How to Setup Color Management Inside Davinci Resolve
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Today I'll walk you through my settings for color management inside Davinci Resolve. I use color management on almost all of my projects, and the best part is that it only takes 1 min to set up.
I start here because it's the quickest way to get my camera footage to a good starting place before color grading. There are several different types of color management available inside Davinci Resolve. The biggest two being ACES and Davinci Wide Gamut/Davinci Intermediate. I like to use DWG as it starts you off with a little less contrast than ACES.
There are two ways to "turn on" color management.
In the project settings or using nodes on the color page. Using the project settings is a little easier but node based gives me more control. Below are the settings I use.
As always, I highly recommend using a calibrated monitor that matches your deliverables when color grading.
Method #1: Color Management via Project Settings
Go to the project settings “Color Management” tab
Color science: DaVinci YRGB Color Managed
Color processing Mode: Custom
Input color space: Select the flavor for your footage
Timeline color space: DaVinci WG/Intermediate
Timeline working luminance: Custom 10,000 nits
Output color space: Use what your monitor is set/calibrated to. In my case that’s Rec709 Gamma 2.4
Limit output gamut to: Rec709
Input DRT: None
Output DRT: DaVinci or Luminance (Sample them both and use whichever you think looks best)
Method #2: Node Based Color Management
Go to the project settings “Color Management” tab
Color Science: DaVinci YRGB
Timeline color space: DaVinci WG/Intermediate
Output color space: Set to your project deliverable. Rec709 Gamma 2.2 for web and gamma 2.4 for broadcast. Calibrate your monitor to the deliverable color space and gamma.
If using raw footage go to the “Camera Raw” tab and set decode to Full res using desired decode color space and gamma. Leave camera metadata like ISO and white balance settings. Turn off any baked in LUT’s.
3. Now head to your node tree and add the Color Space Transform effect to your first node.
Input Color Space and Gamma: Based on what your footage was shot with
Output Color Space: DaVinci Wide Gamut
Output Gamma: Davinci Intermediate
Tone Mapping Method: None
Gamut Mapping Method: None
Check on Use White Point Adaptation
4. Now head to your node tree and add the Color Space Transform effect to your last node.
Input Color Space: DaVinci Wide Gamut
Input Gamma: Davinci Intermediate
Output Color Space: Rec709
Output Gamma: Gamma 2.4 for broadcast, Gamma 2.2 for web
Tone Mapping Method: Davinci or Luminance Mapping
Max Input: 10,000
Max Output: 100
Gamut Mapping Method: Saturation Compression
Apply Forward OOTF: On
Use White Point Adaptation: On
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