How to Preserve the MOST amount of Dynamic Range in your Footage | DaVinci Resolve Tutorial

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In this video, I will show you how to maximize your dynamic range.
00:00 - Intro
00:05 - Camera Info
00:46 - Node Tree
00:59 - Project Settings
02:14 - CST
02:50 - Applying FPE
03:32 - Beginner's Approach
04:19 - Pro's Approach
12:12 - Beginner vs. Pro
13:46 - Special Surprise
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My name is Qazi and I am a professional colorist based out of LA.
Available for Remote Grading Globally
For Hire: waqasqazi.com/for-hire
1 on 1 Coaching: waqasqazi.com/1-on-1-coaching
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I upload twice a week, subscribe so you don't miss anything!
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Follow me for daily 🔥 content: / theqazman
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Equipment used:
Canon C500 mkii
Sigma 50mm 1.4
Rode NTG3
Nanlite Pavotubes
Resolve Advanced Panel
Apple XDR Display
Eizo CG279x
#davinciresolve #colorgrading #resolve18

[@JakeSimpsonVisuals]

I actually like the tones of the beginner grade better. The transitions are smoother and less harsh, the warmth looks nice too.

[@BassCage]

Really like your longer format videos great Info

[@FamJammersFilm]

Love it qazi. great stuff

[@kocooo4817]

Awesome video per usual!!

[@LukeAyers]

Fantastic notes! Thank you very much

[@CesarPerezbluemoonfilmworks]

Contrast + Pivot also works wonders, I use it more than curves for balancing a shot, then printer lights, curves later if needed. Nice tutorial, Thanks!

[@Jerryossai]

Thanks for showing the color management setting at the start.

[@serveraverroes4178]

yeayyyy!! new vids!

[@philippscheithauer]

yes, the pro way is a better approach but I feel like you are making the beginners look way too bad on purpose. you didn't use the gamma wheel and didn't bother to correct the white balance which would have brought it way close if the node was positioned before the conversion properly. Although curves are better for fine tuning, the two examples would have been way way closer in terms of final image.

[@fujicinema]

Yeah, I think he's just pushing it so people can see the differences better. It's more drastic which helps highlight why one way is more effective than the other. If it was a smaller change, some people may think it isn't that different and end up editing it the wrong way, leading to something that may look slightly off. That's just my guess anyway😂

[@LaMakinaFotonika]

Great, thanks🤙🏼

[@KasaiFilms8]

Question: if you wanted to do a vintage sepia, look how would you do that and have it translate accurately throughout the entire the project with different times of day and lighting set ups?

[@manisphotography6775]

Thank You For this Pro Class

[@thanushcopilot]

New BG Looks sick!

[@theqazman]

Ty. Had to do something about it.

[@user-dn4ej2rf5l]

Hi waqas Qazi. I learned a lot from watching your coloring tutorials, thank you for sharing. I have a question, I want to make my clips more filmic, I bought the ImpulZ-Ultimate set, but I know very little about it, I don't know how to use it properly, if possible can you publish a tutorial? Thank you.

[@itsallreel]

I don't understand the subtract part and the hot key? Don't know what the ell he talking about any one know what control he use here to change the colour ?

[@KillingTheMost]

Superb!

[@stablizershock]

I liked the armature one lol

[@biswajit07]

may be that's because the face is popping out better in that version. You can create a power window around her face and lift the gamma up a bit, add some contrast to get some of the details back and it should look pretty nice and should pop out better. I would also add a vignette at the end to pull all the focus of the viewer towards my main subject which in this case is the woman.

[@goutampandey1953]

HI Qazi,thanks for the great video tutorial.Kindly share the raw rushes for practice as well.

[@soundp7521]

Great video!!! But how do You use rec 709 gamma 2.4 on a Mac?? When You export a Quick time your vídeo looks correct? Do You activate Mac viewer color profile?

[@javiersotomayor143]

Always I big fan of your work, one question do you have a course for HDR or dolby vision, to implement in Tv series? Cause I am worry that is the future in the industry and I will like to learn about it

[@joyoffilming9500]

Yeah, adjusting light via wheels or in a more sophisticated way with the curve before the CST in my understanding is emulating more perfect camera behaviour (including the settings of the camera). Only then the optimised log-footage goes into the CST and grading. This is extremely helpful with overexposed log footage to recover highlight that might get blown out right after the CST. I sense, this is exactly what you are talking about, right?

[@royalhoodfilms4552]

can you tell me system configration for color grade arri alexa LF footage

[@koushikbhattacharya832]

awesome♥

[@olusegunmichael582]

Hey Mr Qaz, have been learning alot from you.. I don't have a calibrated system. But can learning color grading through understanding scopes improve my skills as a beginner.

[@green_light_studios]

Im just confused sir,did u applied blackmagic design lut after Film lut ?

[@ardiyanto.t]

for apple user should we chose rec709-A?

[@ArtLight09]

How to do half printer lights? Holding down alt or shift?

[@Shauny_D]

Great video and very relevant for all these fancy cams with insane dynamic range and luts being chucked around all willynilly. How much direction do you get for your usual projects? I keep finding myself in the situation where I don't have any direction and WAY too many options and creative directions to take with all the high quality flexible footage. I'm finding myself forcing some arbitrary limitation on projects to force some creativity. Like only curves are allowed in this project or no more than 2 nodes...

[@fujicinema]

If I were you, I'd ask the client for some stills/samples so I know what look they are trying to achieve. Based of that I would research or create a new way of recreating a similar look!

[@JoeVazquezProductorMusical]

You are best buddy, you are the Jedi of the color grading in Davinci. As Sony cameras user I love use slog 3 and I hate to use LUT Slog 3 because sometimes make magentas blush in white areas and 2 years ago I learned with you to make color grading with separate nodes like (exposure, contrast, saturation, film grain, WB, glow, highlights etc etc etc) and not be lazy using the crappy Luts 😂 and my films look cinematics without a stupid Luts and no more magentas 😂 Bro thanks for your existence and keeping doing your great job. Cheers 🥂

[@navivillanueva9628]

Quality info

[@DavidThuman]

Heyo! Do you need to use a LUT in order to make this work?

[@uncleanAlibertine1]

yes simply the best grading source on tube! Because you went with colour transform on node level you didn't apply davinchi yRGB colour managed right?? thank U!

[@yassenahmed6406]

Notification squaaad🔥

[@Karuthompson]

Do you ever use the HDR wheels for hdr projects? What are the pros and cons of those? A video explaining that would be much appreciated

[@fujicinema]

I think he's made a video on HDR wheels, but in my experience, the hdr wheels are best used when I want to effect the exposure in stops according to my cameras color space and to retain shadow and highlight detail in a more natural way.

[@markhyena]

amazing

[@JaymesMedia]

What ever that animation is in the background is 🔥🔥🔥

[@AyushSharmaa]

That screensaver on TV made me feel like it's a real f***ing beautiful window😆

[@Nadayana]

hey Qazi, thanks for the great content! Is there a way to convert in camera film simulation to Log so that I start from scratch with color grading? I was shooting with my Fuji X XT3 in Eterna Picture profile before I discovered the power of F-Log ... and I already have some footage that does not come out at all as I want because of that. Hopefully I can recover some of the dynamic range. Thanks

[@N9O]

Sorry, but u cant recover information that has been cut off already. There is a lot more bit-depth, aka color information in the f log files, while the one u have with film sim is basically like with an applied LUT and compressed image. It is similar to trying to upscale from SD to HD, there is simply not all the data anymore.

[@_Drab]

Qazi, hi ! Why gamma is not Rec709-A ? As i see - you work on Mac. And for Mac OS more properly when gamma is Rec709-A. (In this case the footages is identical in Davinci window and in Quick Time player.) Or do I not understand something?

[@lacaraja]

Sajama, Bolivia. Incredible place.

[@eqilibrius]

Dude that's soo funny I would have need this exakt vid like a week ago 😅😅

[@kendigProductions]

Qazi, I own the Ursa mini 4.6K and the Film LOG footage is not this washed out and desaturated. I’m finding it hard to believe this is Ursa mini footage. It almost looks like Sony VLog3. The thing that is well known of the Ursa mini 4.6K is that the Film LOG is not really LOG because the image is meant to be easier to grade than traditional LOG footage. It has way more contrast and saturation straight out of camera then this footage here. Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m almost 100% positive this is NOT Ursa mini 4.6K Film LOG footage.

[@filmmaker5457]

i love that snow in the background, but somehow I feel that was a green screen? Unless you r in Montreal which kind of looks like, but in May?🤣

[@theowlfromduolingo7982]

Can you please make a video on the group-feature? I feel like this feature can save a lot of time but many don’t know how to use it.

[@fujicinema]

You're talking about the feature where there's multiple nodes in one group node right?

[@theowlfromduolingo7982]

@@fujicinema No I’m talking about the feature where you can add several clips into one group and all the changes you make are automatically transferred to each clip in that group

[@fujicinema]

@@theowlfromduolingo7982 dang I didn't know about that, I'm definitely going to look that up now!😂

[@eric-seastrand]

Would that granular curve work on 8bit footage too? I would think it would fall apart with that many adjustment points.

[@ChrisGeden]

I was also thinking that. You’d certainly have less dynamic range to play with as the data just isn’t there.

[@theqazman]

It'll work

[@atanupalit6337]

So, to place the cst node at the end of the node tree is the best practice? Should I do all my corrections before the cst?

[@fujicinema]

Corrections yes, but as for the grade some directors edit the colors after the negative print which in this case would be the lut. That's just for the look. The corrections for the most part if not always are before the cst!

[@atanupalit6337]

@@fujicinema thank you ❤️

[@fujicinema]

@@atanupalit6337 of course! :)

[@MannyXO]

As a Blackmagic footage, shouldn’t you switch the color to GEN5 for a more flatter image to work with? Just curious, would love to know this answer. Thanks

[@migel4065]

I believe the 4.6K doesn't support Gen 5!

[@migel4065]

At least not in camera

[@fujicinema]

@@migel4065 it doesn't in camera haha

[@MannyXO]

Oh 4.6k? I thought all the cameras supported GEN5. Ok and the one’s that do you just change the project to GEN 5 isn’t it?

[@fujicinema]

@@MannyXO Yeah, all the new cameras support gen 5, and yes, if your camera supports gen 5 definitely change it to that! :)

[@Maxmax-wi9ec]

*Please recreate the TOP-GUN Look!*

[@atharvadandekar7050]

heyy i just watched your whole free webinar and didnt get any luts or sample videos???

[@theqazman]

DM me on Instagram

[@johnycinema21]

hey man how would I grade RED raw with braw when I set Davinci for red raw the braw looks way different

[@saviwaves5337]

switch color management to ACES

[@johnycinema21]

@@saviwaves5337 oh ok thanks

[@saviwaves5337]

@@johnycinema21 Qazi has a video on ACES if you need further help. but usually, when you’re in a situation like that with mixed camera footage, or worse, you just don’t know the camera used at all, that’s when it comes in handy. There’s also a plug-in you can buy that the creators of Film ConvertNitrate made recently that’s meant specifically for matching different camera footage.

[@johnycinema21]

@@saviwaves5337 aww ok thanks for that info def gonna go check it out now

[@CryWolfFilms]

when you only use gain to over expose an image, yes you will get clipped highlights as opposed to almost underexposing an image and using a detailed s curve lol

[@ROBGFILMS]

should we be using rec 709A instead for our Mac ?

[@Havi.Studio]

99% sure, that yes 🙂

[@ROBGFILMS]

@@Havi.Studio since he uses Mac I thought he would be using 709A. Using rec 709 2.4 looks the same in resolve but when exporting the video footage and checking the footage the black levels are lifted and a bit washed out over all.

[@Havi.Studio]

I always shit myself when that thumb up and subscribe buttons pop out 😂 Please lower that sounds 🙏

[@fujicinema]

🤣

[@movimat]

697usd? stil the offer?

[@SebastianCristanchoYT]

Great video! Is that a real window behind you??? It looks so cool!

[@kolecava]

...

[@SebastianCristanchoYT]

@@kolecava ……….

[@kolecava]

@@SebastianCristanchoYT .

[@SebastianCristanchoYT]

@@kolecava .,

[@kolecava]

@@SebastianCristanchoYT kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpXMoH2Ah82Umqc

[@tanumayjana8098]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4DUg2Z-mt93prs -in this video you showed the color management settings this way.so what setting i would be followed.

[@sashazephiria3869]

Before watching the video, I'd say LGG dance but let's see if I'm correct :D Edit : 5:27 haha I was actually hesitating between LGG and custom s-curve xD

[@theqazman]

Haha. So funny.

[@manisphotography6775]

❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉

[@hridoy1260]

Please , zoom your video like Lynda video.

[@zeynurbabayevgmail]

I also wonder, is that real video behind you?

[@theqazman]

Render

[@zulqarnainabdullah5891]

More 8 bit footage hack please

[@zulqarnainabdullah5891]

Thanks for the like sir

[@istominmusic]

Мне кажется, что контраста очень много. В тенях не видно деталей. Если делать такие глубокие, очень черные тени, то тогда создается ощущение, что изначально видео снято на дешевую камеру, у которой уменьшили экспозицию и завалили тени, что бы спасти светлые участки. И в результате нет ощущения того "большого динамического диапазона", который изначально дала дорогая камера. Лично мне подобный вид не нравится. Я бы на оборот старался показать детали в тени, что бы показать, насколько камера дала много материала. А еще результат не смотрится натурально, поскольку если бы я смотрел на этого человека, то мой глаз не смог бы видеть такие черные тени при дневном, солнечном освещении. А тем более тени, которые получились в горах. Это смотрится не натурально. И из за этого создается противоположное ощущение, что камере не хватило динамического диапазона для того, что бы справиться с этой сценой.

[@theqazman]

Go check out the frames from No Country for Old Men and then revise this comment. 😜

[@salikw]

Don't bother all he knows is to apply a lut lol

[@flipfilms1759]

Honestly that jacket looks too bright to me even if it’s not technically “blown out”

[@josefbures4583]

Look I'm not a pro colourist and I know there's a difference between placing your cst behind or before adjustments. But if you spend 3 seconds adjusting one example and then spend 10 minutes adjusting the other example and trying to compare them, that didn't seem very relevant to me. I believe that if you spent the same amount of time with both of them, you with your abilities would make them look pretty much the same except some of the details in the highlights. Wouldn't mind seeing you at least try to make it look like a legit comparison. You have a great content but everytime you compare two results and you spend significantly different amount of time working on them just doesn't feel relevant even though that you are trying to point out the difference between a beginner and a pro. Because I believe a beginner can spend a lot of time trying to make their footage look as best as possible within their mostly limited resources in terms of equipment etc. Not just pulling two things here and there and throwing a lut on top of it and that's it leaving everything blown out etc.

[@donnierockwire]

This guy is hard to follow... because he shows us so many wrong ways to do things but the problem is that we REMEMBER to do these wrong steps and we do things wrong... instead of just forgetting all about the "wrong" ways and not misleading us. HOW DOES HE EVEN HAVE A MASTERCLASS?