Color grading is important and it doesn't matter if you like a specific look you saw some where or your own personal style. If you do it right then it will improve your videos. But a lot of people find it a little bit daunting because there's so much to learn and may be you need some expensive software. Now, let me tell you it doesn't have to be that way. Today I'll show you how color grade my any videos in DaVinci Resolve 16. Nothing crazy just a few basic steps take to color grade videos.
I'm thinking about upgrading to see the realpower of DaVinci Resolve but not because I need to, just because I'm curious. So, if you're looking for a professional editingprogram then I definitely recommend DaVinci Resolve 16 and you can download it for freeso why not try it out? It runs great on my MacBook and it only tookme a few weeks to get the hang of it. Now, I've heard from some people that it runsbetter on Mac than on Windows but I don't know about that so just try it out. This is probably the most important part ofthe video and it has nothing to do with color grading in DaVinci Resolve or any other editingsoftware. Color grading is a lot more than just pullingsome curves and sliders or applying a LUT. Color grading starts with what you see aroundme here... light.
Sometimes I hear people complain when they'recolor grading and usually it's when they're applying a LUT. Then they say that it doesn't look exactlylike they expected it because they expected the same look as the person from whom theydownloaded that LUT. And a lot of times that's because of light. If you want the exact same look as someoneelse then you also need the exact same light setup. Now, I wouldn't recommend doing that becausethen you're just copying but it shows how important light is even for color grading. It decides for a large part what the finalresult will look like. Let's take the color grade that we have hereright now. The one that you're looking at. And let me. show you the same color gradenow without the background lighting. There. And the difference is huge. And it's not just because of that blue colorin the background.
It's the combination of everything. That blue color in the background also makesyou perceive my skin tones differently for example or the color of my T-shirt. And all that combined with color grading createsa look. OK let's switch again. So when you're color grading and you wanta specific look, make sure you pay attention to light too. That's super important. Cinematography, photography, it's all aboutlight. Ok, now let's start color grading and forpretty much all my footage I use a few basic steps. Usually use my LUTS because it's faster andthen I get the same exact look every time. You can try them out but like I said you won'tget the exact same look unless you have the exact same lighting as me.
And the same camera. Same everything. So, if you decide to buy them, thanks forthe support but please keep that in mind. If you use LUTs, any LUTs then you need towork with them. Don't expect that throwing on a LUT will giveyou a nice look. Use LUTs as a base to create your own look. But I'm not going to use LUTs today. I'll show you my workflow in DaVinci Resolve. I use this technique for most of my editing. Here in the studio but also outside. Same technique, I like to keep it simple andI promise you with this technique you'll be able to create your own look in half an hour. No problem. OK, in Davinci Resolve let's go to the colortab and if you're already using it then you'll know that Davinci works with nodes. I don't even remember how it was in Premierebut I really like these nodes.
It's a bit like layers in Photoshop. Let's start by creating the nodes that I need. First a node for the basic adjustments. A second node for the skin tones and a thirdone for the actual color grading. And then I also need a special node, a layernode. On Mac, just select the node you want to createa layer node for and then use short cut Option + L. There, then connect this one to thisone here. And Boom. Now what this will do is layer what I do herein the skin tones node on top of the color grade node. So, if I add green in the highlights for example,it won't affect the highlights in my skin tones because it takes the information forthe skin tones from the skin tone node.
OK, now let's start with the first node whereI'll do some basic adjustments. I usually add contrast in the curves. How much depends on your color profile andpersonal preference. Something like this. And let's add a bit more here. Let's bring down the Lift just a bit to -0,01and bump up the Gamma to 0.03. There. Next up the skin tones. And the skin looks a tad red so let's correctthat. Go to the vectorscope and make sure to turnon the skin tone indicator. Your skin tones should be along this line. And it doesn't matter what color of skin youhave... all skin colors are on this line. First I'm going to qualify the skin tones. Now, if you hit Shift + H you can isolatethe skin tones and as you can see they're slightly to the right of the skin tone line.
So select some more skin. And doesn't matter if some tones in the backgroundare selected too. We'll denoise it right here so you won't notice. I usually like it when the skin tones areon the line but it's a matter of personal preference. On the line or touching the line on the topthat's where it should be. I'm also going to make the skin tones a bitbrighter in the curves. Slightly up. That's it. Then, let's go to the color wheels and notLift, Gamma and Gain this time but Shadows, Midtone and Highlight. OK, first thing I'm gonna do is slighty pushthe offset.
You can see the skin tones move towards theline there in the scopes. Just a little bit, be careful with the Offsetbecause it's easy to overdo it. I'm also going to bring down the saturationby five maybe and bump up the contrast like that. OK, and finally I'm going to push the midtonesalong the skin tone line. Add a lot of that orange-red skin color inthe mid-tones. In the shadows I'm going to add a bit of darkred. See the difference before and after. Now, the great thing about these nodes isthat I can always go back to adjust something. And finally the third node, the actual colorgrade. Here you can do your own thing depending onyour lighting and background. Your personal style. Let me give you a quick example and again,with the curves, I like to do it with the curves.
There are other ways but I'm just used toit from my photo editing in Photoshop and Lightroom. OK, let's drop down the Reds just a littlebit in the shadows. Pull up the blues in the shadows. And lift the greens just a tad in the hightlightsand midtones. And you can do anything here, guys. I'm just showing you an example. You can also use the color wheels. Maybe some more blue in the shadows righthere. And now you can see the power of the layernode. No matter what I do, the skin tones won'tbe affected, It's great. OK, but that was some studio footage, nowa quick example for some outside footage. This one, and first create the nodes again,one, two, three and then Option + L for the layer node. Connect this. There. In the first node again some basic adjustments. Some contrast in the curves. Maybe drop the Lift just a tad.
Yeah, looks good. Next up skin tones. Qualifier. Click once to select some skin tones. Use short-cut Shift + H to isolate your selectedtones and add some more until we get all the skin tones. Denoise your selection and check the vectorscopeand skin tone line again. Apparently a bit too yellow. So, first we'll adjust that in Offset verycarefully. And then the same again, push the skin colorin the midtones and a bit of dark red in the shadows. And maybe let me brighten the skin tones justa little bit because of the backlight. OK, and then in the third node we can do somecolor grading again. So, use the curves like this. Or the color wheels. Whatever you like. You can also use Hue vs Hue for example andchange the hue of the greens... or Hue vs Saturation and desaturate the greens. And whatever you do, the skin tones are protectedbecause of that layered node.
See, if I turn this off and on... And a final tip, I always use this techniqueon an adjustment layer on top of whatever footage I want to color grade. That way, I can just copy paste this adjustmentlayer onto another clip and make some adjustment depending on the color of that clip. So, here's the before and after. It's a super simple technique but for videos I think it's perfect. Doesn't take too long and once you have alook you can easily copy it to all your next videos and make some slight adjustment.
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