appreciated dude.🙂👍

[@BadRadBR]

Brilliant!! I came across your 'Color Management' videos a couple of weeks ago. I tried it out and to my great satisfaction clicking on 'Save', it was like snapping my fingers and 'poof', like magic, realization! In the past 6 months I've searched through countless videos and I'm quite surprised of how many 'pros' do not teach this. 6 months is a short time, better late than never!

[@jeffforeman6407]

Great work Cullen (and great meeting you at ResolveCon). As a beginner that has been shooting with one of the prolific pro-sumer cameras available and having recently started using log, I will offer that one of the big hurdles to cross towards working in a Color Managed environment is figuring out what Input Color Space to use. My new camera for instance has three different log profiles and three different color space options for a total of nine different combinations. For me, the biggest head-scratcher wasn't figuring out how to set up Resolve to switch to Color Management (thanks to your excellent presentations) but rather learning to set my camera to record in a log profile and color space that Resolve has an option for within the Input Color Space dropdown. I know you don't do camera tutorials, but its food for thought. I'm probably not the only rookie that is (or in my case 'was') unaware of the myriad of options to sort out before even pushing the record button. Thanks for sharing your wisdom. Keep 'em comming!

[@suminkim4249]

Can not thank you enough . Watching your video and learning is life changing !!!! Thank you every day ❤

[@_fatmum_]

Its people like you that make me happy I live in a world where technology like KZbin exists. I'm new to grading and don't know where to start, but I've watched probably 3+ hours of your stuff up to now and I'm starting to get the foundations understood. Thank you for making this available and thank you for explaining things so well. Truly appreciated

[@jeffkyle6974]

Really great succinct, clear, wonderful explanations! You are truly great at translating color management into digestible bites. I don't use Resolve, but I've had to explain this concept frequently and wow you knocked it out of the park.

[@natepotter6911]

Love your channel! Thanks, brother! Always educational!

[@marklongchamps6741]

This is the biggest thing Resolve ever did. Color managed is the way to go and this change was huge. Thanks for the tutorial. I think of Color Management as kind of a global lut.

[@gabuchancreates9813]

Awesome video #CullenKelly, you are a great teacher, found you through Casey's channel. Was great to see you online at Resolvecon, love the way you explain the difference between color managment vs color grading, before your channel I always thought they were the same thing, this in intself is a game changer. Thank you as always!

[@peternavanac9310]

Amazing insigh and perspective, skilfully articulated. NICE!

[@pxlmvr7]

This is great information and make *total sense!* This info would have helped with issues on my last project where I did the initial grade by hand that I could have done with color management! This will save a crap-ton of time in the future!

[@jaykellett7693]

Great tutorial - I've really enjoyed the deep dive technical aspects of colour grading on your channel as opposed to "get the X LoOk" on others... the way I've been getting around the issue with the double transform in a colour managed work flow is a little convoluted but works for me, and thats a series of CSTs with the cineonlog transform at the end before the lut, working in the middle in a DWG node tree, A hybrid of scene/display refereed I believe.

[@Khaleel_Mohammed]

You’re amazing Color Grading Teacher!

[@UraFlight]

What a great tutorial and valuable information. Thank you so much for sharing this information with us. I came to your channel today from Darren Moistyn advice

[@robertdocherty6127]

Learning sooh much here. Thanks, and I'm going to try out this new (to me) approach. Thanks also for the LUT.

[@alanap173]

This worked incredibly well! I can finally play it thanks

[@Marina120785]

Hi Cullen, I just did the BMD color trainers course and in the book there’s a tip that we should always apply LUTs on the pre-clip level. Since in the exercise the color management is done on the project basis, I assume they are talking about creative LUTs. I know you’re an advocate of grading upstream of a LUT, so could you please comment on that. Thanks :)

[@JimRobinson-colors]

I have to say Cullen, that it's been a long time since I have seen youTubers doing the LOG to rec709 using the primaries and sat/contrast method. Maybe a few years ago. But most, even the simplest of youTuber tutorials are telling people to use transforms- granted they don't always teach that correctly, but rare to see the old way taught anymore.

[@milquetoes]

Hey Jim, in what way are KZbinrs using transforms wrong?

[@JimRobinson-colors]

@@milquetoes I am commenting in reference to ones I have seen in the past- I don't actually take notes, so the actual ways are sometimes learned incorrectly from a youtuber learning from another youTuber. I am an admin for the "Davinci Resolve User Group" and we have 114k members and approx 40k posts and comments per week. So when anyone ( at any level ) posts a tutorial that they have made for youtube- in most cases I watch them. This ends up over a year being hundreds ( maybe thousands ) of tutorials on Davinci Resolve. so my comment above is not aimed at any memorable or well known youtubers that I can name off hand. But in general setting up the transforms is usually the problem and the reason for the transform and explanation of why they are using it, is a problem sometimes. Duplication of wrong information that is regurgitated by some youtubers is like any information on social media, the source or logic is sometimes questionable.

[@kcoppa]

Even if many don't show this mistake any more. Many people like myself who thought what they learned years ago is correct may still be doing it and may not think to update their knowledge. I was blown away by this video and I have been editing professionally for 7 years.

[@BackusCreativeImaging]

My workflow allows me to color grade my LOG footage with a 1 click application of my PowerGrade in Resolve (kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZSqfGWLnNOebJY) which features my custom LOG to Rec709 corrective LUT I created in Resolve using the DSC Labs ChromaMatch Pro color chart. Granted, this works because I know how to shoot my footage correctly in the field, but for dedicated colorists, they definitely can't rely on such a method. I do not use Color Space Transforms nor do I arbitrarily use primaries for the basic foundational corrective grade. There's a third way which I developed, but again it is only applicable if the camera operator shoots the footage correctly (exposes with middle grey, tone mapping and the Zone System in mind)

[@KayandBurtonMedia]

It worked perfectly!!! Thank you so much

[@MichaelKaykov]

This needs to go viral. Pure gold (as always).

[@vazz5607]

Thank you so much for such a heplful video. Is there any difference between this method and the method of using a node with Colour Space Transform for building the foundation?

[@ChadtheFilipino]

Regret that I second guessed joining your course this year, but next year I will!!

[@vellingirigiri1632]

Thank you so much this helped a lot!!!! You saved my life

[@AlexPetrov108]

Hey Cullen, thank you so much for everything you do! Speaking of the KZbin, and seeing that you use a Mac for your work - can you please shed some light on Rec709-A? It's the first thing you notice when you start grading on a Mac, even having your display calibrated and color profiles applied to your viewers in DVR - the rendered result that you play in QuickTime and see in Safari on KZbin doesn't match what you saw in the viewer when you made creative decisions on contrast and exposure in particular, considering that you start with the default Rec709 Output. When you dive deeper, you realize that Mac has its own idea of what videos tagged as Rec709 should look like and you end up with results not matching your intentions. Then you realize that Apple's way seems to be using Rec709-A which I ended up using as my Display and Delivery color space so that at least within Apple ecosystem my videos would look the same. I believe it's not the case even for those who will watch it on Windows, is it? And then what strikes me more is that everyone says Rec709 is the most common universal standard for displays. Rec709 has a gamma close to 2.4 and the majority of consumer displays (I mean computer monitors) apart from TVs are meant for sRGB with 2.2 gamma. Then how can Rec709 2.4 be considered common and default when your display most likely won't handle it? What would be your advice on viewing and delivering the content intended for KZbin to have some consistency of the results and intentions? PS Bonus question - how can we add to that equation the fact that Mac's system color space is actually P3? Thank you in advance =)

[@freddymiguelponce]

I subscribed to your channel because Reolvecon. It was the first time I saw any of your content; and today's video.... AWESOME! Have a Productive and Helathy Day!

[@samymerad6738]

That's definitely the type of content that should appear more often on youtube and socials instead of people just increasing contrast and saturation. Those are the people that make other beginners misunderstand color management. Great video Cullen. By the way are the footage from a client's project or you picked up on a stock footage website like artgrid?

[@pacoalanis]

Great lesson Cullen! I have a question: Where should the 2383 LUT live in the node tree in relation to CST´s? Thanks.

[@master-ik9ro]

Yo this guy is the real deal! Thank man!

[@MarvinFalz]

Once again, thank you very much, Cullen! :-)

[@danivasilioglufilms]

Awesome stuff! Thank you!

[@joenicklo]

Excellent video. You’ve gotten me on a color managed workflow from here on out. One question though: I use filmconvert to add a film stock and grain. Is that the same as using a LUT with conversion baked in?

[@koushikbhattacharya832]

waiting for next grade school class...thank u sir♥

[@cinematicpictures]

Hi Cullen, what if you handle footage from different cameras, so e.g. different RAW-files in one project? If your preferences are once set in color management as you recommend, this wouldnt work. What about doing the color management in Resolve on the color page using color space transition? Thanks for your great efforts!!!

[@handwoundpickups6555]

Amazing video thank you so much.👍

[@Veptis]

even those arri-c to rec709 creative luts can be made to work inside a color managed working space. You can make use of a CST in the node before (maybe even same node) to give it the color space it expects. You might still need to be careful as color managed usually has an output lut from working to rec709. So you might want to turn that off and manually use csts to 709. If you have the tricks to avoid the double to 709 conversions. You might even work in the fully managed workflow. Or you use a CST to HSL and then a splitter combiner (alt+y) to take out the luma component of a lut. And the apply just the hue and/or saturation adjustments.

[@mccartikiss]

Can you make a video on creating LUTS for your workflow, I currently use powergrades Ive saved from previous projects . I like having access to the layers/nodes to make tweaks if needed. Maybe that is the best way ?

[@nickyxvq]

thanks a lot!!! so nice reverb

[@nopro_films]

What's the difference between color managing the whole proj and using the color space transform fx clip by clip?

[@nopro_films]

@@CullenKelly Thanks! Keep up the good work!!

[@inshorts5333]

This is great, thank you!

[@BenCalza]

Hey, thank you for this amazing tutorial :) One question, I use CST to convert my log signal to rec 709, and I saw in others tutorial that it's better to use CST node at the end of the node tree, to use da Vinci's tools on a log signal. If I use CST, where should I use it on my node tree ? at the beginning ? or at the end ? and if I use color management at a timeline level like you did, how does it work ? Thank you for your time

[@benpellet5878]

This his so helpful ! I was struggling with colors by using "Primary Rec709" conversion, thanks for sharing you're knowledge ! Just a question I know it is not big drone but How did you set the colorspace for DJI Cinelike colors ? Feeling a bit stuck with DJI colors 😰

[@XVIIsionsProductions]

Hey Cullen, In my constant search for how to ACTUALLY get good edits done I found your channel. THANK YOU! I shoot with Sony, I have an a6400 (8-Bit Camera, I can shoot S-LOG 3 but, S-LOG 3 is for 10 bit, or so I've been told on youtube...), and the new FX30 (8 & 10 bit camera) MY QUESTION is, if I want to film outside of a LOG format, and use like Cine 2, or something like that, HOW DO I COLOR MANAGE THESE?! I like the Cine 2 look but, it's never consistent because I'm manually trying to match shots etc. I'm thinking about switching to S-LOG 2 on a6400 and s_LOG 3 on FX30 but, I feel like I may run into some matching issues there too... Not sure yet I've literally searched and searched for days and days and I can't find a good answer anywhere. How do I set it up in Davinici 18 since it's not a LOG format, I've tried experimenting in Davinci and it seems like it's a constant battle and trade off between destroying one thing to make another thing look good. I think there's a lot of people out there who shoot in something like Cine 2 that could find this info helpful and give us the ability to do it correctly if given the proper information on how to not destroy our images in these formats. lol Thanks again, keep up the great work! -Colton

[@serranokeys]

Bro, thank you! As I'm starting to work with S-LOG with wedding videos, No ones talking about how do you batch convert all the shots to a normal baseline color science.

[@donaldcanonoy3312]

Hell yeah man good work

[@DrFilmer]

Hey Cullen I keep running into the same issue, I make sure I have done the same as you (apart from my input colour space which in my case is FujiF-Log) I then hit save and its only effects the look of my image the slightest bit, very far from your results. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong? Thanks

[@vivekjoshi115]

Excellent tutorial for a beginner with Davinci Resolve like me however, in the Second method of Setting up Resolve YRGB Colour Management, after checking the "Default" checkbox I am unable to right click on my Video clip in the timeline (as you have shown in the video wherein one can see the video frames in the Timeline and when you right click on the same you get an option to choose the Input Colour (in your case you have chosen Arri) however I see an entirely different Timeline (blue band) and I do not get any options when I right click on that. Could you please share the what mistake am I doing as the video timeline view in my case is different . Than you.

[@KayakFishingAddict]

Awesome content! Question for you though. What about popular formats like DJI DLog-M and DJI DCinelike. How can we get those into color management?

[@DavidBlodgett]

Appreciate this! Im going to follow your method but just to be sure: - How should I set up my color management if I am color grading mainly sLog3 footage with a small mix of other media (iphone, goPro, canon 8, 360 cam, etc) and I am grading on an apple display and my main destination is KZbin but I still want it took look as good/comparable on tvs/other non apple displays? I see tutorials that say to use a CST towards the end of the node tree, or to use Rec-709A for the input and output color space, and now I see your method and I wonder am I grading on top of a CST by doing this. Sorry if this is a dumb question. Theres too many options! Please make it stupid simple or refer me to the video of yours that will answer my question. I Wish you had a buy me coffee link :)

[@kelvinfunkner]

absolutely awesome!

[@belomorets]

Thanx! Very useful!

[@Arun-qp9hv]

Hi sir, your videos are very informative thankyou for sharing your knowledge. I'm a beginner in color grading I need to know about your book "10 commandments", is it only for those who already learned color grading or is it for beginners most preferred?

[@ericberger4511]

Thanks so much!

[@directedbymarvin]

Hey Cullen, thank you for all your videos. Considering you're working on a Mac and I'm assuming you're reference monitor is connected to an I/O, I'm curious about your Output Color Space when delivering for web. Currently, my ref monitor is calibrated for Gamma 2.4 but since there's this weird tagging issue with Macs going on, I'm switching my Output Color Space after the grade is done and approved to Rec 709A. Obviously looks horrible on my ref monitor but it looks correct in color managed Web browsers on Mac. Is this your workflow as well or do you found a better way?

[@RavikantRai21490]

Cullen, when I set up my two color transform color nodes on my BMPCC 4k clips based timeline, I set the first one's "input color space" to "Blackmagic Design Wide Gamut Film Gen4/5", input gamma to "Blackmagic design film", output color space to "Davinci wide gamut" and output gamma to "Davinci intermediate", then as per your advice of output transform, I set the input colour space for that node to "Davinci wide gamut", input gamma to "davinci intermediate", output color space to "rec709" and output gamma to "gamma 2.4", but on doing this, my blacks don't appear as black, they're still somewhat closer to log, but not exactly pure log type image that I started with. What am I doing wrong here? Footage is from bmpcc 4k, in Film mode.

[@-ride-]

Thank you for that video Cullen as i´m really interested in that color manegement thing (as a very amateur...) And as such i´m filming with my old Gopro Hero 7 and have no idea at all to what to set the input color space, is there a chance you would help me out please? Thank you in advance ;-)

[@archonoff]

What to do with a footage if there's no appropriate option for "Input color space"? For example I've got a footage from a DJI drone shot in D-Cinelike (not D-Log)

[@lifegarddan]

What differentiates this from starting with a CST finishing node (other than color management being a global application to all timeline clips)?

[@michaelmetzlerjr]

this is awesome, one question though, in terms of using the Film Looks luts or other luts, can't I just use a CST node on the top of my grade to convert to the color space needed for a specific LUT? and then put the lut on top of that one?

[@wvansluisveld3011]

Not a pro at all but looking to enhance myself I tried figuring this out for my Sony a7c footage and couldn’t figure out what input Color space to use. Is this even an option for video shot in Cine2 and HLG3 instead of Slog3? So far I have used this as my camera is 8 bit only and I have used Leeming LUTs following Paul’s instructions to make life easier.

[@brad_in_yyc]

Just a quick question, how do we figure out what our display is capable of for the output color space? I know yours is Rec. 709 Gamma 2.4. But how do I figure mine out? It's been hard to find answers to that. Maybe I'm not looking in the right place or asking the question properly when I search.

[@demetrixxx8962]

Hi. I would like to use the color management technique but what do you do if the camera's format is not listed? I shoot on sony fdr ax 53 camcorder shoots in xavc s format AVC/ h.264 . Any help would be appreciated.

[@die_dunkelheit]

before watching... I'm guessing it is "throw a LUT on it, and by the way I sell these LUTs you might be interested in..." -OR "just add contrast and sat" I'll come back in a sec after watching to see how well this comment aged.

[@die_dunkelheit]

LOL, it didn't age that well.

[@rollonfood]

is there a hack to see how i can preview what color managed will do to my footage in camera? using a bmpcc 6kg2 (what a effing name for a camera eh?)

[@alexeykosorukov7623]

Lets keep on trucking!😄

[@Yevgen_Splash]

Thank you!

[@brumsy.official]

Would it not be possible this color managed space to then add a cst with output to cineon log then apply a lut like the 2383?

[@th8132]

Cullen, I think your talking head shots look just fine. I come to this channel for advice from a colorist, not a cinematographer. Thank you for the FREE information you give myself and the ungrateful children in the comments!

[@KaceyBakerFilms]

Hey mate. Jill Bogdanowicz teaches to use lift gamma gain before even thinking about touching curves. She says colourists don’t do this enough. Do you think she is grading from log footage. Or would she be using LGG over the top of this method you are teaching here.

[@KaceyBakerFilms]

Thank you sir.

[@DavidWagelmans]

Super channel. Glad i found this. But i film with a leica sl2s, in l log but davinci doesnt have a profile (yet). What do i have to chose than? 😊

[@The_Idea_of_Dream_Vision]

Hey Cullen, Thank you for the efforts you put on these lessons. Quick question, how do you deal with clog and cinestyle footage ?

[@The_Idea_of_Dream_Vision]

@@CullenKelly alright thanks will give it a shot and c if I can match my canon r6 and 7dmark 2 footage

[@DayoDeLeon]

Hi Cullen. How do you color manage from a camera or log curve not available on the vendor list? Thanks

[@mauricerichardson]

Cullen , Thanks for this. A question though, another method I've been recommended is in settings to stay in DaYRGB -timeline color space Davinci WG/Intermediate-output Rec.709 gamma 2.4 . Then in nodes a color space transform to rec709 another node transform to Cineon Film Log & then the Kodak film LUT node. I've tried this & your method & they definitely react differently. I'm wondering what the advantages are to either in actual outcome?

[@mauricerichardson]

Cullen, I meant to say that I saw your live stream the other day & you answered this. I’d say I’m only a beginner at all of this & it feels like a rabbit hole for me 12 months on. However you are the only person I’ve found explaining this . Much appreciated

[@gomezcreativemedia]

Great video!!

[@Steinthedude]

So how is this way of color managing different to using a color space transform node? I often have projects with multiple camera's so this color management won't work for me I feel. Also you can still use the film luts by using a CST. Am I missing something? It seems CST's are just better for my projects. Would love to hear your thoughts on this!

[@MylonasFilms]

*Pasted from cullens other reply 1) The Kodak 2383 LUT in Resolve is meant to receive Cineon primaries, even though it's said to receive Rec709. It can lead to a lot of color issues (maybe you've noticed some weird browns/ yellows/greens using it), and it's not accurate if you're looking for a solid film emulation. 2) If you have a job that needs more than a Rec709 deliverable, you're stuck. You can't add another CST after the LUT to bring it to an HDR grade. When you have a scene-referred LUT, you're able to create a grade for any display, nearly with the flip of a CST setting (though you'll want to do a quick trim pass to make sure everything is right where you want it.) If you want to go back to a project later and export a new version to look good on new displays, same problem.

[@hikkub]

Hey, the color managed work flow seems like the best, but doesn't seem to work with the Fuji F-Log I need to process. Is this me doing something wrong, or due to the nature of the format?

Thank you for this video ! I have a question on color management, when we do corrections on the grades, are we applying them after the REC709 conversion or before ?

[@drewmastromartino492]

after

[@chakk0]

What do you do when you´re using footage from different cameras like Canon Clog2 + Clog3 + Sony Slog 3??

[@LukasGevaert]

Hey Cullen Am I able to still use creative LUTS when I do a colormanaged workflow?

[@LukasGevaert]

whoop you're saying it at the end

[@itsathingimagery]

You mentioned a video of what to do when you have multiple cameras. I’m grading with the R5, a drone and a GoPro. Could you lead me to that video so I know what to do after setting the main colour management?

[@coj6]

really good video that i wished i discovered earlier!

[@LobstersLobsters]

At this step, how would you deal with clips whos Log profile doesn't have a matching input color space?

[@naturesessions.studio]

WOW. This is a game changer.

[@KatsuyosDimension]

Great video. I have just one question: What should I don't know what format of the source images is? Sadly, I have no way of asking the person that recorded it.

[@BeveledMesh]

will it be a good idea to use a AcesCG render into Davinciwideganut as i think DWG has a wider range than Acescct Currently but for vfx AcesCG is our Best shot so maybe we can merge both

[@BeveledMesh]

@@CullenKelly Thanks...Please Make a Tutorial On This If Possible

[@sarahuddin1453]

Maybe a very beginner question because I am very beginner but how do you know the calibration of your monitor (output display source)

[@monkynutzuk]

Probably a silly question but i wondered if you use colour management so the footage is already normalized, are you effectively working downstream of a technical CST? Some people like to use a CST at the end of the node tree and make adjustments before it?

[@monkynutzuk]

@@CullenKelly ok cool, Thankyou for your reply

[@Freddd95]

Please help! A beginner in color grading here, trying to understand which output gamma setting to use: 2.2, 2.4 or use Rec.709-A (whatever gamma that one has). The more I read, the more confused I am. I would really appreciate if you could help me choose the correct setting, without me having to take a PhD in color science. I'm more interested in the "what" and less interested in the "why", so short answers are very welcome. I'm grading on a macbook air (without a separate monitor) and delivering to the internet (youtube and social media, perhaps also vimeo). All I want is to have an identical looking image when grading, when viewing the exported file (in quicktime in my case), and when uploaded to the internet. In my testing, Rec.709-A has been the only one to look correct in quicktime, and one source said it's good for youtube as well. Gamma 2.2 exports look completely washed out in quicktime, and 2.4 looks better but still not correct (lifts the blacks). Therefore I've been using Rec.709-A so far. However, I've read that 709-A has its limitations (on windows, vimeo and certain web browsers apparently) and gamma 2.2 seems to be the standard for web(?). Therefore I'm having "trust issues" with 709-A. As long as I'm grading on a mac screen and delivering for web, I want to make sure I have one single gamma setting that I can use consistantly on all projects. (Now obviously I'm not grading for netflix or TV in the near future, so I guess 2.4 is not even relevant for me?)

[@daviddecsi4962]

Wait, couldn't you still use the rec709 luts tho? By just doing a CST from whatever input log you have to dwg, then having the grading nodes here so it's still a wide workflow, then CST from dwg to film log and finally from film log to 709 by using the film lut. Isn't this "valid"? Or would this not be considered color managed?

[@jmalmsten]

One thing that make me hesitate a bit to set the input format as a particular manufacturer is that question of what to do with projects with mixed cameras. But I have a sneaking suspicion that we can set input format on a clip by clip basis...

[@thatcherfreeman]

You should be able to choose a per-clip color space/input transform by right clicking on the clip in the color page and in the media pool.

[@jmalmsten]

@@thatcherfreeman Yeah, that's probably what I'm thinking of. I didn't have my workstation at hand to look it up.

[@napatsaeng]

If we work with many camera can setting input to rec 709?. And problem link not work for download Lut

[@Sniickerz_CH]

Hey Cullen, thanks for this very informative video, I indeed was taught by my colourist teacher to do primaries by hand! Learning something new every single day. But I am having a real question, which I’ll need to try it out next time on my PC, how does Colour Management work with a project that uses different cameras? Say, bmpcc 6k & arri alexa mini? It seems as though this method only works with having a project that uses the very same camera all the way through, isn’t? Another concern/question, what if I am editing the full project on DaVinci Resolve (say I am in charge of the whole postproduction of one project), and I import let’s say stills, or logos, packshots which must not be altered? Will the colour management setup “touch/influence/bring modifications” to these? Little bit confused here. Or does DR understand to only take into considerations the log files when using colour management? I’ll for sure go and watch your whole playlist on Colour Management as these questions may be answered there, let’s see! Cheers S.

[@MartinAaberge]

Hi Sniickerz. If you have multiple cameras, especially those you mention, you can right-click the clip in the color page and see what color Davinci reads. Go to "Input Color Space". Your BRAW footage most likely already has Black Magic Design Color Science set up, the Arri has its ARRI logC3 maybe, and any other camera most likely picks up the correct one here. If you want to disable this, right-click and choose Bypass Color Management. Note that BRAW footage doesn't show the input color space option when you right-click. I believe you have to go into the raw settings in the Camera Raw settings all the way to the left above the primaries, small camera icon there. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong here :D

[@Sniickerz_CH]

@@MartinAaberge thank you!! I wasn’t in front of the computer so I could not properly search and test, but glad there are options to « bypass » the Colour Management! Will try that next time on my computer 🥳 Cheers S.

[@j.oakley9588]

Aside from the color management settings, what are other settings to consider (render page) in order to get a consistent look with the rendered image. You know…that persistent issue we Mac users deal with-having a lighter or “washed out” looking final image.

[@j.oakley9588]

@@CullenKelly thanks for the reply. I honestly didn’t know if I’d get one. Also, I posted pretty much the same question on another video of yours-your talk on Color Management. You can disregard haha. That was probably the most articulate explanation on the subject that I have seen yet. Great presentation.

[@oscarabello84]

can you tell me the explanation please? I don't see the Cullen answer

[@deejayody]

Hi Cullen, what is the advantage of using color management instead of CST?

[@myskycam3764]

Help .... I tried to edit my footage with color management. My Scene was DJI LOG material. All settings like yours but when i pushed save ... nothing changed

[@PUREMediaChannel1]

Thank you

[@clicknpics]

Hi, can you help with this? I have footage shot in the canon log and also rec 709. How would I set up colour management? Would it be better to set colour science to Davinci YRGB and timeline to Davinci WG intermediate? and use CST? Also, is it better to convert REC 709 to Davinci WG with a CST. and back to 709 after colour grading? Thanks. Malcolm

[@verybutton]

What I've done is set the project colour science to Davinci YRGB, make groups for each camera's clips, then use a CST in the Group-Pre-Clip. I don't promise this is the right / best way to do it.

[@clicknpics]

@@verybutton thanks did not think of groups. But logically makes sense.

[@jcama4850]

What happens if you are using different colour profiles eg. Documentary footage shot on a Black Magic colourspace and Sony colourspace