Power Window Principles: Pro-level imagery using powerful secondaries

If I could only use one set of tools within Resolve, it would be my primaries. If I could use a second set, it would be power windows. Learn how to craft stunning images using these essential tools for shaping light and refining images to perfection.
Want to dive deeper into power windows? Catch my Grade School live Q&A here: • Grade School: Advanced...
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[@JustinPhillip]

I absolutely love this. A pro colorist thinking like a cinematographer. As soon as he mentioned the words “negative fill” it all instantly clicked for me. Being primarily a cinematographer myself, grading has always been painstaking for me therefore i try so hard to craft the image on the day. I always was tracking oval windows around my talents face in post, but this organic approach makes so much more sense and was instantly easy to identify with. 🙏

[@wakkowarner8810]

Not needing to track windows makes this workflow so much easier.

[@recfilm1883]

I'm more of a cinematographer and color grading is still difficult for me....yes...I know my way around all the knobs and parameters in Resolve but every time I color grade I have a feeling like I'm a child in my grandpa's garage...."Let's see what happens if I connect this to that" or "I wonder what this will do if I press this button" - all I want to say is that I have so much admiration and appreciation for such Pros like you....man...you are so smart and talented and you can make rookies understand advanced stuff. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. All the best from Poland. Hubert

[@redstoneranger1404]

Another great lesson in "less is more". I love this series about your grading principles. You do a fantastic job condensing your profound knowledge into a handful of nodes.

[@LtRyanPYT]

You're a natural instructor. Well done. Subbed

[@fade2nada]

Dig it! The calm cool demeanor and the vocabulary really speak to me, on to the next video!

[@b-vk8441]

unbelievable, so great presentation, so focused you see the experience behind it

[@ToryHarder]

I've never purchased LUTs before but youve been such a great help to me lately that I purchased yours and will be using them in the Feature im starting next week! Thank you.

[@RafRafaRafRafa]

Thanks a lot for that one, the demonstration of the organic / messy positioning vs trying to exactly match the part of the image I want to modify is really enlightening ! I'll change the way I think about positioning my power windows from now on - thanks again !

[@Mrbenbarbie]

Seriously you're the best. Keep it up. You're changing my whole approach

[@AstroSirrus]

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing!

[@user-ll9ln1uu4b]

Great:) Hope i'll find something i missed earlier about PW. Thank you, Cullen, sir!

[@adsmithtx]

Great video. Love the way you split primary and secondary nodes. Definitely looking forward to you live broadcast, I believe tomorrow Friday!!?!!7

[@rodrigo8269]

great video!

[@storyfirstfilms149]

fantastic!

[@elbanzo8110]

I always have 3 power windows ready up front in my fixed node tree, just in case I have to relight the frame or pull a key in combination. I like to use different PW shapes and overlap them, it's much smoother and less noticable than an outside node. Thanks Cullen, good content as always!

[@koushikbhattacharya832]

Thank u so much sir...♥

[@thatcherfreeman]

In the third example, considering you're grading a log image, why did you choose to use Gain instead of Offset in your secondary correction? Offset has a nice meaning in log in that it controls exposure, so I feel like offset would be the best control for that secondary to emulate the effect of a graduated ND filter.

[@BestPlayedLoudLtd]

Hey Cullen, thanks for another awesome video, I have a small request for something to touch on in a future video, could you touch on monitoring and exporting HDR Rec.2020 in resolve 18? Thanks for all of your super helpful and engaging videos and grade school episodes!

[@BestPlayedLoudLtd]

@@CullenKelly That makes sense. No worries and thanks for your reply CK!

[@kingreego8304]

I love it...kindly would you show us what other task you do on your secondaries apart from windows...in your next video.

[@wakkowarner8810]

Could you do a video how to key like a pro?

[@kirankiranmishra]

Loving that, I still have a question about choosing gain instant, gamma or offset. Seams like it’s okay to select gain, gamma or offset to that expo down, 1 years back i saw a KZbin video where he thought never use gain and gamma always use offset to shape light. Well I never listened him cause it didn’t felt right to me, at some point gamma was working better then offset, but yeah ever time I used gamma or gain I use to think i m doing wrong.😂 thank you for this video. Glad I was right haha

[@kirankiranmishra]

@@Zizos yeah, now I know the difference, I am talking about years back, also everyone have a different approach, You didn’t like those walls getting darker, but I really liked it, for my eyes it has created a do depth in a image and separate the artist a lot from background. But as I said nothing is wrong. Everyone have their way to see things.

[@ethanhegel8576]

“How to properly use power windows, example number one: Don’t. …Example number two!” 😅 Seriously though, excellent video. 🤙🏼

[@JimRobinson-colors]

Not sure if I agree with the conclusions here with power windows. You basically set it up to narrate the use of them in the examples. There is a good argument for using a power window as an isolation of hues to use in combination with saturation or hue vs hue etc. to target exactly what you want affected. The lighting ( dodge and burn ) use as negative fill ( virtual flag ) is an optional and a great use. Your vertical flag is a good natural looking lighting effect. Power windows - especially gradient or other shapes and contain the secondarie within the boundaries of it, is something that I do all the time. I also agree with everything else, just the message that gets out here is in a case scenario of someone actually not using the power window for some of it best uses. Should maybe be more of "if you are using it for this reason, consider this alternative". Pretend that the problem is tiny in one particular area - containing that problem in a small soft power window, and tracking it,and fixing it. Seems like it is a better option than doing something that may affect other areas of the image - especially if the camera is moving and an exact hue appears somewhere else that your action then changes it as well as the area you are trying to fix.

[@JimRobinson-colors]

@@CullenKelly Yes, but the con of your approach is missing things outside the power window that are affected by not isolating it within the bounds of a pwoer window. You change red for something in particular and later on even in the same clip, without isolating and tracking the power window on what you were working on in the first place ,you then have to spend way too much time and pixel peep to death to analyse the whole frame across the whole clip. Seems counterproductive to me.

[@memebiotic9135]

sa here, dude =)))

[@franzmathauser]

Thanks for sharing, love you content. I always do a luma/chroma split and only change relighting within the luma channel (with powerwindows) Do you have any thoughts on that? is it worth the hassle from your point of view? See you on friday :)

[@shinzychan5117]

Second example actress looks like Gemma arterton