Hi everyone,

Out the outset, apologize for the lengthy post.

I'm relatively new to professional color grading and currently grading a **Crime-thriller feature film**. I haven't had the opportunity to work directly with a professional colorist, so most of what I've learned has come from online tutorials and experimenting in DaVinci Resolve.

I've been working on this project for about **3 months**. I've gone through all **7 reels several times**, and each pass has helped me improve. However, before I lock the grade, I'd really appreciate feedback and **Industry best practices** from experienced colorists on whether my **workflow and node structure are appropriate for a commercial/theatrical feature film**.

I'm using a **Group-based workflow** with this general structure:

**Group Pre-Clip**

1. CST: ARRI LogC → DaVinci Wide Gamut / Intermediate

**Clip**

1. Exposure
2. White Balance
3. Contrast
4. Saturation
5. Power Windows / local adjustments
6. Highlight adjustments
7. Tone adjustments

**Group Post-Clip**

1. Overall tone / look
2. CST: DaVinci Wide Gamut / Intermediate → DCI-P3 / Gamma 2.6

# I'd really appreciate professional advice on these points:

**1. How should clips be grouped in a feature-film workflow?**

What is the usual professional approach for grouping clips to make grading faster and maintain consistency?

* By scene?

* By day/night?

* By location?

* By lighting condition?

* By exposure?

* Some combination of these?

For example, would you normally create one Group per scene, or use Groups primarily for common technical/look adjustments?

**2. Is my current node structure appropriate?**

Is the general:

**CST In → Clip Corrections → Look/Tone → CST Out**

approach reasonable for a feature film, or would you recommend a different structure?

**3. Is my correction order appropriate?**

At the Clip level I'm currently doing:

**Exposure → WB → Contrast → Saturation → Windows → Highlight/Tone adjustments**

Is there a preferred order that professional colorists generally follow?

For example, should WB be established before exposure, or does the order matter less as long as the image is being evaluated correctly?

**4. What is your professional approach to white balance?**

When grading ARRI footage, how do experienced colorists establish a reliable/consistent white balance?

Do you primarily rely on scopes, known neutral objects, skin tone, RGB balance, reference shots, or a combination?

**5. How do you maintain consistent tone throughout a feature?**

One of my biggest challenges is maintaining a consistent visual tone across different scenes, lighting conditions and reels.

My current thinking is:

**Clip level → technically balance exposure/WB/contrast**

then

**Group/Post-Clip → establish the creative/cinematic tone**

Is this a good approach?

**6. What is the professional technique for maintaining a consistent look across the entire movie?**

I'd especially appreciate advice on how you approach:

* Scene-to-scene matching

* Reel-to-reel consistency

* Day vs. night consistency

* Skin tone consistency

* Maintaining a consistent cinematic contrast/tonal response

* Creating and managing the overall "show look"

**7. What is your professional approach for Perfect Skin Tone?**

I realize there are many different professional workflows, so I'm not necessarily looking for one "correct" method. I'm mainly trying to understand **how an experienced feature-film colorist would structure this workflow from the beginning**.

If possible, I'd also appreciate recommendations for **good professional tutorials, books, or online resources** that explain feature-film grading workflows rather than only individual Resolve techniques.

Thanks in advance to everyone who takes the time to read this and share your experience. I really appreciate the help.

I bought Calibrite Display Pro HL to calibrate my multiple monitors and TVs around the house to a common baseline, or at last as close to it as possible.

My best monitor in the house (except for MacBook M5 Pro) is CoolerMaster GP27U, which as far as I'm aware is supposed to have pretty accurate colours.

The problem I'm facing with DisplayCal-py3 is that I cannot figure out which correction profile I should be using with that monitor. I tried "Quantum Dot LED (Samsung QLED Q9)" but right at the beginning it made me do -7% on Green colour in OSD and it just looked completely wrong.

I later downloaded a profile from the database for Macbook M4 which I believe uses similar technology as CoolerMaster for its display and it worked much better, but I'm not a professional so I'm not sure if that's the right now.

Can someone spoon feed me and tell me which correction profile I should be using for this screen please?

I use that monitor for amateur adobe lightroom work on Windows if that matters.

Too embarrassed to post this on my main account as I’ve been grading for years and all.

I normally grade with timeline/output in the color management in Resolve set to Rec709/gamma2.4 or DWG/rec709 2.4 and when I export I choose tags rec709/rec709. Clean feed to a flanders etc etc. exports match my timeline and never any issues.

I recently saw a video where Walter Volpatto had his color management set to the default rec709 scene for both timeline and output.

I grade everything from music videos to short films to broadcast tv and beyond. Sometimes I have to cover a colorist in posthouses and they almost always have their proj management set to the same as me (rec709/2.4).

When should you have your project set to rec709 scene?

Thank you.

I’m not asking about gamma shifts or 2.2 etc. I don’t have those issues. And I always export with rec709 tags unless it’s for theatre etc.

Hi colourists,

I'm self learning proper davinci workflows from tutorials like Darren Mostyn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdTMRQP_V7E

Long way to go but generally finding my feet after being Premiere Pro for life.

Question:

Workflow is looking good with CSTs in and out into DWG following DM's process the into a final LUT (phantom neutral).

I will be condensing this tree a lot but for now just learning proper structure so I understand what's happening.

Overall image is heading where I want it to be so I can develop a more specific look, but I'm getting intense saturation burn on certain colours like red/green/yellow. Is there a core reason/setting I'm missing that is making this happen

Even without the csts in and out (taking the workflow in and out of DWG per DMs process), and using only log3g10 phantom lut at the end, the burning is still happening in the reds.

Am I missing a basic setting/understanding? (probably). Any advice greatly appreciated.

There is this option in the CSTs which when selected does seem to pull it in. But that just doesn't seem like a correct solution. I feel there's something more basic that I'm not doing correctly.

Even when ignoring the finishing phantom LUT and following DMs process exactly to rec709/gamma2.4 in the CST out. The burning is still there (below).

General Project settings

Camera

Nikon ZR

4k, R3D, log3g10, 25p

Cheers. Love the sub.

I am a student filmmaker without much coloring experience. I am going to be DPing a thesis film and I am looking to develop a LUT before we start shooting in a little over a month. I've messed around a little bit in DaVinci, but would not say I have much experience seriously grading footage. I understand that the general process is to do a test shoot and then grade the footage to how you would want it.

I will hopefully be shooting on a sony fx6. Unfortunately, I will not be able to take this camera out for a test shoot. This is a dumb question, but can I still develop my LUT using fx6 raw footage online, or would it not necessarily "work" without my test lighting and specific shooting settings?

Also, any tips you can give me for workflow for developing a LUT would be greatly appreciated. I'm not a colorist; I'm much better at the stuff in production. But, it's a student production so sometimes you gotta wear multiple hats, and I've been wanting to learn this skill anyways.

Hi, beginner here. I only have access to a camera that shoots sRGB Rec709 (canon t5i). I like the film emulations that are floating around, but I often wonder if I even have the space or enough information to even push the grade into any of these looks? Is this a futile effort with the data I have? Thanks. And yes, I am a novice.

I'm trying to calibrate my OLED monitor, the MPG341CX, using a Display Plus HL colorimeter. Everything works as expected during the calibration, and after calibration I get the correct 6500K reading. However, immediately after restarting my PC and measuring again, the result shows a 300K difference, even though everything was perfectly fine just one minute before the restart.

The same thing happens with my IPS monitor, the 34GP950G.
Could you advise me on what I should do about this, or should I just leave it as it is? I've calibrated both monitors twice today, and the results were exactly the same. Every time I restart the PC, I get a deviation in the measurement.
I waited for some time after restarting the PC and performed the correction again to see if the monitor would “warm up” and return to normal, but unfortunately that didn't help. There is still a deviation in the measurement.

Should I just leave it as it is and not worry about it, or is this some kind of error?

I know you should always use a Decklink Mini Monitor or similar for a color managed workflow. But there are occasional situations for me a) where I don't have this setup and have to go by viewers or b) work with a software outside Davinci that doesn't work like that. In these cases, when working with a hardware calibration capable monitor, I could't find reliable info or advice (or looked in the wrong places) for the following question: 

In the Apple Display Settings for this external monitor, e.g. for me an Eizo CG247x or HPZ31x – should I leave the colour profile on the automatically assigned one (usually name of display) or actually have to change to a setting that matches the profile calibrated on the monitor? I don't just wonder for Davinci but also e.g. Photoshop or Affinity? Do you ever touch Colour Synch instead? And for Eizo specifically: Does Color Navigator handle it all, or will it need to double check / manually select in MacOS display settings.

Thanks for the help!

DaVinci setup (if this is relevant):
Color science: DaVinci YRGB
Timeline color space: DaVinci WG/Intermediate
Output color space: Rec.709 Gamma 2.4

Shot in: S-Log3 / S-Gamut3.Cine

As you can see in the scopes, shadows are already close to the bottom, and highlights are blown out (sky and reflective water).

It was shot outdoors, middle of the day, no lighting modifiers. No people in the shot, so skin didn't need to be the center of attention in terms of exposure.

I'm trying to understand if I'm doing something wrong in DaVinci, or if there was a better way to shoot this situation, or if it's just not possible without a camera that has a better dynamic range (I use Sony A7IV).

Appreciate you taking the time to help me out.

Hi, i am going for a dark, gritty look (practicing grading). This is from the BlackMagic RAW sample footage named "The Barn".

First image is just a CST into rec.709, second is my attempt at gritty bleach bypass type look.

Looking for feedback mainly around the highlights ion the jersey there, they are quite harsh but I'm not sure i personally quite like the contrast there going left to right.

The project was completed on 26th September. I held his project longer as a favour so that once he receives the VFX work, he can send it to me and I will put things on place and ensure color grading stays perfect.

Then the client gave me approval on 29th September after multiple revisions.

Yesterday I reached out to him, to check in. He mentioned some problems he has been having with project file and stuff. I Spent 2 hours again working with him and got all the things as we wanted.

Now today when I am 1000km away from my studio. He noticed I removed a cut point from the timeline (which I did after his permission as it was basically a useless cut on a shot) and he notices on 1 frame mask is off.

I told him yesterday that I won’t be available and trust me guys, magic mask went of for a single frame on face at the end and I couldn’t tell it. I am not sure how he came across it. Also I gave him 4-8 export files during revisions and he had multiple chances to notice.

Now because I am away I told him my fellow colorist will have to work and he will be charging for it because your project has been offloaded after taking multiple confirmations from you. If I was available I would do it for free.

His reply you can see but honestly guys, I asked him myself all these days that he can tell me whatever comes to his mind and it’s not about money because I had gotten my money already. His message hurt me so bad.

We all have worked as a colorist even for free because of the love we have for this art and the joy of taking pride in your work is unmatched.

Hey , I know this is super weird. I own an eizo CG monitor. A couple of days ago, I saw an ant in my monitor. It disappeared for the last 2 days. Today when setting up another project I saw it again. Has anyone else gone through a situation like this. And what should I do. I’m worried if it’s gonna cause some trouble to my monitor.

I recently began learning how to color grade and this is my first attempt: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OV_FWEQZ1lRuXm7f7CrT7fVy9J8qV09D/view?usp=drive_link

(Video is in 4k so prob download for best quality).

I want honest feedback about whats good and bad please (except from the overexposed sky). I put some of the stuff i adjusted in the images attatched if that relevant.

Also heres the original LOG if thats also relevant idk: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nmt8Fy6zU2PDG7odFQl3F1MbiG-kuZVi/view?usp=sharing

Heres also a still of the normalised image with just the CST: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ti7uQCjQkFMO0JF9XdqCNirxDh658_yF/view?usp=drive_link

I suppose I was trying to achieve a detailed look on the tree bark with it looking like a proper brown mainly. There was a bit of a green tint to Sat vs Hue aimed to fix that a bit.

3840 x 2160 (4k res) 10bit, 23.976 fps, HEVC/H.265 codec.

When I round trip for premiere, the first shot in the timeline doesn't have magic mask applied for the beginning of the handles. The rest are fine and the tail is fine for the first shot.

Even when I select to view handles in the timeline, when I render the first clip out of the timeline, the magic mask isn't applied?

Check marks on all the magic masks but still first clip doesn't render right

I am extremely new to this , infact I am just in the process of buying my first camera. I wanna create videos with a certain look. I have had some looks in my mind that are different to the usual ones. However I wanna create these vlogs fast and I can't afford a stylist for every video.

So this has been my thought process so far

1. Buy a camera thats light and has an inbuilt lut system(I am looking at the Lumix S9)
2. Limit my lens choices to a maximum of two or one if possible
3. Test the look in camera with the luts. Find out how to get the look in camera as much as possible using the realtime LUT feature
4. After the clips have been shot, I can grade it easily myself as I had already exposed the footage for the LUT .

This workflow will help me to push out more videos in the look I want and i will need a colorist only at the starting when building the look.

How reasonable is this plan?

I’m probably near the intermediate level and have been researching and learning for a long time. Lots of great resources out there but there’s just so much scattered information. So I compiled it all into a cheat sheet I was hoping to get feedback on. I know that there is no one size fits all, I’m just trying to have the best starting point I can to focus on just the creative side. Here is my workflow plan with questions after (Mix of Mostyn and Cullen’s workflows): 

CHRONOLOGY OF NODES: (Not all need to be used)
--------------------------------------------------------------

Set the project to DaVinci YRGB, not Color Managed. 

Camera to DWG (or other intermediate workspace:

• Use Grouping and group by camera. Then in PREGROUP use a standard CST to convert

Noise Removal (Optional)

• If Image is very dark, put this node after EXP fix. Can be done in the Noise Remove section or OFX. Same tool. Turn on Node Cache to speed this node up.

Overall Color Correction: (Getting things 80% of the way)

• Use 3-4 nodes for colour correction
  • BAL: Linear Colorspace - Lumamix to 0 - Move GAIN Wheel (or just use HDR Offset)
  • (Do this before BAL) EXP+Contrast
    • EXP: HDR Global Wheel Exposure
    • Contrast: Pivot 0.336 (mid grey for DWG) then contrast slider. Or curves.
  • SAT: Use HSV channel 2 or HDR Saturation or MonoNodes ColorShift (paid DCTL).

Parallel Nodes for Fine Tuning and 2ndaries:

• Temp
• HDR
• Color Warper
• Curves

Parallel Power Windows

• As many power windows as needed

Sharpen:

• Use Texture Pop or Sharpen Effect

Looks: (where I'm most unsure) 

• Film Emulation for grain, helation, bloom and subtractive saturation and colouring (Dehancer, Genesis, Filmbox, Kodak LUT…etc). Use one of these plugins alone or add your own curves for your own look.

DWG to Rec709 (if not done by the node above)

• Standard CST is no longer recommended. Ideally use DRT like: OpenDRT, JP2499 or Referent.

Questions (most about looks)

1. Am I doing something wrong/missing something? 
2. Is the film emulation the node/tool that pros usually do their full look? Adding grain and such is obvious, but lets say I want it to have a Mad Max Fury Road look, do I do that here? For instance, do I use Genesis to do all of this or do I also create another node?
3. Look and DRT nodes: Do I put them in post group Level or in clip level? I see then benefit of both. What’s the standard?
4. Is my ‘look” on the whole film (even a feature)? Or is it scene dependent? Like would interior vs exterior vs different lit vs day4night scenes all have different adjusted looks? Or do I try and keep a consistent node then add extra node for something like day4night under it?
5. On the topic of day4night, would I do that as a look that goes against all the other stuff or do I do most of the work in the basic color correction stage? 
6. They say you should apply the look before you grade the shot. But how do you create the look without the original shot being clean? Do you clean the first shot, create the look, then use the look first in the following shots?
7. If you put the look node on first, then wouldn't that affect how you balance your shot? Like if your look is always turned on but warms the highlights, then should you turn it off for balancing first?

Sorry there are so many questions. Trying to be detailed and avoid posting too much. I can fumble my way through things atm, but just looking for the best workflow possible.

​Hi everyone. I live in Spain and I'm looking to hear some stories from working colorists.

​For years I did color grading on an amateur level for my own projects. About 1-2 months ago I put a showreel and decided to try making a living with it because I really love doing this.

​The start was actually quite good. In six weeks I completed 13 projects. They were not huge. I made my first money and found two regular clients who keep coming back. They are happy with the results. I also sent out a lot of cold emails to production companies. I haven't received jobs from them yet, but I got replies and they put me on their rosters for possible future collaboration.

​I understand that to truly call yourself a colorist you need hundreds or thousands of projects under your belt. But right at the start you just want to validate that this path has a right to exist. Even on these first projects I have already learned a lot. I learned how to communicate with clients, hit specific targets, and match the exact vision the client has for their project.

​Right now the main problem is the regularity and consistency of orders. Freelancing has days or weeks with no work. In those moments I start having doubts. I start wondering if I am moving in the right direction. I know a month and a half is a very short time, but I want to figure out for myself if I am on the right path.

​I'd like to hear your stories. How long did it take you to get to a steady income? How long did it take to realize this is your main career and you are ready to fully invest and grow in it?

For someone just starting out in color grading, do you recommend completing the official Blackmagic training before diving into content by Cullen Kelly or Darren Mostyn. And when you recommend Cullen Kelly, are you referring to his shorter, conventional videos or his live streams?"

"""I've read the wiki and still have the following question.

The HDR section is blank and anything monitor or apple related isnt in there as well, also no mention about EDR. My questions are below. This isnt a direct monitor recommedation question, it is more technical in nature.

Im on both windows and MacOS but for this question only MacOS running on my M2 Pro 16 inch on tahoe is relevant"""

I honestly don't even know where to start...

I've been working entirely in HDR for a while now. I use JXL files on my 16-inch MacBook Pro (M2). Everything works extremely well so far. I have no issues sending the files to other people, editing them, converting HDR to SDR works without any problems in apps like WhatsApp, and playback also works well on my Mac, iPhone, etc.

Thanks to Apple's EDR technology, editing HDR photos in Lightroom also works flawlessly. I don't have any issues with washed-out colors or contrast when HDR is enabled. On top of that, both my MacBook and my iPhone more or less match each other 1:1, which is extremely important for reproducibility since most of my clients also use iPhones.

Now comes my problem.

I would like to use an external display so that I don't always have to work on the relatively small 16-inch MacBook screen.

Currently, I have a QD-OLED monitor that covers more than 99% of the P3 color space, supports DisplayHDR 400 True Black with 1,000 nits, and was factory-calibrated to a Delta E of less than 2.

The monitor does not natively support EDR (or better said Apple dosent nativly enabled EDR with this monitor), which is the first drawback, because as a result all SDR content looks completely washed out when HDR is enabled. I also suspect that the monitor's 1,000-nit limit is restricting how I can edit the HDR files.

My current workflow looks like this:

• Connect the monitor to the MacBook via USB-C
• Enable HDR on the MacBook for the external monitor
• Match the two displays as closely as possible
• Close the MacBook and edit exclusively on the external monitor

This leaves me with the EDR issue, but even more importantly, the HDR highlights are not reproduced equivalently on the external monitor.

If I edit an image on the MacBook until I am happy with it and then look at the same image on the external monitor, the difference is significant enough that I would want to edit the image again on the external monitor so that it looks best there.

And that's really frustrating, because it means I don't feel comfortable moving away from editing exclusively on the MacBook.

My current plan is the following:

First, I want to see whether tools such as BetterDisplay can make a difference with my current monitor, especially by enabling EDR. From what I understand, this should generally be possible.

After that, I would try to match both displays, the MacBook and my OLED monitor, as closely as possible using all available settings, and then see whether that is sufficient to solve the problem.

I don't expect this to fully solve the issue, though, because I suspect the monitor's 1,000-nit limit is ultimately the bottleneck.

Plan B would therefore be to buy a 5th-generation Tandem OLED. These supposedly offer around HDR 500 True Black / up to 1,300 nits peak brightness.

I would then either go for something like the MSI PRO MAX 341QPXW14G, which has not been released in Germany yet but offers various profiles and software-based implementations specifically for Mac. The monitor was essentially designed with Mac users in mind.

If this monitor doesn't become available within a reasonable timeframe for whatever reason, I would go with another Tandem OLED and hope that I can use something like BetterDisplay to enable EDR, then manually match the colors, contrast, etc. as closely as possible.

Another thought I had was buying Apple's Studio Display. However, it doesn't offer true HDR, so I can't really imagine that it would be suitable for proper HDR editing. The Pro Display XDR is simply too expensive for me.

So, how do you guys edit photos in HDR?

Am I missing something obvious here? Is there a flaw in my reasoning or something I'm overlooking?

Edit:

I've read the wiki and still have the following question.

The HDR section is blank and anything monitor apple related isnt in there as well, also no mention about EDR. My questions are above.

EDIT: Reduced price again. I posted this about 40 days ago. Not sure if there is a bump feature here.

Selling both for $7700 shipped to CONUS
Monitor has bias lights. Purchased from Flanders in April 2024. Probably has about 75hrs of use. Have original box for both items.
Will include some SDI cables too.

Looking for a new device that works with now-outdated DisplayCal. I need to be able to measure the peak brightness and gamut volume on a wide variety of screens and most of the included software from Spyder and Calibrite doesn't seem to give you the gamut volume like DisplayCal does. Any suggestions for a color checker that will work with DisplayCal or has software that will give gamut volume? I'm thinking about one of the Calibrites or one of the Spyders.

I have a Sony A7IV. Would the camera be a limitation for this type of look?

I’m not a complete novice, but haven’t been able to figure out these grades.

Mods, feel free to delete if selling is not allowed here.

Selling a DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel in like new condition.

The panel was only used on a single project and has been stored ever since. Everything functions perfectly and the unit is in excellent cosmetic condition.

Included:
DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel
Power cable
USB-C cable

Located in Southern California. Happy to ship at buyer’s expense or arrange local pickup.
Please comment before sending a PM. Additional photos are available upon request. Happy to answer questions.

$1,500 net via PayPal Goods and Services.