You Don't NEED to be an Expert to Make Beautiful Images - Color Grading Tutorial

4 step process that will give you an unfair advantage over your competition and prove that you don't need to be an expert to make beautiful-looking images.
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Intro
01:29 - FCM Announcement
02:33 - Active Watching
03:31 - Think like a DOP
04:18 - 21-Day Challenge
04:55 - Do the Work
05:32 - Look Research
06:08 - Node Tree Build-out
06:58 - Tutorial
18:14 - Look Recap
19:09 - Final Look
19:17 - Conclusion
About:
I am a professional colorist and have worked with brands such as Prime Video, Adidas, Toyota, Vizio, etc. Outside client work, I run a color academy with over 6000 students. My channel mostly focuses on the taste-making (subjective) aspect of color grading. With the rise of AI, I truly believe that most of the grunt, technical (how-to) tasks will be handled by the software, and the job of a colorist will be purely driven by their art and imagination.
Want me to grade your next project: waqasqazi.com/for-hire
If you learn better through 1:1 interaction, then click here: waqasqazi.com/1-on-1-coaching
Social:
My Work: waqasqazi.com/
IMDb: imdb.to/3rIm493
Podcast: spoti.fi/3Y4XU4A
Instagram: / theqazman
TikTok: / qazmanofficial
Threads: www.threads.net/@theqazman
#davinciresolve #colorgrading #cinematicvideo

[@JaymesMedia]

I always tell people that my color grading changed dramatically just after 30 days of taking your course.

[@cinemasteve85]

Same. Its night and day

[@JaymesMedia]

@@cinemasteve85 amen 🙏🏽🙏🏽

[@sarcasticfpv3862]

@@finaltouchstudio_ hi, what's the name of the group? Or is it part of the course?

[@JaymesMedia]

@@finaltouchstudio_ amen brother

[@JaymesMedia]

@@sarcasticfpv3862 it’s part of the course

[@danielnewton2390]

I'm so happy to see your success, because your teaching is some of the best!

[@christianlairikko]

Im at film school and learning colours is definetly the hardest thing to start for me. Ur inspiring me to learn more. Thanks!

[@2ndEarth]

Took your seminar 1-hour intro course, congratulations, it was really a great one hour that I would recommend to anybody, and I really liked your teaching pace. Only note is that it took me two years proofing over 200,000 images before my sense of color became subconscious. Not sure if takes shorter for others, but either way, just wanted to say great job!

[@karliemorris7318]

Thank you for these Qazi , they help so much

[@nelsonpuello8722]

I really like your logical approach to the art of color grading. It just makes sense to me. From the node tree to color space conversions. Great stuff. I have learned a lot.

[@theqazman]

Music to my ears, brother. ✊🏾

[@robertblackett5906]

Been watching several of your videos back to back instead of editing the structure of the latest little project I'm working on and needless to say, I'm learning a lot more in terms of workflow, what not to over do and where to minimise steps. Thanks for the straight forward, high quality videos.

[@theqazman]

Music to my ears brother. Much love.

[@mdsohelrana8690]

TNice tutorials is literally the best tutorial on KZbin. It's right to the point, and very informative at the sa ti. Thank you so much

[@danielnewton2390]

I just tried this workflow on some old footage, and I am embarassed at how bad my old grade looked in comparison! Thanks for all the free content you put out!

[@theqazman]

Let's go, bro. So happy to hear that.

[@filmbyakiljoefield]

Man you are a genius! Color Grading is definitely my weakest point as being a Filmmaker but I'm determined to put in the work to master it, thank you!

[@IsaacBaboki]

This is one of most straight forward tutorial of Qazi. So much information in less than 20 minutes

[@theqazman]

Ty

[@edmondebacitas1608]

Forever grateful for your effort to teach us beginner. 🙌🏻

[@yuriaugusto1084]

I'm game dev and i'm learning design and to be fair, this channel is helping me much more than half of the 'game dev ambience' courses out there, he literraly explains and show what we must feel and do to get the work done, well done man.

[@theqazman]

Thank you, brother and Amen.

[@syedrizvi6408]

Great tutorial. Fantastic way to explain

[@potentialpictures]

You have a great teaching style. Really enjoy the tutorials and you have helped me a lot. Thank you!

[@theqazman]

You're welcome.

[@behindtheglosss]

Incredible transformation!

[@williamlacrosse9389]

Well explained, clear, straight to the point! You're a very good teacher bro!

[@theqazman]

thank you.

[@alexfox575]

This is dope man. Awesome!

[@LifeOfaMatt]

Very cool! Thank you for this awesome video.! I'm just starting to learn Resolve now after editing with Premiere for 10 years. Colour grading has always been my weakness. After watching a number of videos, by far, your videos are the BEST!!! THANK YOU!!!

[@keagan_lottering4306]

this video was so helpful, loved the shortness and simpleness of it but made a big impact on the final quality of the video👌😊 hope to see more of these 😁

[@theqazman]

Thank you and for sure.

[@ZEUS]

Man! As always miracle color work. Thanks brother!

[@theqazman]

😀🙏🏾

[@adamnuttall1362]

Wow the difference that colour grading does when done right is insane 🔥

[@theqazman]

💯

[@KiaOrion]

Waqas these are BANGERS

[@thanushcopilot]

Missed your tutorials Qazi, can't explain how happy I get when I see a notification from Waqas Qazi 💥

[@TheL1nkin]

got the same feeling :P

[@crystigriffon]

Man Same here

[@theqazman]

Awww, love you guys. I'm also super stoked to hear from all of you after I release a new video. ♥️

[@neethch]

This is a great channel! I only caught sight of you folks in recent times, but it’s now among my favourite channels...........

[@blurr.videos]

Like before even watching. After couple of these videos, you just know it's going to be another mile stone in your color grading knowlage. Keep going!

[@theqazman]

Ayyyy. 😀🙏🏾

[@JUSTINBUISSON]

Loved this video, thank you so much!!

[@theqazman]

You are so welcome!

[@marcialgamma]

WAUW, where is this Tutorial coming from??? This is insane! I always wanted to be different then just a LUT applier and different to other main stream videographers and your workflow really help. you just nailed it! Thanks so much for this Tutorial. This is amazing!

[@alicanakcol3000]

You have been so helpful to me over the years. Just wanted to say quick Thank You!! :)

[@theqazman]

You're welcome bro

[@hazm9529]

Out of all the colorists I've seen so far, your ways of grading are unique. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@theqazman]

OMG!!!! Thank you so much for the super thanks, brother. Appreciate you.

[@olivierparlephoto]

I mostly agree with you. What is learn in school is mostly theory, with a few practical exercice. I notice that too, and I'm trying to do th e opposite in my video. My approach is problem oriented. I mean You have a probel, how can we solve it, here is how. Very practical, and actionable. However, if you want to go deeper, you need to also understand what is under the hood in the theory and the software. So practice then learn the theory. Once in a recruitment process, one recruiter loved that way of learning / working, as its for him the right way to learn. Thank you for your video !

[@OfficerKD4-4.4]

Thank you very much for this.

[@arpantoppo3266]

The best thing that no one addresses is having a reference which you covered 🙌🙌🙌

[@naustradmas]

This industry is lucky to have you, every industry needs guys like him for inspiring people. Good work bro Learning tons from you and I didn’t even knew there is an industry around this

[@theqazman]

Appreciate the love, brother. Thank you.

[@notpaperproductions]

Absolutely loving your tutorials. Just getting into color grading after learning the basics on my own in Premiere. DaVinci is my new home and you are the teacher! Quick question: how do you create stills libraries that you are able to access across different projects?? You pull up your "Cool" gallery, and I would love to be able to create something similar to be used as I work on different projects.

[@theqazman]

Power grades live over the entire database.

[@djilaliachour1578]

The tutos as I like ;) Big thanks

[@costagf]

Loved in the intro you mention photography and Lightroom, tools being so different between it and Davinci would love a video series on film looks you developed on Davinci and how to do that on lightroom (similarities and differences between workflow/tools, how to achieve certain things in Davinci with its dedicated tool in Lightroom etc. (Wish Lightroom had better tools/scope for skin tone) ..another question Why do you use Lightroom? being that Capture One seems to be the more in depth/complex tool I'd think more like Davinci vs Lightroom (I use lightroom)

[@guilhermecarvalhodarosa]

Amazing, thanks Qazi!

[@DrRussell]

Thank you for your work. Will sign up

[@theqazman]

You're welcome. And hit me up when you join. 💪🏾

[@aliounegueyesamb6179]

Learned a lot in 25 minutes amazing

[@HamzaAli-mv6wg]

Thank you Qazi

[@nurmafug468]

It was really good ❤️

[@FamJammers]

Qazi is the man in color grading

[@Mediabatch]

Amazing 🌟

[@ELIASABISAIAGUIRRERODRIGUEZ]

this bro really motivates

[@joshkiddfilms1295]

Really love the look of your talking head setup you have going on. Looks dope

[@theqazman]

Thank you, bro. Yeah me too.

[@koushikbhattacharya832]

awesome always ♥

[@nicholasolivas317]

Thank goodness.

[@LukeAyers]

Totally agree. Too much technical junk being taught. I'm on your course and it's exactly what Ive needed. Thank you

[@theqazman]

💯

[@samuelguce]

Starting to become a believer Qaz… keen

[@kazinahian99]

Finally this the video that yt recommended not in ad

[@AjGamerZ1999]

next level depthhhhhhhhhh!

[@Paulvisuals]

Thanks for this

[@albertocostell4449]

i think thats the best channel on youtube. You explain clear things, fast and with no sh** comments or wasting time. Congrats, thinking about your masterclass but its a little bit expensive for me already... :(

[@theqazman]

Appreciate the love brother. That masterclass will make you 10 times what you'll pay for it so in that case it's free. 😜

[@guillermovaccarezza7105]

Hi Qazi, thank you so much for all you tuts and sharing your knowledge with us, I feel blessed!! I do have a question though, I see that your approach to the project settings color science or CST is different for each tut. I.e. I come from that one tutorial that you advice to use ACES cct color science and then setting the ACES input transform for the clips, and then grade from there. I understand that there are many many ways to approach color grading and all of them give great results if done well but.... I get confused as to what approach to use for each new project, do you have a "definitive" approach you would advice as the best one? Thanks!

[@JoaoSilva22222]

Waqas, i ll be a student soon, just need to finish a project, cant wait to enroll and start to learn!

[@theqazman]

Looking forward to it brother. Good luck with the project. See you in FCM soon. 💪🏾

[@Meech320]

First off, thank you for all the wonderful content you offer here on KZbin for $0. It's dramatically changed my skills for the better and many others. I have a request that means nothing because you owe us nothing lol but could we see you colour grading more lower end cameras. Arri and Red LOG translates so differently when most of us are editing on lower end cameras. ie Sony A7's , Canon C70's etc. These are all shot in a less compressed Log with much less information, typically 10 bit 4.2.0 or 4.2.2. Sometimes I apply these tutorials to my own footage but it never punches through the same way. Once again, thanks for all your work. You're a legend brother.

[@theqazman]

Appreciate the love and I have a ton of content on my channel with 8 bit and lower tier cameras.

[@Guitstars]

You are amazing Qazi! I learn so much from you! Can you please tell us which CST settings to use for Blackmagic RAW Film with 5th color generation? I can't find this info in any video, please help me! With love

[@KillingTheMost]

amazing

[@jaidobu]

Thanks so much for all you do! You’re an incredible resource to so many people. Quick question: I have my nodes organized so that Noise Reduction is Node 1 in all clips. It’s a big project, so the Noise reduction is not the same in every clip. Obviously, I only want to enable this for the export, and keep it disabled while I’m working on the timeline. Is there a way to enable/disable this node in all clips? Thanks!

[@SondreFormoLindheim]

Make the NR node as a shared node. :)

[@buyungreza]

You are the best..

[@GoluBhai__]

Thank you bro 🥰🥰🥀🥀

[@tomheiry221]

🔥woow this is mind blowing

[@theqazman]

😀

[@jasonpark7553]

Great video as always. What would you input for BMPCC 6K film Raw videos for input? in IDT

[@MariusGerome]

I saw the exact same shot on the Colorist Factory Channel, at first I thought youd be making a collab

[@naviknanubhai4244]

In the newest version of DR, I used Davinci WG and for some reason when I exported my video, it would either be more contrasty or overexposed than the video that played in my project. I’m not sure why this happened and I know that sometimes if a exported video plays through QuickTime, this may happen but anyone go through the same issue and if so, we’re you able to solve it? Again, this happens with Davinci WG, not the rec 709 color space in the project settings.

[@nutra_man]

Thank You very much I really Love Your Teachings, please i have a quick questions to ask. 1. Do i really need an external graphics card to be a colourist ? 2. what are the gears i need to buy to become a colourist ? I use Macbook Pro 2022 M1 Pro 16GB Ram. Thanks for the reply in advance.

[@romankuhler]

Hey Qazi, how do I know what to enter in the CST when coloro grading Dji Mini 3 Pro footage? Thx for your videos and your time👍😄 big fan🍿🍿🍿

[@Shauny_D]

I would love to see you do some action cam stuff. How far can you push an action cam and how close to a cinema cam can you get it. I battle the gopros all the time and i'm so sick of it and disappointed. There are some tricks but they never fit in with the big cams.

[@brandonstephens2809]

Hey Qazi, awesome video, so much useful knowledge. Quick question, how do you subtract and add colours in the offset or (printer lights)? I notice you can use a button which subtracts without you dragging the scope, is that a feature on the davinci resolve keyboard or is there another way? Thanks 😊

[@theqazman]

Ty. You can do it using your keypad.

[@mahmoudmajdoub5294]

Thanks for for all your videos, they are great and inspiring. Please could you do a avideo on grading raw video captured via motioncam app on android. That would be a great help for mo.jo . Thx

[@rayyan495]

Can you explain different formats of quicktime

[@allanwattier]

I'm would love to learn more to bring my video to another level but as colorblind I don't really know how far I can go, I'm afraid to have a final look with some color that I can't see in the shadows, any tips to color grad as colorblind, using curves, how can we detect green, red on the shin tones ?

[@tech.couple]

You ROCK

[@SianCKB]

could you also do a video where we learn to track for example the vignette you made? so we can use it on shots with motion? :D if possible ofcourse.. love the videos they are very informative and really changed my color grading.. I was grading wrong this whole time because of the other "YT Experts" ! >:c

[@capestranosfilm3047]

Hello, Qazy, could you make a tutorial of color grading with the iPhone footages? Please, bro 🙏

[@AminNakhi]

Honestly, I came with this video

[@Mechrank]

First question first. What camera’s video file you graded in this tutorial?

[@DeadReckoner]

Thoughts on using Aces CCT for a timeline that uses DJI Osmo Action and Sony A7III footage?

[@tommymejiaen]

U D Best!

[@davianrod8843]

Would u do an app version of the course ?

[@azsqa6286]

Thanks so much for this video; it's really helpful. I have one question though. If I'm editing RAW videos, do I completely skip the input and output color space nodes? I was watching the official Blackmagic videos on color management and they briefly mention that you don't need to deal with color management settings when working with raw footage because Resolve does that automatically, but they don't really go into detail and it's still a bit confusing. Can you please help clarify? Thank you so much

[@HughesHallinLA]

Is this a library clip that we can download to follow along with?

[@muhammadnaveedzafar]

If your reference look was on the cooler side then why didn't you go for the D65 version of the LUT? I think that would be more easy to adjust than transforming the warmer version towards cool look.

[@VisionOneCreatives]

Probably so he could flex

[@theqazman]

What Kyle said.

[@Djangounframed]

Hey man, thank you for the video. Can I just ask, how did you create a folder with visual reference photos in DR. I have a folder full of movie grabs and stills in a folder on my hard drive but it would be great to be able to access them in DR like you have at 9:03

[@KeyIntelMedia]

not getting this CST to work using the IN and OUT... bmpcc 6k pro GEN 5. This look only seems to work using CST at end rec709/cineon. What am I doing wrong?

[@majiera]

how to set dual waveform on scopes?

[@pedukamedia9865]

Hello Waqas how to color grade a cinestyle footage (dslr)

[@jaypeebatth8617]

How to convert 3dl Lut To Cube Luts ??

[@sanskarsharma5954]

sotNice tutorialng either - I assu that works with Edison too) and I never thought about after that. Now, at tNice tutorials mont, I am inspired! I am

[@airjohn95]

hey Iam French, what should I put in IST AND CST for MPCC 6K please :)

[@diegogaraycullas7059]

I have a question on soft soft v20. I have it installed and have played around with it a little. However, I have a very specific goal. I am

[@elbrandy4032]

Which application do you use for this color grading

[@sector9films]

Hi mate, your collection of stills for grades you like, how where do you get these from. Hope you don't mind me asking. Cheers John (from Brisbane Australia)

[@mijis6536]

is this look possible for a Fujifilm xt4 footage??

[@XOblivion97]

Do you have a link to those images you have as reference?

[@davidedianaoliaro]

where do you get the footage you grade?

[@BlackDistrictMedia_]

what lens did you use For umbrella lady?

[@eliaslimapro]

Muito bom

[@DRAMAFLS_official]

Is the course gets those updates or there’s a new one?