Blackmagicdesign Blackmagic Video assist, Installation And Operation Manual

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Using DaVinci Resolve
1 Adjusting the ‘lift’
With your first clip selected on the color timeline, click on the ‘lift’ dial underneath the
first color wheel. Slide it back and forth and watch how it affects your image. You’ll
see the brightness of the dark regions of your picture increase and decrease. Set it to
where you want the dark areas to look their best. If you decrease the lift too much,
you’ll lose details in the blacks and you can use the parade scope to help avoid this.
The optimal position for blacks on the waveform is just above the bottom line of the
parade scope.
2 Adjusting the ‘gain’
Click on the ‘gain’ dial and slide it back and forth. This adjusts the highlights which are
the brightest areas of your clip. The highlights are shown on the top section of the
waveform on the parade scope. For a brightly lit shot, these are best positioned just
below the top line of the waveform scope. If the highlights rise above the top line of the
waveform scope, they will clip and you will lose details in the brightest regions of
your image.
3 Adjusting the ‘gamma’
Click on the ‘gamma’ dial underneath the color wheel and slide it back and forth. As
you increase the gamma you’ll see the brightness of the image increase. Notice the
middle section of the waveform will also move as you adjust the gamma. This
represents the mid tones of your clip. The optimal position for mid tones generally falls
between 50 to 70% on the waveform scope. However, this can be subjective based on
the look you are creating and the lighting conditions in the clip.
You can also use the curves palette to make primary color corrections. Simply click to create
control points on the diagonal line inside the curve graph, and drag them up or down to adjust
the master RGB contrast at different areas of image tonality. The optimum points to adjust are
the bottom third, mid, and top third of the curve line.
There are many more ways of doing primary color correction in DaVinci Resolve. Check the
DaVinci Resolve manual to learn how to use them all.
The curves palette is another tool you can use to make primary color corrections,
or enhance specific areas of your clip when using a power window.
Secondary Color Correction
If you want to adjust a specific part of your image then you need to use secondary corrections.
The adjustments you have been doing up until now using the color wheels and lift, gamma and
gain adjustments affect the whole image at the same time and so they are called primary color
corrections.
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