X-Rite (Calibrite) ColorChecker Video Tutorial

[@garethjones1]

This is definitely one of those videos that you wish you had watched years ago. Absolute bangor of a tutorial. Thank you.

[@korrofilms]

@@garethjones1 you’re welcome ☺️

[@bj0ernaa]

This explaination is by far the most comprehensive I've seen. Thank you very much!

[@TheJewellian]

finally a video that fully explains everything about the checker and how to use it and also why there is a difference between the photo and video checker.

[@1MarcVD]

This is by far the best tutorial that I have seen on white balancing and color correcting your footage. Very professional both on information as explanation and very to the point with amazing result and accuracy. You deserve K's of subscribers, views and likes. Thank you very much for showing me the real value and importance of the Calibrite Colorchecker Video Card that I was already planning to buy to match both my cameras, Sony A7III & ZV-E10.

[@korrofilms]

Thanks Marc, that’s lovely to read 🙏🏻

[@grby_albrt1563]

That is so true!

[@RaymondToms]

Agree with everything that the other comments say. Thank you for your very clear explanation of what is behind the colour checker, which other tutorials have simplified to the point that the card will not give the correct result in post.

[@asumergirse]

I was struggling with Davinci's automatic feature for the color checker, but understanding how to use it manually, wow, thank you so much!

[@korrofilms]

My pleasure!

[@peter_simons]

Thank you very much for this fantastic tutorial. Your explanations are clear, concise, and extremely informative. It's been as pleasure to watch and learn! 👍

[@korrofilms]

Thanks Peter! 😊

[@TheCarNutRepairs]

Excellent presentation and explanation of the importance and methodology of accurate white balancing and colour correction.

[@nikoloztheseventh]

Man outstanding set of informations.

[@stevekirsch8284]

I have a BMPCC4K. The included LUT is horrible. I spent weeks using the auto match in resolve to make an acceptable LUT for livestream and the results were horrible. So I tried the manual method you describe and it worked!!!!!!! I still have to tweek the color settings in vMix (since the LUT applied in Davinci isn't the same as in the camera for some reason), but now it's perfect. FINALLY! THANK YOU THANK YOU! Let me know if you want to hear the frustrations with BMPCC/davinci process.

[@YourFilmmaker]

I would like to know your proces. Thanks

[@stevekirsch8284]

Awesome video. Best I’ve seen. This is the only video that talks about how bad the automatic correction is. Now it all makes sense. I also didn’t know about the noise reduction node so that was super useful as well.

[@korrofilms]

Thanks Steve 👍🏻

[@kevinbillington9773]

Ollie really is a great instructor. I bought a subscription of MZed Pro for Phillip Blooms tutorials, and ended up watching all Ollies work as well.

[@korrofilms]

Thanks Kevin 🙏🏻

[@kevinbillington9773]

@@korrofilms your more than welcome 🙏

[@Tankbrusher]

Finally I have an idea about what is going on. This is by far the best tutorial. Thank you very much.

[@GPZ611]

Thank you for this video. It has been very helpful in helping me learn to learn how to use the color tools in Resolve. I keep coming back to it.

[@korrofilms]

@@GPZ611 you’re welcome 👍🏻

[@davidcarrico3385]

You answered my question. I have the xrite photography passport and was wondering if it would work just the same. Your info is not what I wanted to hear, but thankful for the answer. Appreciate it.

[@christiancortes7523]

Very well done my friend, It always bothered me when "pros" tell me "oh all you need is a grey card, you don't need that, that's a gimmick!" I don't normally comment on videos but I hope this helps more people see this!

[@korrofilms]

🙏🏻

[@studiotwentyone]

Brilliant video. Clear and easy to understand. Thank you!

[@korrofilms]

You’re very welcome 😊

[@Mintyseden]

Thank you for getting into the weeds of this chart, in a proper a professional way. I always thought I did it wrong with the auto way, but no. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

[@DanielSarli]

Amazing video, you went very deep and made it super easy to understand. I watched several videos on the topic and most of them made the mistake of using the photography chart to match the colors with the vectorscope squares. I was wondering myself why the colors were so different between the charts, and the worst part is that most people blame the manufacturer for not making them accurate. Everyday is more difficult to find reliable information. I'm grateful for channels like yours.

[@korrofilms]

🙏🏻

[@drakegostream]

Is there any actual guide for using the named photography chart in video editing software or it’s completely inappropriate ?

[@korrofilms]

@@drakegostream There’s only the auto match feature available for that chart. No way to manually do it, as the boxes don’t line up. The contrast boxes could be used, but I don’t know what the reflectance values are for them. It may say on Calibrite’s website, though.

[@MilitaryHistoryWithWill71]

Brilliant tutorial, I've just moved over to Davinci Resolve Studio from Adobe. And this tutorial is perfect, thank you. 👏 👏

[@dcmusicproductionsdotcom]

This is the best tutorial I've ever seen! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I really appreciate it!

[@chrisoiivotos4626]

Absolutely brilliant tutorial! Thank you so much!

[@gimbalair]

I’m new to video, i fly drones indoors, always struggle with colour grading afterwards when I have shot in D log. I need to get myself one of these charts and follow this tutorial, very helpful thanks.

[@korrofilms]

Thanks ☺️. They do make an XL version, which is good for drones, but pretty expensive (and doesn’t have a WB side).

[@OliKember]

What a fantastically useful resource, thank you very much for putting this together, I learned a bunch. I was amazed to see that your skin tone selection from the model were backwards confirmed by the chart - if there was ever a proof that this method is worth the effort! This video justifies the price of the chart too. A powerful tool.

[@korrofilms]

Thanks Oliver. P.S. Lovely to meet another O.K!

[@randyrosca6471]

This is absolute killer! Thank you!

[@tomaszkulik1728]

Extremely helpful. Many thanks!

[@FelipeAlmeida_media]

Great video!! Extremely helpful! I have been wanting to pick up a color checker for video and this was super helpful. Will watch this again for sure!! Thanks again!

[@ShootingAndReloading]

The best guide I've found by far!!! (and I have looked at a few with very poor results). Thank you :)

[@korrofilms]

🙏🏻

[@jakerupert3603]

This is SUCH a good tutorial, thank you!

[@RedFrameTech]

Absolutely amazing video on this subject! Thanks 🙏

[@ausdoug974]

Very, very helpful tutorial. I learned so much from watching it. Thanks so much for creating it for us. Brilliant.

[@MauriceMischo]

Thank you so much for this great Tutorial! It is the best I could find on youtube. There is one super important detail when Color correcting the Canon C200 RAW Light Files. You need to do the Exposure correction with the HDR Grade instead of the color wheels. This makes a big difference. Timeline Color Space set to Davinci Wide Gamut.

[@paplu2009]

This the best tutorial I have come across. Learned a lot. Thank you so much.

[@hikups]

great tutorial ! Tip : three dots ... waveform scale style and select % percentage. Now its a scale from 1till 100

[@korrofilms]

Thank you. I made this tutorial several years ago, before you could change the WFM scale in Resolve. It’s certainly much easier now you can set it to IRE 👍🏻

[@stefandanojlic2991]

Ollie Kenchington is so good when explaining stuff i really appreciate the tutorial it is first class :) I'm currently learning Davinci Resolve tutorials on MZed. Thanks Ollie for all the work you have done.

[@korrofilms]

Cheers Stefan 👌🏻

[@cosmashono7665]

Wonderful and detailed tutorial. Never figured out how to use the colorchecker passport video in running gun situations though.

[@wissofpv]

thank you for this video

[@cristigordas]

very good tutorial. What is your color maneger setting i see you use raw footage. Thank you sorry for my english

[@erkkocak]

I was about to go crazy to find out where my exposure mid gray ire should be on my R10 when shooting 10 bit 4:2:2 hdrpq. This camera doesn't have a log profile but can shoot 10 bit with PQ mode only at color space rec2020 and st2084 gamma. Looks like every other camera has a kind of proper log to convert to rec709 at post but not for this one. So.. Can you confirm if i expose in 8bit rec709 to my gray card and than use the same expose settings on the 10 bit PQ they will match. You said gamma did not effect exposure but how about 8bit to 10 bit difference? I want to shoot at 10 bit always because this camera gives the best dynamic range at that level and it looks great IMO. PS: I have watched almost every single video about exposing 10 bit footage but all were about slog or vlog or clog profiles! I also have the xrite and your video is definetely the most helpful one. Even more helpful than the calibrite's own video guides! Great job mate and I can clearly see a new filmmaker channel rising up here! Just a quick note.. In my Davinci studio 17, when you click on the 3dots menu on the top right of the scopes panel, i can change my scope scale to percentage very easily. Maybe you missed that or maybe i am a noob not understanding what you are talking about :)

[@korrofilms]

Thanks Erk. You should find that the trick of setting exposure in Rec.709 and then change gamma still works with PQ, however, I’ve never actually tried that particular workflow! So my advise would be to test it before a real shoot. As for 10-bit, that 100% makes no difference to your exposure. Once you’ve recorded the clip, take it in to Resolve and use a CST effect to convert the clip from Rec.2020 ST2084 to Rec.709. In theory, all should be good 👍🏻

[@erkkocak]

@@korrofilms Thanks mate. I am currently trying to use the resolve color management and davinci wide gamut. It automatically detects it is a rec2100 st2084 footage and opens up the image. Afterwards color correcting by the help of colorchecker passport video(thanks to your guide) and exporting at rec 709 gamma 2.2 . I am using gamma 2.2 because my only aim is to use it on youtube. Am I doing wrong? gamma 2.4 is better maybe?.. Someone had said 2.2 should be the way if my main target is youtube content(mostly viewed on PC/mobile) for correct colors representing. Sadly my monitor is also rec 709 gamma 2.2 though. BTW Just a quick note.. In my Davinci studio 17, when you click on the 3dots menu on the top right of the scopes panel, i can change my scope scale to percentage very easily. Maybe you missed that or maybe i am a noob not understanding what you are talking about :)

[@korrofilms]

Great, wasn’t sure how up to speed you were with Resolve, so didn’t want to send you down the colour management rabbit hole! But sounds like you’ve got it set fine. Gamma 2.2 used to sort of make sense, when people could only watch KZbin on their computer monitors (mostly all of which are 2.2), but as it’s now mostly phones and tablets, or smartTVs, it makes more sense to output to 2.4. However, if you’re monitor can only show 2.2, then make sure your timeline colour space is set to 2.2. As for the ability to set scopes to IRE, I am aware of this (I’m a BMD trainer), but this tutorial was recorded three years ago, before that functionality was included. 👍🏻

[@JDFloyd]

Great video. I am a fashion photographer who uses the color checkers for cameras. However, I have an interest in understanding how video is produced, and I watch DaVinci Resolve tutorials. In doing both, I am really interested in accurate color at capture. I have seen several videos on KZbin about color checker use, your's is the best. Great tutorial.

[@korrofilms]

🙏🏻

[@bigdogfilms6836]

Ollie, thank you for sharing both this tutorial and the webinar on the same subject. Very helpful. I do have a question regarding the step to adjust the 6 vectors. I get the hue part but am confused about the saturation step. The targets are 75% saturation targets. But you arbitrarily increase the global saturation initially and fine tune the vectors independently with the curves palate. All this while your Vectorscope is at 2X zoom which throws out the value of 75% targets. Does this indicate that the 6 vector chips on the chart are 37.5% saturated? To what percentage will our neutral correction be saturated after performing this step? Also, have you tried ColorSlice to perform tis correction vs the curves? Thanks Ollie.

[@korrofilms]

@@bigdogfilms6836 Hi, thanks for your great question. First off, the saturated colour chips on the ColorChecker Video do NOT reach the 75% saturated targets on a standard vectorscope. It would be fantastic if they did, but they had to balance the benefits of a more highly saturated printed patch, versus the negatives of having a more glossy (and therefore more reflective) chip. If you look at Calibrite’s product pages for this chart, you will see how they very carefully do not stipulate how saturated (or unsaturated) the colour chips are. Secondly, the reason I arbitrarily increase the saturation before adjusting the hue angle, is because it pushes the ends of the traces closer to the targets (which is also why I use a 2X scale on the vectorscope). This makes it much easier to see when the hue angle and saturation are set correctly, before making a final overall saturation adjustment based on your best guess. I say best guess because, as already mentioned, there is no information available that tells us how saturated those colour chips are. Placing them at 75% will create a very over-saturated image, because they aren’t 75% saturated patches. I’ve found, as a rough starting point, placing them in the targets when the scope is set to 2X looks kind of close to reality, if a touch under saturated. I’d rather that as a base correction to build from, than an image that is too saturated, if I was being handed a project with these base adjustments already in place. If I’m the one starting and finishing the grade, then I know to just pump it up a bit at this stage. If you’re a perfectionist, like me, then finding out that this saturation step is not definitive probably irks you massively (it does me!) however, hue angle is MUCH more important to get 100% correct than overall saturation level. Each angle is saturated correctly, relative to each other, don’t forget. It’s just the overall level of saturation that’s not definitive and left to your judgement. I can’t say what level of saturation this chips are, but they must be somewhere around 40-50%, as a guess, not quite as low as you’ve said above. Interestingly, Datacolor have recently launched their own version of this chart and have opted to use more glossy (and therefore more saturated) colour patches, which they claim are 75%. I did some tests with that chart and the more saturated patches do create a more accurate representation of the scene, compared to the ColorChecker Video, however, they were still a long way off the 75% targets on the vectorscope. Which makes sense, if you think about it, because those 75% targets are for checking against EBU test signals, not reflective printed surfaces on a physical card that’s then recorded. What would be most useful is if Calibrite properly measured and stated the saturation equivalent these patches equate to and published that information, so we knew exactly how much to adjust the values by to match the real environment.

[@korrofilms]

@@bigdogfilms6836 Oh and, no, I’ve not tried colorslice to perform these hue angle/sat steps but no reason it wouldn’t work. I just like the speed that I can do this in the curves with my panel and see no reason to adopt a different tool to do these steps, but I’ll give it a try, since you mention it. 👍🏻

[@bigdogfilms6836]

@@korrofilms Ollie, thank you so much for your reply. Most helpful! Saturation should be subjective for creative purposes. But each vector starting together from the same starting line will help tremendously.

[@djvphotography]

Brilliant, Ollie. Top notch.

[@korrofilms]

Cheers mate 😊

[@phuongluu578]

You know what?! Like and Subscribed right away after i watched. Thanks you for make the video!

[@3Lmatador]

Guys, I am a newbie! This video is great but I am not able to see my vectorscope without he 6 colors (lines) like in the presentation. Can tell me how I set that up? I am using Davinci 19 studio

[@garyheald4704]

What a great video. I have used the Classic passport for my stills photography for quite a while but have recently got into shooting video, hence I now have the Video passport. I am also using Davinci resolve. At about 26 mins 20 sec you applied the Nodes to the required image using the colour page . You said that you did that with one stroke of the keys but somehow I missed what you actually did! Any help would be welcomed.

[@korrofilms]

Hi Gary. It was a simple copy and paste, I believe. Or I may have used the = key to copy grade from one clip back.

[@garyheald4704]

@@korrofilms I thought that it might be that. Many thank for your reply. I used the color checker video in the sun yesterday and had my GoPro set on Flat colours. Having gone through the process in your video I have created a LUT titled GoPro Flat Sunny. I have done similar with my other cameras in the past and so it should give some consistency. The colours from the GoPro Normal setting are far to over saturated for my liking.

[@scottw6960]

Great tutorial, thank you for posting! Very helpful and clear explanations. One question...when using the auto match feature, you mention when selecting color temperature, you're using the value you shot the footage at. In another tutorial, a colorist says this setting is not the temperature you shot at, rather, this value is the target color temperature of the color space...in this case REC 709. Therefore, she says to leave the value at 6500K. I'm not exactly sure what she means... but have you tried keeping it instead of using 5600K?

[@korrofilms]

Hi Scott, thanks for your kind words about my tutorial. As for your note about this other colourist’s comments, that’s very interesting! It doesn’t really stack up to logic, however, as the white point for broadcast is D65 (6500k) in most countries, and D55 (5500k) in a handful of others. If that parameter was indeed meant to be set to your output colour space’s target white point, surely it would be a pop-up menu with D55, D61, D63 and D65 as options, not a sliding scale where you can input any value you want. My understanding is that, in order for the algorithm to know if your charts primaries and secondaries are in the right place, it must know where white is meant to be first. So this value should be set to the white balance value your camera was set to. This is the same as when I manually do it, where I use the white balance side of the chart first, to determine the starting point for all my subsequent hue and sat adjustments to the primary and secondary reference chips. If you do all the hue and sat adjustments without setting the white balance up first, the results are warped and clearly wrong, not dissimilar to how the Color Match looks, in fact! I’ve always suspected that this parameter is the cause of this feature not working correctly, for this reason. Any way, this is all just conjecture, but I like to think I’m right 😝

[@halimrahman]

Great tutorial. I do have a question though. You did "pull" the length of the colours in Hue vs Sat to be exactly in the box. Does the same method also apply when using Final Cut Pro?

[@korrofilms]

Final Cut Pro’s Vectorscope doesn’t give you the option to zoom to 2x, so I’d suggest setting the zoom to 1.3x (its maximum), boosting the saturation in an initial colour wheels adjustment, then do your hue vs hue and hue vs sat adjustments after that. Place the primary and secondary colour patches in the boxes (the image will look very over saturated for now), then finally knock the overall saturation back down in that initial colour wheels adjustment, until you feel the image looks good. Less accurate than doing it in Resolve, but the main thing is the hue angles will be accurate and the relative strength of saturation in each hue will be correct too. I do a lot of grading in FCP X and this approach works well enough. 👍🏻

[@halimrahman]

@@korrofilms thanks for the tips, I've just applied today and perhaps I was not as good as you, need more training! I have a dark-brown complexion. First, I used your white balance colour technique. Followed by the hue vs hue and hue vs sat, then normalise the saturation downward. I noticed that my skin tone turned to "reddish". Then using mask and hue vs hue to correct on the skin tone line, the yellowish/greenish affected the entire scene. What is the right technique to alter just my skin tone?

[@korrofilms]

@@halimrahman I’ve noticed FCP X tends to boost red saturation more than it should, which may explain why your skin looked too red. In terms of adjusting just the skin tone, you can use the hue vs hue curve or create a colour mask and adjust with the colour wheel.

[@GuinnessFL]

well done - thanks!

[@magpiemike100]

Excellent tutorial--thank you! I wonder; have you tried the automated color checker function recently? I wonder if Blackmagic has improved its less than stellar performance?

[@korrofilms]

I haven’t tried it recently, no. Would love to think they’ve fixed it, but I’ve not seen any release notes suggesting it has been fixed. I’ve got to download the v19 beta soon, so I’ll give the Color Match another go then 👍🏻

[@magpiemike100]

@@korrofilms Awesome! And again, your tutorial was a pleasant and rewarding experience.

[@sylversyrfer6894]

Hi! Newbie question: how do I use the color checker if “the talent” is ME (i.e. calibrating my camera for Zoom calls or vlogging)?

[@korrofilms]

I do this all the time! I just pop it on a stand and place it in the shot, where I’ll be sat. 👍🏻

[@sylversyrfer6894]

Ok great! Thank you! 😊

[@Panotaker]

This is fine if you are inside, but what do you do if you want to shoot a video of something outside like the Grand Canyon, or your kids running around. Do you still use a color chart, or do you just wing it.

[@korrofilms]

I use it outside all the time, it works exactly the same way. However, I don’t use it when things are moving too fast to stop and use it. You’ll find, though, that the more often you use it in controlled situations, the better your gut instincts when having to shoot in uncontrolled situations.

[@Panotaker]

@@korrofilms thanks for the reply. I’m no pro, and I normally just use one camera, so I don’t have to match cameras, so I basically just wing it. Although I did buy that folding video chart a while back, I just never took the time to figure out how to use it. Maybe you can make a short version of your video for us dummies, preferably outside, with some scenes instead of a model. I’m guessing most of us don’t have good looking models to hold up a chart. Thanks again.

[@korrofilms]

@@Panotaker The process is identical. The whole point of a chart is that it is a consistent reference in ANY environment and irrespective of subject.

[@cevxj]

you can change the waveform to percents in resolve

[@korrofilms]

You can now. You couldn’t when I made this video.

[@cevxj]

@@korrofilms thanks, didn’t know that. Also, after reviewing 20 of these videos especially slog2 tips (2 1/3 steps over 40IRE, or under 70 zebra, in my testing) i finally feel confident that i can use the camera lol. Yours is the most effective and the most accurate.

[@p-r-i-v-a-t-e]

Thank you so much Ollie, for the fantastic tutorial. I have a question. Assuming I am shooting only in Canon Log 3, before starting all color correcting and matching colors to the ColorChecker, what adjustments in color management do I have to make? Do I have to set Timeline Color Space to Rec 709 or Canon Log 3? Or do I have to open a node with Color Transform before the adjustments and then convert back to output color space after I finish? How does this affect? Also, what if my target color space is different from Rec709? What changes do I need to make? Thanks for your help in advance.

[@korrofilms]

Hi. There are multiple ways, but the most common two are as follows: Set your colour management settings to Resolve Colour Managed, and then set the input colour space to Clog3, timeline to rec.709 and output to rec.709. The second involves leaving Resolve colour management off (it defaults to rec.709) and either applying a clog3 to rec.709 LUT on node 1, or a CST OFX to node 1. With the former technique, you can change the output colour space to other options at any point, and that governs what your exports comes out as. Just don’t ever change your timeline colour space mid way through a project, as all your adjustments will change. Cullen Kelly and Darren Mostyn both have lots of tips for colour management, if you want a more step by step guide to any of this. 👍🏻

[@DKiaulakis]

Amazing! 90 percent exposure, didn't know even after using passper for 4 years.. 🤣 Thanks!

[@lesdalziel8787]

love this video, especially as you've used a c200, which i have two of and love. I've been more a premiere pro user than resolve, but just a quick question on this since you mention it was shot on raw (lite). You've done all this without/before applying any corrective 709 canon lut presumably?

[@korrofilms]

Hi and thanks for your comment. Yes, this is all done without a technical LUT. However, you could do all this after starting with a LUT (or other colour management workflow) too. To avoid muddying the waters by discussing colour management (and also because I shot this years ago, when RCM still had some bugs in it), I created this tutorial so the final image could be graded directly from the log negative, but if you are adding a transform LUT first, it's still a helpful workflow, because you can correct your colour primaries and secondaries, or match other cameras easily. Unless you're a machine, you will most likely shoot with some exposure or white balance shift, so this workflow will iron all that out.

[@lesdalziel8787]

@@korrofilms thx. Subscribed.....

[@ColindeSilva]

This info is gold. Quick q- I know from this video that the automated match isn't great, but Resolve does "support" the colour checker classic, right? I did find the magenta was completely wrong though, which was why I was hunting for such a video. My source footage was a GoPro8, snow scene, so probably not the best (I find Sony sensors way oversaturate reds, or do something so reds are always out).

[@Kuliginvitalik]

i should use color grade and color correction after CST or before, please tell me/ i don't underatsnd(((

[@gadass]

Thanks for tutorial! But I have advice for future videos - if you are recording screen in ultrawide, you should crop camera footage to same aspect ratio and export it as ultrawide. At this moment when I'm watching this tutorial on ultra wide monitor, I see your screen scaled to 16:9 for no reason here. Have a perfect day! :)

[@korrofilms]

Yep, unfortunately my main display was broken at the time, and I was forced to have to use that ultra wide screen. Glad you persevered, though 👍🏻

[@vivianvaldi7871]

Hello KF. Do you know what's the exact problem reported with the Data Color Spyder checkr 24 ? Looks like their colors are first at 100% sat. And then would not be in the same space color than the X-rite (Adobe vs Rec709 ?). Any definitive vue on this matter ?

[@bh6984]

So the middle 18% gray exposure chip reflects 45-50 ire? I thought that Calibrite declared that middle gray chip to be 40 ire and would therefore result in a good exposure in a flat 709 profile if exposed to 40. Does that mean if we expose to 40 on that middle gray chip that we are technically underexposed?

[@korrofilms]

I’ve not seen Calibrite refer to that chip as anything other than 18% reflectance. Where did you see them label it as 40 IRE? Most people would place 18% grey around 45 IRE, sometimes a bit higher. I’ve not met many people that would expose it at 40 IRE, but it depends on the sensor and what gamma you’re using. For example, the Arri 35 gives the best image if you expose middle grey much lower than other cameras. As a general rule of thumb, though, I’d advise sticking to 45ish.

[@bh6984]

@@korrofilms On the Calibrite product page for the ColorChecker video they stated "Gray Levels: Four larger steps for even gray balance, including white, 40IRE gray, deep gray, and high gloss black reference patches". So that's why I figured under a standard rec709 profile that the middle gray swatch should expose to 40ire but I've been reading so many varying opinions online. Thanks!

[@bioluminantmedia]

One thing I missed in the video is how to deal with log or raw footage. So my question is, when using Resolve 18 do I not use any Color Management in the Preferences of the project, import this footage, make the adjustments as you outlined them then a CST node to get out to Rec 709; or, set up color management in the Preferences Panel to go from BRAW to DWG to Rec 709 and then make the adjustments as outlined in the video? Thanks! Great work by the way!

[@korrofilms]

In this video, to avoid opening a can of worms, I just relied on the basic YRGB Rec.709 Gamma 2.4 colour management, but either of your proposed alternative workflows would work just fine. 👍🏻

[@bioluminantmedia]

@@korrofilms Thanks. That makes sense based on what I know about color mgmt in Resolve. Thanks for the prompt reply. Again, really good explanation of how to use the color checker.

[@oceanus123]

Thanks a lot.

[@0raibi]

Can you then export the color grading as a lut to premiere pro for example to complete the edit?

[@korrofilms]

Yes, you can. Just right click the thumbnail and choose, Export LUT. 👌🏻

[@0raibi]

@@korrofilms you are the best

[@daveassender1099]

this was so helpful, thanks

[@Adam-fb5nt]

Great video! Slight correction: the reason the color match tool in Davinci is working so poorly for you is because you changed the Color Temp to 5600. You aren't supposed to enter the color temperature you shot in. I don't fully understand it, but long story short, you're supposed to leave it on 6500. And you'll get a decent result.

[@korrofilms]

Thanks, but I’m afraid you are wrong. It doesn’t matter what you do with that parameter, the hue, sat and contrast values are all incorrect afterwards.

[@Adam-fb5nt]

@@korrofilms Have you tried it? I'm just curious why your shot became very warm when you set the value to 5600. Seems obvious from this video that setting it to 6500 would, at a minimum, get a much closer result

[@korrofilms]

@@Adam-fb5nt Yes, I’ve looked in to this before, when others have raised the same point. Think about it logically, and you’ll realise it’s a red herring. First, if that parameter was meant to be set to the output colour space white point (which is where this conjecture originally stemmed from), then why make it a hot scrub value field, and not a drop down menu with the common options, e.g. D55, D65 etc? Second, the whole purpose of this feature is to bring a shot from its captured format to a display/output standard e.g. Rec.709, so why would I need to tell it where I was going (which for most people is going to be 6500K) but not where I’m coming from (which it can’t measure, as the colour chart side doesn’t include a white balance section)? Thirdly, let’s pretend you are correct and it should always be left at 6500K - why even give us any option to change at all? Lastly, even if we accept that it shouldn’t be changed from 6500K, it is still only a white balance adjustment, so wouldn’t make any difference to the contrast, yet you can clearly see the contrast is completely wrong too. Please feel free to test it yourself, then check the chromaticity coordinates on a vectorscope and the contrast on a WFM - you will see they don’t align with the values they are meant to, easily disproving this theory.

[@Adam-fb5nt]

@@korrofilms good points. I guess I'm just scratching my head as to why Davinci shanked this one so badly. Thanks

[@RohitGrover42]

Thank you so much for this wonderful video. I am new to color correction and cinematography, so please forgive me if my question sounds dumb. If I use slightly warmer color lights, lets say 3200K lights and cooler colors at 6500K and my camera is set at 4500K, How can I use a ColorChecker in capturing both the colors appropriately with no parts of the image having any neutral colors.

[@korrofilms]

Hi there, and thanks for your kind words about the tutorial. In your example, where you are shooting “off temperature” I probably wouldn’t bother using the chart at all, especially if I was shooting with a camera who’s colour matrix I was familiar with. I would just pay close attention to any skin tones on the vectorscope when grading. However, if you were using a camera that was new to you, or you were worried about a particular piece of set/wardrobe/product you had in shot appearing faithful, then you could temporarily make all lights match your camera’s white point (4500K in your example), white balance and shoot the charts, then put your lights back again. This way, you can ensure everything is neutral and accurate, before the lights change. The only variable you’re then left with is how accurately the lights follow the Planckian locus, as they move to 3200K and 6500K. If they drift off, you may have some unwanted tint present in the associated areas of the frame. But, then, this is where good lights are important, regardless of scenario! Kino, Arri, Litepanels - they all perform well when it comes to accurate whites and predictable Kelvin adjustments that follow the Planckian locus. One last tip, based on your scenario… if there was a specific product or item in the shot you wanted 100% faithful, you could use small mirrors to bounce a 4500K pool of light on to it, which would help it stay untinted and accurate, where other areas are pushed warm/cool. 👍🏻

[@RohitGrover42]

@@korrofilms What you said about shooting in a neutral color first and then shooting again with different light colors makes a lot of sense to me. Atleast I would know where I stand with the actual colors, and build from there. Rightnow I cant afford the expensive lights, but I would just hope the ones I have are not lying about their CRI ratings. As I am new to cinematography, I’m still getting used to the colors of my camera and figuring out the accurate colors in resolve later had been a major bottleneck. I’ve never ordered a product faster after watching a video than I did yesterday after watching your video. I watch a lot videos in youtube where the relevant information of a 10 minutes video can be summed up in a minute. A spend about a couple of hours yesterday making notes from this video. Thank you again!

[@artmktadvertising]

Sir.. thank you soooo much for this video.. helped me a lot... but. a question.. on this case we don't use the "color space transform" right? im not sure if my question is silly but, just for sure...thank you again

[@korrofilms]

I didn’t in this demo, so as not to confuse beginners too much. But you absolutely can apply a CST or use Resolve’s colour managed workflow, then tweak on top.

[@artmktadvertising]

ok.. thank you for responsive answer.. .please, usually I use PRORESS from Ninja recording canon gamut clog3. and use last node to transforme .. but when record in HDMI RAW , canon r5c using NINJA V+ can't use this file on Davinci.. some tip to transform it? thank you my friend @korrofilms

[@artmktadvertising]

@@korrofilms when im using the clog 3 I just do what you did on this video.. and "bum" feel like perfect to start creative color.... don't need to use the node with cat... some problem with that?

[@korrofilms]

No problem to do it that way.

[@korrofilms]

You’ll have to use FCP X to transcode the Pro Res raw.

[@ignazioghiani3556]

Grazie😊

[@korrofilms]

Prego 👍🏻

[@branoobzo]

thank you.

[@ruslan4ick_34]

Bro i love you thanks you!

[@arunpaul8624]

Thank you so much.

[@leeentertainmentchannel247]

Great video. Thanks for sharing

[@MONEYVAL9]

What checker is this ?

[@ХЕЙТЕРЫ-ы2б]

Color matching temperature must be 6500k if you "print" for rec709 D65 standard

[@korrofilms]

This can’t be right. I’ll look in to it, but why give us the option, if it’s always going to be set to 6500K? At the very least, you’d expect a drop down menu to choose from a couple of other less common white points, like D55. Why give us an adjustable slider, if this was truly what this parameter is intended for? Can anyone link to the article/video where this was mentioned, so I can check it out?

[@ХЕЙТЕРЫ-ы2б]

@@korrofilms check the white point of delivery formats and apply them correctly. For instance, you can compar Rec709 d65 and cinema DCI d60. When you photoprinting you use d50. Etc.

[@TalismaJams]

Thanks a lot for this tutorial.

[@DougDavis]

Also… would you add a lut for a specific look your going for after all of these nodes? Or would you place it on an adjustment layer? Just curious on that as well.

[@korrofilms]

You could do either of those things, yes. A creative LUT is best placed on the final node.

[@DougDavis]

@@korrofilms thank you

[@DougDavis]

How did you grade one frame and paste it all to the next clip so easy? What key did you hit?

[@korrofilms]

Hi Doug. Just Cmd-C and Cmd-V 👍🏻

[@mammifero]

One question: in "real life scenario" you have to start the Color of the clips before you start to Edit the timeline, right ? really really fantastic video

[@korrofilms]

Hi Matteo. I would never grade clips before editing, no. I might apply a technical LUT for editorial, but the grade would happen last. 👍🏻

[@mammifero]

@@korrofilms thanks, but i'm a little bit in trouble, how can you use the color checker if you have already edit your timeline ? have a nice day from Italy

[@korrofilms]

@@mammifero Are you using Resolve?

[@mammifero]

@@korrofilms yes but i’m like a new kid in town 😀. With google i have found your video course i will subscribe to it

[@korrofilms]

@@mammifero No problem. I edit my timeline first, then use the chart clips to create base grades, that I copy and paste on to the edited timeline clips. If they are for an interview, then I would apply the base grade to the source clip instead.

[@petrub27]

Yeah, so as shown in other video s it doesn't work. You still need to heavily tweak the results after words

[@korrofilms]

Yeah, the auto match chart tool in Resolve is one to avoid.

[@陈子帆-w7t]

great video

[@voederbietels]

oh boy how complex. i have a nikon z9 and it has no scopes to match the righ values

[@korrofilms]

Not even a histogram? How about an hdmi port, so you can use the scopes on an external monitor?

[@voederbietels]

@@korrofilms yeah there is a hystogram. )

[@voederbietels]

but how it works with the hystogram

[@korrofilms]

@@voederbietels It’s much harder with only a histogram, but if the chart is filling most of the frame, you should be able to see the 90% spike on the graph.

[@rageshgovindan]

Is it done on top of CST node or before CST ?

[@korrofilms]

Hi Ragesh. I wanted to keep this tutorial as light as possible on Resolve’s specific colour management workflow, so someone could watch it and apply what they see to Premiere or FCP X. However, you absolutely could apply a CST node first, then do these steps after. You could also set your colour science settings to DaVinci YRGB Colour Managed and then follow these steps, with no CST. 👍🏻

[@rageshgovindan]

@@korrofilms Thanks you for the quick response. Much appreciated. The noise reduction tool used in the video comes with davinci or is that a separate plug in ?

[@korrofilms]

@@rageshgovindan I use Neat Video for NR, which is a separate plugin and very good.

[@rageshgovindan]

@@korrofilms Could you also recommend the color chart out of two mentioned in the video? The big or small one? I was planning to buy one and while looking for a tutorial , found your channel. The information is so precise and very helpful. I'm working towards becoming a cinematographer who can color my own images. Please recommend the best that suit my requirement

[@korrofilms]

@@rageshgovindan I think the standard size version is perfect for most scenarios 👍🏻

[@nimbas9824]

Yuou can change the waveform scale to % I personally find it more intuitive as most values are spoken about in terms of %

[@korrofilms]

You couldn’t do that when I shot this tutorial three years ago.

[@testpattern701]

Would you care to explain why your tutorial is so dark and muddy? The camera right side of your face is black. I would not consider this video acceptable.

[@korrofilms]

I can only apologise. The thing is, I’m in a blacked out colour-grading suite! This was filmed in 2018, when I’d just moved in to that studio, and hadn’t yet set it up to be anything other than a reference environment. You’ll be relieved to know that I now have this room set up in such a way as to facilitate both it’s every day function as a colour suite, and to appear more pleasing for the odd time I record a tutorial in there. I hope you manage to get past the unacceptable appearance of this video, and watch it all the way through, as there’s actually some really useful information in it.

[@p-r-i-v-a-t-e]

Seriously? That's all you remembered from this fantastic tutorial? 🤦‍♂