Thankyou for acknowledging the spiral of self-doubt. Some grades I'm really confident and others I've gone down the rabbit hole of 20 grades, can be tough when difficult footage makes you lose your mojo.
Hi Cullen, just wanted to say a big thanks for this info. I'd never even heard of a linear gamma space, but using this method, I've just whizzed through the colour correction of the project I'm working on - in around half the time I normally would. Really cannot thank you enough!
You can use the Grey World Hypothesis : Take a frame, blur it (Gaussian) until the whole image is like one big pixel ; the colour you see is the colour cast you need to deal with. You can neutralise by reading the RGB values and then tweaking the linear offsets (or the gammas, which won't affect the black and the white points) until your big pixel is neutral grey. Works every time, except you have to make a decision : Perfectly neutralising every shot is NOT what you should do systematically.
Doesnt work if you have a dominant colour in the shot (either from a given location, or as is common in creative work, a specific palette)... its also what ANY auto wb tool does. Also... DONT adjust the values/levels of channels... DIVIDE your image by the colour cast (in linear space ofc).
Great suggestion! Strongly agree that perfectly neutralizing every shot isn't the end goal, but it's often an important step along the way, which means we need a simple, repeatable process for it. Also, the (very cool) technique you propose would work great with linear gain...in fact this would be the ideal operation vs log offset or gamma.
It's absolut great getting tipps or hints for an satisfying result in post (or everything else). But there are many ways to rome... And linearl should be a very good starting-point in general, but it's (and thhere is no) not the holy Gral. One click, or just one node doesn't do it at all. However, absolutly usefull for people who're not that deep into grading, colorization and adjusting color temperature. 👍😊
Great video! I'm a compositor and am very pro-linear. It allows for you to not have to use your eye as much for tasks that are just simple arithmetic like white balancing. We have tools to do white balancing with a single click by taking an area that we sample and equalizing the RGB channels while also accounting for any luminance changes that might happen from individual channel adjustment. Just wanted to mention that we also like you, convert to and from linear/log depending on the task. Our footage is always converted to linear for our working space, but sometimes that linear conversion causes values in our image that don't play well with our tools (super high or negative values). So, in those cases, we convert to log, apply our filters/color/transformations/etc., then convert back to linear. Keep up the great vids. I, like you, keep up with knowledge and workflows that other departments use to help us better work together, and this channel is great for helping unify us VFX artists and colorists who are so often at war, haha. Cheers.
@@CullenKelly I am still confused with the linear situation. Why do you use the "gain" wheel when in linear? I noticed that if I use the offset wheel the rsults are differents.. Is linear meant to be used only with the Gain wheel? THanks!
@@tvipstudiosGain is just another word for multiplication . You’re literally multiplying the pixel value by the value you produce with your gain knob, 1,1,1 meaning unchanged, going below darkens a channel, above brightens, it’s equivalent to exposure except that you don’t think in stops of light but in absolute numbers. Likewise, lift is literally a plus operation, you add the knob value to the pixel value which clearly is a different operation. Knowing this will inform your choices.
I started working as a photo technician in the National Geographic photo lab in 1974 where my job was creating halftones and color separations and that was the point that I started using control targets as a reproduction baseline. In the era of film the most valuable tool a photographer shooting transparencies for drum scanning and color separations was a box of color correcting filters to eliminate color casts due to batch-to-batch variation in film or color biases in the lighting. For things like catalogs the camera transparencies would be duplicated in an enlarger (like making a print) to the size in the layout on film with a strippable emulsion so all the images on a page could be color separated at the same time identically. CC filters in the enlarger would be used in the making of the duplicates with color charts the photographers would include in the edges of every photo as a guide. So not surprisingly when I started shooting digitally and editing in Photoshop starting back in 1994 I would photograph a gray card as a WB reference. It the early 2000s I started also draping white and black wash cloths over the card to use for setting my FILL (based on detail in black one) and KEY (keeping white one 1/3 stop under clipping) flashes and ambient + flash lighting to get a full-range, no shadow noise, normal ‘seen by eye’ contrast image as a starting baseline for editing. The neutral color balanced, normal contrast look of the images wasn’t the end goal, just a consistent starting baseline for editing very similar to the approach I learned in B&W from the books of Ansel Adams. His images out of camera simply recorded detail everywhere, with contrast of sky and foliage often shifted unnaturally with color filters on the camera lens - red for dark sky, green for brighter than normal foliage. The artistic / editorial process in the Zone System was done entirely in the darkroom during the print making. The Negative was the score and The Print the performance. Photographers and videographers make life far more difficult for themselves if they don’t take a the few minutes it takes to include a reference target in every shot and scene held by the subject or photographed in the same light. Using the black and white towels to set FILL and KEY lighting is faster and more accurate than hand metering. By using them in foreground and background it becomes trivial to set FILL levels so ALL the shadows in a photo or video are CAPTURED above the signal / noise threshold. I always turn on and set FILL only as the first step because anywhere the camera lens sees a FILL SHADOW there will be a NOISE FILLED VOID in the lighting pattern after KEY and RIM lighting are added. Seeing and eliminating them is much more difficult when FILL is added last. The gray card used today for WB should reflect 12% not 18%. 18% was the old ASA film speed reference value based on a ROT landscape that was 1/3 sky and 2/3 foreground reflecting 18% on average of the incident sun intensity. The ISO standard adopted in 1975 changed that calibration point to 12% It theory if you meter off an 12% card with a ISO calibrated reflection meter the SHADOWS will be exposed optimally. But with digital playback and histogram a test shot of a black towel is better for shadow exposure / FILL control and a white one for highlight exposure / RIM & KEY light control, keeping RIM light 1/3 stop under clipping and KEY 2/3 stop under when using both, or KEY 1/3 stop under if only using KEY over FILL.
Thank you for this very clear explanation, in a similar video a colorist recomended to set Lum Mix to "0" when working in linear. I do not understand the why and be very happy if you could explain to me if it's necessary or not ?
This is slick! I noticed though that there is something happening with the street lights in the car example. Looks like something is clipping there with the linear mode
Yeah I rewatched and see what you're talking about. The red lights in particular just above the car behind change pretty drastically. I wonder what this is so we can understand how to avoid any unwanted or unintended artifacts of this method.
Just needs to set Luma Mix to 0 when doing this. This is how I do all my balancing too, but Luma Mix at 100, it tries to compensate for overall Luminance changes and things get weird.
exactly what I thought. Luma mix seems like the issue imo as well. Should be set to 0 when working in linear. That's the benefit of working with offset in log. while it's almost the same math, you don't have luminace preservation with Offset.
Great catch! This is due to an oversight I made in my project settings for this demo. I'll be releasing a follow-up video soon showing what happened and why (linear gain isn't the culprit).
Nice very useful. I did notice something though. What is the reason for the color difference in the specular highlights from the bokeh at 5:45 ? The red specify is starkly different.
@@dylanholmes3067 when working in linear, you should set the lumamix at 0, which Cullen forgot un this example (explaining, recording and grading at the same time is not as easy as it looks. I wouldn't blame him). Lumamix is a way to compensate luminance differences due to grading adjustments. It is designed for color ranges of 0-1. In linear you temporarely work with huge values of 100 and beyond. That's why the compensation goes crazy and blasts those nuclear colors
@@vladislav8416 rec709a is only for preview within resolves GUI while your Mac is in reference mode. This means that your display, in bt1886 mode, with output colorspace set to 709a, will now look pretty darn close to a calibrated sdr display. Export normally, because the file will look fine depending on various displays. The gamma bug is actually due to color sync and not actually a ...bug. It's just displaying 709 at 1.96 gamma. The happy middle ground imo...2.2. Make a cst and set 2.4 to 2.2 but still tag your file 1-1-1 (709,709).
The truth is that there is not solution to this problem unless apple decide to do something about it, but they don't because they believe they are right and everyone else is wrong. However there are ways to work around it
This looks like a technique for balancing in the global wheel in the HDR wheels tab. Can you try it? I'm very curious about your opinion. I call this technique the "one-armed colorist.
Balancing with HDR Global is actually quite different, which is confusing because adjusting exposure with HDR Global vs with linear gain is identical. For balance I definitely prefer linear gain.
Thank you. If I change the gamma to linear on a particular node, does it have repercussions further down my node tree? Do I have to 'set it back' on a subsequent node? Cheers
Fantastic technique, as always! I'm curious to see how Linear Gain compares to HDR Temp & Tint...off to Resolve to do some A/B testing. Thank you for your detailed and simple explanation, Cullen!
Yes I wonder as well. I balance with "temp" (and "tint" if necessary) and its quick easy and feel natural since it's the warm and cold expected by the camera white balance.
Man! This is the only white balance vid I sat through the whole video! Perfect presentation and teaching! I subbed instantly. Next I'll do, I'll watch your other vids! I honestly have the same struggle when color correcting/grading videos, matching and white balancing shots... and yes, the "spiral of self doubt"! You just instilled new confidence in me as a learner. Some terms I still try to wrap my head around (after years of missing out) but you sir just inspired me to open my Resolve's color tab (rather... the whole editing program) again! Like a reignited passion because I honestly gave up years ago including video editing altogether. Thank you.
Curious. When would you use primaries vs hdr? I saw your video on that subject and my first thought now was to do the balancing in hdr and then do stylistic tweaks in primaries/log.
Linear Gain and Offset are pretty similar but there's a difference that becomes more noticeable in the deep shadows with stronger adjustments. Linear keeps the black point cleaner with heavier adjustments, whereas offset can start to affect the black point. HDR wheels in a proper colour management setup is a Linear Gain adjustment under the hood so the result there is identical - but setting the node to linear and doing gain yourself just saves you from tabbing back and forth to the HDR tab so there's a slight workflow advantage there!
Hi Cullen, i really like your videos ! 90% of the time I adjust my WB with the offset wheel. How it compares with your method and what the benefit to use linear if you get very close results between the two ? I'm reconsidering my work flow so maybe I'll switch to this method eventually. Thank you !!
I've been doing this for the last few months, and with your LUT packs it has made my grading so much faster. I shoot lots of run and gun, going into different lighting situations constantly and so colour balancing was a nightmare for me. Now I can easily match shots from different days, different times of day, different weather, no problem.
There definitely is a massive issue with the red bokeh in the background of the car shot when using linear gain. Cullen do you have any idea what is happening there?
Great catch! This is due to a mistake I made while setting up the Resolve project I demo'd in...I'll be releasing a follow-up video soon detailing what happened there and why.
Seems like a great simplifier and I will for sure try using linear in the future. How does linear compare to Wide Gamut standard Gamma? And I do not understand why this is more photometric... and also not why it doesn't work with log. I guess I have to learn a bit more...
DWG is a log space and works similar to other log spaces -- and quite different from linear! I talk more about this here: ruclips.net/video/pRCd1VkmycQ/видео.html
Is there an advantage to white balancing using the primary wheels as opposed to the temperature and tint sliders? I've never used the primaries for white balancing before. Open to trying it.
Yes, I definitely prefer using RGB gain, as it's simpler and more flexible than temp and tint. The intuition with temp/tint is that they do the same thing as temp and tint on a camera, but they don't. Dedicated video on this coming soon!
Oh you're right, it is indeed static. I think it's a way to make the footage look more like film and also avoid banding, which is especially visible in dark areas like that at lower quality settings of the youtuber player.
Most likely connected to luma mix. When working in linear it is always a good idea to set this one to 0 instead of 100. Resolve tries to compensate for luminance differences caused by the color adjustments. This compensation is designed based on normal values between 0 and 1. In linear they can go to 50 or 100, so the compensation goes wild and creates nuclear artifacts.
@@hunterbuchanan2 yes. if you're doing small adjustments you should be safe in both cases, but in this picture Cullen had to push the gain quite far. That's why the image broke. Usually it's a good idea to just set the lumamix to 0 when working linear. I guess I'll make a video about that in the near future.
It's also worth noting that when using the HDR wheels WB/Tint sliders, you're doing the same linear function! (As long as you have the HDR wheels set up correctly to match your working space or scene space.) Although I will agree that sometimes the HDR WB slider doesn't let you push the image far enough. In that case, the linear node with the gain wheel is a great option.
So simple yet so effective. The funny thing is I used to do this when I worked in VFX (using linear gamma) and it never even occurred to me to use the same method in resolve.
Very cool trick/technique! Thank you for sharing! I've noticed something happened to the blurred red light (siren?) in the background, right behind the car, when you change gain in linear. It got bigger and sharper compared to the log. Do you know why is that and is it going to have the same effect on other blurred elements?
Hello, Thank you very much for the trick. It is realy impressive! I just saw high saturation troubles in the lights in the background when you use the node in linear. would you have a trick for this? Thank you very much 🙂
So, on a subsequent node after the Linear node, should I switch the new node back to Gamma 2.4 or whatever I was using? Or does the Linear change only effect the singular node and not the whole chain?
Thanks for the video! Curious to try this out. What about creating a serial node, not switching to linear and just using offset with the vectorscope to balance the image?
Each time it's like a "Revelation" Thanks Cullen. Just a question is there a possibility to force DVR to stay in Linear mode after a reset of the node? It will be really more easy :)
Semi-related, was wondering on what your views on the AGX view transform were, and how it compares and converts to Davinci Wide Gamut? Was wondering if any pro colorists would be able to chime in on it, especially with VFX work and conversion from Blender to Resolve/Fusion; Gleb Alexandrov has a solid course on it which touches on differences briefly, but was wondering about a talk from seasoned pros fully experienced working with Resolve and DWG
Great topic! We'll be talking about different DRTs here on the channel soon -- I definitely think there are some great alternatives to RCM. I haven't spent much time with AgX yet, but hope to do so!
@@CullenKelly For sure, AGX is great afaik, but doing post in Resolve and converting to DWG, I'm sure that I can eyeball it but given what AGX claims to do with avoiding the color skew and giving more exposure option, I don't know is there's a solid conversion route or not Totally appreciate the time you're taking to be so informative, honestly wouldn't know where to go without yours and a handful of other Colorists' in-depth guides, thank you so much
Weird question, you may have addressed it in earlier videos but I'm new to your channel -- why do you have your monitor below eyeline and tilted slightly down?
This is not related directly but do you have a video on the importance of what display you edit on as a colorist? Or maybe just a video that tells us what you like to use and how you set that up? Thanks! This page is fantastic
Hey Cullen, quick question here! how does working in linear differ from working in ACES? It's my understanding that ACES is a Linear color space too. just with a wider color gamut right? btw just want to also thank you for all the information you share. it has helped me so much in my work!
When you look at the red traffic light in the background at 5:52 you can see that it becomes excessively red when using linear. In a similar situation, wouldn’t it be better not to use linear?
Great catch! That issue is caused by a mistake I made while recording this demo that I'll be releasing a quick follow-up for. In the meanwhile, I've got a big high five ready for the first person who can spot the simple mistake I made (it's hiding in plain sight).
Thx fir sharing. Do you mind making a short maybe about the grading envjronment..what brightness the mknitor and the lighting kn the room. Forgive if you hav alresdy talked about it. 😊
I only use one (Kensington Orbit Track)ball so I'm used to that way of working, but often I change R,G and B on gain numerically when a little adjustment is needed because it's hard for my finger with very small changes, even if the trackball has a "low gear". So showing me the Linear Gamma option is great! Thanks, that's a really good tip!
Thank you for making this video. I always disliked how sensitive the track balls on my control surface are. This makes color correcting way more enjoyable. You're content is awesome and super helpful.
Can someone explain to me what's the difference between using the gain instead of the offset in this case? I always used the offset and had the idea that was the "best" thing to do
@@ChristopherRosiVideographer the are 95% identical. depending on the working color space. in ACEScct it would be 99%. The main difference is how they treat colors in the blacks / shadows. (if lumamix is at 0, which it should be tbh) I will make a video on that in the near future, but in the meantime, try it for yourself, try pushing an imagine with linear gain and then matching it with offset instead. results are very similar, except for the shadows.
Cullen, I thought that in a previous video when you were talking about the HDR palette, the Global Offset, when not in a color managed workflow, was operating in the linear space, or in a linear way. For those who do not use a color managed workflow, could that be an even faster method, to just pop into the HDR primaries and use the global offset to set white balance? And maybe I am wrong, it may also work that way in a managed workflow also?
Not 100% sure I understand the distinction you're making between color managed vs non color managed, since the HDR palette really requires some level of color management. But I can confirm HDR Global does operate in linear...the catch is that it uses a different color space than DWG for balancing, so you'll get different results using HDR Global vs linear gain.
@@CullenKelly HDR palette doesn’t operate based on the selected timeline colorspace? Whether you’re working in ACES or DYRGB? Or even by assigning the colorspace in the palette itself(is there any advantage in doing that?)?
@@dm.colorist HDR palette does change behavior based on the color space you tell it you’re working in, but that’s only because the path to its internal working space is different depending on where you’re starting initially…happy to break this down in Grade School!
Hi Cullen, I am returning to this video to say I tried out your technique and it was certainly extremely helpful. I am by no means a colourist, but correcting WB on a shoot I did last week on a verite doc I'm making. Skin tones were all off from the lights, I was able to dial it in super quick! So thank you!!
i really still can't believe it's possible to adjust WB tints with one color wheel move. I gotta try that. What I'm missing here is a tool to also double check we're consistent. What tool could this be (besides checking skintones with the Vector scope)?
I have a question: Why is it just the gain in a linear node but all 3 in the other colourspace? What do your lift and gamma do in Linear mode? Just curious to understand the science a bit
Hi ! I've tried to apply this technique on a grey scale while looking at the waveform to see how it reacts, and it seems that changing the gamma to linear does not change how the waveform reacts. It looks like the only benefit we have from changing the gamma, is that it's less sensitive, which is nice when using a mouse. Did I overlook something ? Thanks a lot
Hey Cullen, great vid! I'm experiencing contrast issues on export when trying to deliver to RUclips, is there a workaround for this? For reference, I'm on a Mac Retina desktop, working color space is DWG/Intermediate, output CST at the end of my node tree is Rec 709/Gamma 2.2. I've tried fiddling with the color space and gamma tags in the render page, but not sure what are the best tags.
The HDR palette works in coordinates (or the XYZ color space) while Linear gain is well, just gain. Exposure wise it's the same but when dealing with color balance it's different.
@@jaykellett7693 Hey Jay! Unfortunately the Resolve manual does not clarify this question so I had to run a few manual tests comparing to the Chromatic Adaptation plugin I could make them match 95% except with a slight difference in the saturation levels which seems they used as compensation. Also, if you look at the interface they're also using coordinates instead of RGB values. Usually Resolve does not hide a lot on the interface, it's pretty straightforward (such as gain starting as 1 instead of 0, for example) so if you understand the math behind a tool is easy to understand what is doing. Hope it helps!
It's close, but not the same! You're in linear in both cases, but HDR global has a very different primary set than if you just flip a DWG node into linear as I did here...
Sure thing! And great question: HDR global is 1:1 identical for making exposure adjustments, but *not* for making balance adjustments -- there's actually quite a difference in this case, and I prefer what I get with linear gain.
Oh really? Thank you so much. Not asking you to, but if you were to make a video on this at some point, I’d love to watch a more in depth explanation about it. Thank you as always for all the awesome tips
Sorry I’m sure you’ve explained this before, but why is this better than just using the WB sliders? Me not being a “professional” colorist, but instead just having experience coloring most of my DP work, I find that to be the cleanest way to balance an image. That being said, I’m not usually working with footage that’s so far off like in these examples. I have had to dive into the log wheels to find a more pleasing color contrast between shadows and mid tones before.
Great question! The WB sliders are at best an approximation of the same controls on our camera, which leads me to ask the opposite question: why use the WB sliders when you can use a single trackball that's more flexible and produces equivalent or superior results?
@@CullenKelly I guess for me it’s harder to mess up adjusting WB on essentially an XY scale. I’ve also gotten pretty quick at knowing how many points to adjust based on how it looks. But again, I’m not a full time colorist, so I’m sure it’s faster on the wheels. If there’s something under the hood that makes the wheel a better mathematical adjustment then I’ll for sure make that switch. I do like the concept of the sliders being essentially “the equivalent of making the adjustment in camera”. Haha.
Great trick and looking forward to the updated video for explaining your project settings. I was wondering if this node would be saved in an exported LUT file. Often I’m working on quick turnaround projects as a DP and my clients want a LUT because they don’t have the time nor the budget for a colorist. I can’t always get it right in camera because it’s a run n gun documentary approach:)
Great question! No, this node won't reliably cook out into a LUT, but you CAN get what you're looking for by doing manual CSTs to/from linear on either side of your balance node instead of flipping the Gamma to Linear within the node itself.
Is there a way to operate linear gain similar to printer lights where you easily take just red out, for example? I typically just use the mouse but I miss the offset knobs on my control surface.
@@russo-filmmaking note that the HDR wheels do not produce the same result. While I get it, changing gain in linear is exactly what the hdr global wheel does - as soon as you touch color, you will get hue shifts with the hdr palette. I'll make a video on that, because it's hard to explain with just text. but in short, linear gain can still be a prefered option, because you work in the original gamut and don't convert to the HDR palette's (weird) color model
@@NOIRGRADE I see.... for exposure and balance I always use the HDR wheel in DWG color space, I’m used to it and I get always the results I want. It will be interesting to see your video on this topic, I’ll wait for it
@@russo-filmmaking if it works, then it works. it's not a bad tool, but it just creates results, that I personally don't like - especially if I have the option to create (imo) more aesthetic results with other tools. If you want I can let you know, once I released it. Or you can just subscribe :)
Worth adding that for it to be a true scene-linear representation of your source, so your adjustments are properly colorimetric, the "Timeline colour space" setting needs to match your working colour space (LogC3, ACEScct or whatever). Otherwise Resolve will be linearising based on your output colour space (e.g. Rec.709 2.4 gamma) which is not actually the colour space the image is at that point in your node tree.
Hey Cullen, great tips as always but I wanted to emphasize about something on the second shot; if you can focus the traffic lights bokeh on the background, they are kinda artifacting-clipping like ACES used to. And I also I had a similar thing with the HSV-Sat recently on some RED footage, never had before but some glass light fracture had a weird clipping.
Great catch! That traffic light breakage is actually due to a simple mistake I made while recording this demo -- I'll be releasing a follow-up shortly showing what happened and why...
thankyou for the video, im very new to davinci, i have a question, what is linear gain? and whats the difference between linear and standard color grading?
Sure thing! Gain is just math we perform on our image, linear gain is simply performing that math in a linear space. I talk more about linear vs log spaces here: ruclips.net/video/pRCd1VkmycQ/видео.html
I don't really understand what you mean by linier. Could you please point me towards one of your episodes that explains this method in more detail please? As for getting "White Balance" I have evolved towards using the HDR Global Wheel, or the standard Offset Wheel and keeping my eye on the Vectorscope. I try to get the biggest blob in the centre of the Vectorscope. For my modest skill-set level (Hobbyist) I'm getting good results keeping an eye on the Vectorscope and moving one wheel rather than trying to juggle various wheels, sliders or Primaries. Is working in Linier Gain, to get White Balance, the same as moving the HDR Global Wheel/Offset Wheels? Or am I completely wrong and missing something important?
Sure thing! In this video I explain log vs linear in more detail: ruclips.net/video/pRCd1VkmycQ/видео.html And yep, HDR global and Offset are both standard approaches for balance, but I definitely prefer linear gain!
This method looks so promising! One thing I'd love to know is how different is it from using HDR Wheels Offset adjustment. And if it's quite different, it'd be great to under the science behind why
Great question! Balancing with HDR Global is performed in a whole different color space that can cause odd behaviors with extreme colors, and in general it adds unnecessary complexity compared to simply linearizing while staying in DWG as I'm doing here. Hope this helps!
@@CullenKelly Thanks for the explanation Cullen! Really appreciate it. I've been using HDR Global for my Balance for the last 2-3 projects and I didn't face any issues with it, so I thought that was the best way to go about it. Time to switch it to Linear Gain now! Thank you!
Temp and tint can produce similar results, but they're at best an approximation of a true color temperature adjustment, making them no more accurate than what I'm doing here. Given this, my question would be "Why use temp/tint over linear gain?" as opposed to the opposite one.
Please, please... Does anyone have an answer as to why this is better than just using the Temp & Tint sliders? I use the Temp & Tint sliders for every shot I white balance, and it's quick and easy and produces good results. On the Mini panel I have the Temp knob in my left hand, and the Tint knob in my right hand and I can quickly work them together to get great results quickly. How is this approach better?
I have a video coming out very soon on this exact topic! TLDR: temp and tint like they should do the same thing you’d get from camera temp and tint, but they don’t.
Great question! I definitely prefer the feel of the gain trackball over the HDR palette's temp and tint sliders, and there is indeed a pretty big difference between the two in terms of underlying behavior...the TLDR is that linear gain is a simpler operation, so I'd stick with that unless there's something you can't get with it, and that you can get with HDR temp/tint.
Great content, as usual. I know you've talked about linear space being the superior space to do other adjustments in, as well. Would it be worth just doing all basic corrections and adjustments in linear space before moving on to other creative/look adjustments?
Cullen, have been watching your great videos for a while. I have a question. When you set a node to Linear my understanding is that you don't convert it to linear BUT you tell to DaVinci work with this clip AS IF IT WAS linear. Which is basically applying linear adjustments on a log clip. Do you see yourself this as just a trick and not actual mathematically corect way to work linearly? Thank you!
Great question! So, to clarify, setting a node to linear does indeed convert the image to linear, it doesn't just operate on the clip "as if it were linear" (though TBH I'm not exactly sure what that would entail anyway). Hope this helps!
@@CullenKelly hello Cullen, thanks for your answer! Indeed i had some misconceptions about per-node gamma and color space. You are indeed right saying that when you choose different gamma on a node, it inside the node converts it to that gamma, applies whatever that node does in the new gamma, and then converts back to the timeline gamma/space.
I'm recommending gain in this video, not gamma, but to answer the question of "Why gain?": it's because this operator allows us to model changes in physical light, while controls like lift, gamma, offset etc don't. Hope this helps!
@@CullenKelly Thanks for the reply! I'm a long time still shooter but recently doing some video capture and editing. Your videos have been amazingly helpful! A lot of things translate from still editing but there's a lot more moving parts to video (obviously). Anyway it's not exactly what I hoped for but it's close. Still figuring out the focus system limitations, for video on a mostly still camera setup and capture settings that differ with fLog and still vs video. Here's my 2nd effort that wouldn't be as balanced without your help. Snow can be a surprisingly difficult backdrop ruclips.net/video/3VVNT4w6rzI/видео.html
I think soft lit dark shots will be this gens bleach bypass of the late 90s or shakey cam of the noughties. Hope we get back to properly lighting shots again maybe even bring back day for night.
I use a Tangent Ripple controller in FCPX color wheels (don’t hate me lol) and I’d love to try this method somehow. Any idea where to look for a linear setting?
Maybe a silly question. In your process you capture a frame for reference then delete the node - I understand the process completely. Is there a difference if you were to make the two nodes as parallel nodes side by side to be switched on/off when showing? I guess I am not well versed in how parallel nodes otherwise effect the total output for the simple demo use case. Thanks for another great video!
@@inknpaintCW I do that all the time, the only difference I am not using a parallel node, but a layer node. Parallel nodes work differently, they would combine both adjustments which is obviously not what you want. but yes, layer nodes work perfectly for that. maybe for Cullen it is easier to explain it like that, so there is no misinterpretation when there are multiple nodes
@NOIRGRADE nailed it here -- you could absolutely do it this way provided you're using a layer mixer rather than a parallel mixer. I tend to do things as Idid in this video because I generally prefer one idea or iteration in my node graph at at time, with stills being used to capture the different potential approaches.
Great tip. I actually learned it a couple months ago after quite some research when I had a project wich had footage with a set color temp for all clips regardless of the actual lighting. It was a nightmare to balance and this trick made it easy with more peace of mind
I'll go look, but if anyone wants to answer, how do I regain the same level of contrast and color density when working in Linear space vs generic or camera profile. Thx
Great video, super helpful! I noticed at 5:46 when you A/B your two grades, the liner gamma approach seems to be artifacting/clipping the lights in the far background. Can you speak into this? In this specific clip I feel like your first process yielded a better result in the highlights.
Hey thanks for the awesome video. You touched on a subject that bothers me so very much, its scary. In LOG, if i as much as look at my color wheels i already did a drastic change to the image but the UI barely moved a pixel. Is there a way to adjust the sensitivity of the UI so it can be at least somewhat useful when staying/working in LOG? Grading with mouse by moving the wheel-dots or in the curves tab is almost impossible without frustration and an existential crisis.
Great question! Yes, you need to be using color management for this to work properly. Here's a good intro video: ruclips.net/video/RuYBk-YvCZE/видео.htmlsi=R4T2P9iLj6l-G-Sr. I'll also be doing a livestream next week where we deep dive on this subject: ruclips.net/user/liveJpRuQQ__-YA?si=GINH9eKRYUSX1Lw0
Duuuumb question here, but isn't this similar to using the Offset wheel? That has been my go-to for the "one wheel" approach thus far. Looking forward to trying your method!
Great question with a complicated answer that goes all the way back to the days when everything was shot and printed on film. For a direct comparison/explanation of linear gain vs offset, check out this video: ruclips.net/video/pRCd1VkmycQ/видео.html
Thankyou for acknowledging the spiral of self-doubt. Some grades I'm really confident and others I've gone down the rabbit hole of 20 grades, can be tough when difficult footage makes you lose your mojo.
Lol, the spiral is real 😂
Hi Cullen, just wanted to say a big thanks for this info. I'd never even heard of a linear gamma space, but using this method, I've just whizzed through the colour correction of the project I'm working on - in around half the time I normally would.
Really cannot thank you enough!
Stoked to hear that!
You can use the Grey World Hypothesis : Take a frame, blur it (Gaussian) until the whole image is like one big pixel ; the colour you see is the colour cast you need to deal with. You can neutralise by reading the RGB values and then tweaking the linear offsets (or the gammas, which won't affect the black and the white points) until your big pixel is neutral grey. Works every time, except you have to make a decision : Perfectly neutralising every shot is NOT what you should do systematically.
Doesnt work if you have a dominant colour in the shot (either from a given location, or as is common in creative work, a specific palette)... its also what ANY auto wb tool does.
Also... DONT adjust the values/levels of channels... DIVIDE your image by the colour cast (in linear space ofc).
it would better if you could do tutorial on youtube
Great suggestion! Strongly agree that perfectly neutralizing every shot isn't the end goal, but it's often an important step along the way, which means we need a simple, repeatable process for it. Also, the (very cool) technique you propose would work great with linear gain...in fact this would be the ideal operation vs log offset or gamma.
Huh… never thought of that.
It's absolut great getting tipps or hints for an satisfying result in post (or everything else).
But there are many ways to rome... And linearl should be a very good starting-point in general, but it's (and thhere is no) not the holy Gral.
One click, or just one node doesn't do it at all.
However, absolutly usefull for people who're not that deep into grading, colorization and adjusting color temperature. 👍😊
Great video! I'm a compositor and am very pro-linear.
It allows for you to not have to use your eye as much for tasks that are just simple arithmetic like white balancing.
We have tools to do white balancing with a single click by taking an area that we sample and equalizing the RGB channels while also accounting for any luminance changes that might happen from individual channel adjustment.
Just wanted to mention that we also like you, convert to and from linear/log depending on the task.
Our footage is always converted to linear for our working space, but sometimes that linear conversion causes values in our image that don't play well with our tools (super high or negative values).
So, in those cases, we convert to log, apply our filters/color/transformations/etc., then convert back to linear.
Keep up the great vids. I, like you, keep up with knowledge and workflows that other departments use to help us better work together, and this channel is great for helping unify us VFX artists and colorists who are so often at war, haha.
Cheers.
Check out this video for an explanation and comparison of log offset vs linear gain: ruclips.net/video/pRCd1VkmycQ/видео.html
@@CullenKelly I am still confused with the linear situation. Why do you use the "gain" wheel when in linear? I noticed that if I use the offset wheel the rsults are differents.. Is linear meant to be used only with the Gain wheel? THanks!
@@tvipstudiosGain is just another word for multiplication . You’re literally multiplying the pixel value by the value you produce with your gain knob, 1,1,1 meaning unchanged, going below darkens a channel, above brightens, it’s equivalent to exposure except that you don’t think in stops of light but in absolute numbers. Likewise, lift is literally a plus operation, you add the knob value to the pixel value which clearly is a different operation. Knowing this will inform your choices.
I started working as a photo technician in the National Geographic photo lab in 1974 where my job was creating halftones and color separations and that was the point that I started using control targets as a reproduction baseline.
In the era of film the most valuable tool a photographer shooting transparencies for drum scanning and color separations was a box of color correcting filters to eliminate color casts due to batch-to-batch variation in film or color biases in the lighting. For things like catalogs the camera transparencies would be duplicated in an enlarger (like making a print) to the size in the layout on film with a strippable emulsion so all the images on a page could be color separated at the same time identically. CC filters in the enlarger would be used in the making of the duplicates with color charts the photographers would include in the edges of every photo as a guide.
So not surprisingly when I started shooting digitally and editing in Photoshop starting back in 1994 I would photograph a gray card as a WB reference. It the early 2000s I started also draping white and black wash cloths over the card to use for setting my FILL (based on detail in black one) and KEY (keeping white one 1/3 stop under clipping) flashes and ambient + flash lighting to get a full-range, no shadow noise, normal ‘seen by eye’ contrast image as a starting baseline for editing.
The neutral color balanced, normal contrast look of the images wasn’t the end goal, just a consistent starting baseline for editing very similar to the approach I learned in B&W from the books of Ansel Adams. His images out of camera simply recorded detail everywhere, with contrast of sky and foliage often shifted unnaturally with color filters on the camera lens - red for dark sky, green for brighter than normal foliage. The artistic / editorial process in the Zone System was done entirely in the darkroom during the print making. The Negative was the score and The Print the performance.
Photographers and videographers make life far more difficult for themselves if they don’t take a the few minutes it takes to include a reference target in every shot and scene held by the subject or photographed in the same light. Using the black and white towels to set FILL and KEY lighting is faster and more accurate than hand metering. By using them in foreground and background it becomes trivial to set FILL levels so ALL the shadows in a photo or video are CAPTURED above the signal / noise threshold.
I always turn on and set FILL only as the first step because anywhere the camera lens sees a FILL SHADOW there will be a NOISE FILLED VOID in the lighting pattern after KEY and RIM lighting are added. Seeing and eliminating them is much more difficult when FILL is added last.
The gray card used today for WB should reflect 12% not 18%. 18% was the old ASA film speed reference value based on a ROT landscape that was 1/3 sky and 2/3 foreground reflecting 18% on average of the incident sun intensity. The ISO standard adopted in 1975 changed that calibration point to 12% It theory if you meter off an 12% card with a ISO calibrated reflection meter the SHADOWS will be exposed optimally. But with digital playback and histogram a test shot of a black towel is better for shadow exposure / FILL control and a white one for highlight exposure / RIM & KEY light control, keeping RIM light 1/3 stop under clipping and KEY 2/3 stop under when using both, or KEY 1/3 stop under if only using KEY over FILL.
Awesome comment here!
This was fascinating! Thank you for sharing.
Welcome to the party man. Happy to see a colorist take inspiration from VFX color workflows.
Thank you for this very clear explanation, in a similar video a colorist recomended to set Lum Mix to "0" when working in linear. I do not understand the why and be very happy if you could explain to me if it's necessary or not ?
This is slick! I noticed though that there is something happening with the street lights in the car example. Looks like something is clipping there with the linear mode
Yeah I rewatched and see what you're talking about. The red lights in particular just above the car behind change pretty drastically. I wonder what this is so we can understand how to avoid any unwanted or unintended artifacts of this method.
Just needs to set Luma Mix to 0 when doing this. This is how I do all my balancing too, but Luma Mix at 100, it tries to compensate for overall Luminance changes and things get weird.
@@ErrickJacksonthanks man , great to have you here for the rescue 😉
exactly what I thought. Luma mix seems like the issue imo as well. Should be set to 0 when working in linear. That's the benefit of working with offset in log. while it's almost the same math, you don't have luminace preservation with Offset.
Great catch! This is due to an oversight I made in my project settings for this demo. I'll be releasing a follow-up video soon showing what happened and why (linear gain isn't the culprit).
Nice very useful. I did notice something though. What is the reason for the color difference in the specular highlights from the bokeh at 5:45 ? The red specify is starkly different.
@@dylanholmes3067 when working in linear, you should set the lumamix at 0, which Cullen forgot un this example (explaining, recording and grading at the same time is not as easy as it looks. I wouldn't blame him). Lumamix is a way to compensate luminance differences due to grading adjustments. It is designed for color ranges of 0-1. In linear you temporarely work with huge values of 100 and beyond. That's why the compensation goes crazy and blasts those nuclear colors
@NOIRGRADE is exactly right about the cause of this issue. I'll be releasing a follow-up video soon showing what happened and why...
@@NOIRGRADEthanks for the explanation
Hi Cullen
We need the Rec.709-A + gamma shift on Mac issue debate solved and put to an end. Nobody can agree on anything lol. Please help us sir.
Please 🙏
@@vladislav8416 rec709a is only for preview within resolves GUI while your Mac is in reference mode.
This means that your display, in bt1886 mode, with output colorspace set to 709a, will now look pretty darn close to a calibrated sdr display.
Export normally, because the file will look fine depending on various displays. The gamma bug is actually due to color sync and not actually a ...bug. It's just displaying 709 at 1.96 gamma.
The happy middle ground imo...2.2. Make a cst and set 2.4 to 2.2 but still tag your file 1-1-1 (709,709).
Yes please, just the mention of this name gives me anxiety
Yes please
The truth is that there is not solution to this problem unless apple decide to do something about it, but they don't because they believe they are right and everyone else is wrong. However there are ways to work around it
This looks like a technique for balancing in the global wheel in the HDR wheels tab. Can you try it? I'm very curious about your opinion. I call this technique the "one-armed colorist.
Balancing with HDR Global is actually quite different, which is confusing because adjusting exposure with HDR Global vs with linear gain is identical. For balance I definitely prefer linear gain.
Thank you. If I change the gamma to linear on a particular node, does it have repercussions further down my node tree? Do I have to 'set it back' on a subsequent node? Cheers
I tried this and it is dang right fast for a quick turn around. It is now super glued to my work flow! Thanks Cullen 👌
Fantastic technique, as always! I'm curious to see how Linear Gain compares to HDR Temp & Tint...off to Resolve to do some A/B testing.
Thank you for your detailed and simple explanation, Cullen!
Yes I wonder as well. I balance with "temp" (and "tint" if necessary) and its quick easy and feel natural since it's the warm and cold expected by the camera white balance.
Man! This is the only white balance vid I sat through the whole video! Perfect presentation and teaching! I subbed instantly. Next I'll do, I'll watch your other vids! I honestly have the same struggle when color correcting/grading videos, matching and white balancing shots... and yes, the "spiral of self doubt"! You just instilled new confidence in me as a learner. Some terms I still try to wrap my head around (after years of missing out) but you sir just inspired me to open my Resolve's color tab (rather... the whole editing program) again! Like a reignited passion because I honestly gave up years ago including video editing altogether. Thank you.
Do you have another video that explains the linear thing a bit more?
Sure thing! ruclips.net/video/pRCd1VkmycQ/видео.html
Curious. When would you use primaries vs hdr? I saw your video on that subject and my first thought now was to do the balancing in hdr and then do stylistic tweaks in primaries/log.
I only use HDR for adjusting exposure (using the Global wheel) -- everything else is done in Primaries. Hope this helps!
Is there a big difference between working in linear like this and just working the offset wheel or the global wheel in the HDR color wheels?
I was going to ask the same thing, I think I saw in another of Cullen´s videos some time ago
Linear Gain and Offset are pretty similar but there's a difference that becomes more noticeable in the deep shadows with stronger adjustments. Linear keeps the black point cleaner with heavier adjustments, whereas offset can start to affect the black point. HDR wheels in a proper colour management setup is a Linear Gain adjustment under the hood so the result there is identical - but setting the node to linear and doing gain yourself just saves you from tabbing back and forth to the HDR tab so there's a slight workflow advantage there!
@@conortychowski awesome, thanks for the detailed response!
@@conortychowski 👍
@@thomlyons You're welcome!
Hi Cullen, i really like your videos ! 90% of the time I adjust my WB with the offset wheel. How it compares with your method and what the benefit to use linear if you get very close results between the two ? I'm reconsidering my work flow so maybe I'll switch to this method eventually. Thank you !!
I've been doing this for the last few months, and with your LUT packs it has made my grading so much faster. I shoot lots of run and gun, going into different lighting situations constantly and so colour balancing was a nightmare for me. Now I can easily match shots from different days, different times of day, different weather, no problem.
There definitely is a massive issue with the red bokeh in the background of the car shot when using linear gain. Cullen do you have any idea what is happening there?
Great catch! This is due to a mistake I made while setting up the Resolve project I demo'd in...I'll be releasing a follow-up video soon detailing what happened there and why.
Will it be the same as just using OFFSET WHEEL on HDR pallet, Cullen? Thank you for the video👍🏻
Seems like a great simplifier and I will for sure try using linear in the future. How does linear compare to Wide Gamut standard Gamma?
And I do not understand why this is more photometric... and also not why it doesn't work with log. I guess I have to learn a bit more...
DWG is a log space and works similar to other log spaces -- and quite different from linear! I talk more about this here: ruclips.net/video/pRCd1VkmycQ/видео.html
@@CullenKelly thank you!
Is there an advantage to white balancing using the primary wheels as opposed to the temperature and tint sliders? I've never used the primaries for white balancing before. Open to trying it.
Yes, I definitely prefer using RGB gain, as it's simpler and more flexible than temp and tint. The intuition with temp/tint is that they do the same thing as temp and tint on a camera, but they don't. Dedicated video on this coming soon!
@@CullenKelly Ah that makes sense, thank you! Can't wait for that one!
Did you overlay a static image of noise onto your footage at the beginning?
I believe he did. It's driving me nuts making me think he's behind a layer of film.
that threw me off as well 🤔
Oh you're right, it is indeed static. I think it's a way to make the footage look more like film and also avoid banding, which is especially visible in dark areas like that at lower quality settings of the youtuber player.
this is what I came to the comments for hahaha
Defeating RUclips's 8-bit banding is a work in progress! 😂
Dude... the red lights in the background when switching to linear look baaaaaaaad at 5:43
Yup just noticed that... why is that happening @CullenKelly?
Yeah just noticed that also, is that due to the linear gamma?
Most likely connected to luma mix. When working in linear it is always a good idea to set this one to 0 instead of 100. Resolve tries to compensate for luminance differences caused by the color adjustments. This compensation is designed based on normal values between 0 and 1. In linear they can go to 50 or 100, so the compensation goes wild and creates nuclear artifacts.
@@NOIRGRADE So does it seem like we need to use this technique in small quick adjustments to avoid the saturation blow out in those redlights?
@@hunterbuchanan2 yes. if you're doing small adjustments you should be safe in both cases, but in this picture Cullen had to push the gain quite far. That's why the image broke. Usually it's a good idea to just set the lumamix to 0 when working linear. I guess I'll make a video about that in the near future.
It's also worth noting that when using the HDR wheels WB/Tint sliders, you're doing the same linear function! (As long as you have the HDR wheels set up correctly to match your working space or scene space.) Although I will agree that sometimes the HDR WB slider doesn't let you push the image far enough. In that case, the linear node with the gain wheel is a great option.
hdr offset is doing tint/wb tools do
You're totally right about the linear part, but there's actually a big difference in color space between HDR WB/tint vs linear gain!
So simple yet so effective. The funny thing is I used to do this when I worked in VFX (using linear gamma) and it never even occurred to me to use the same method in resolve.
Very cool trick/technique! Thank you for sharing! I've noticed something happened to the blurred red light (siren?) in the background, right behind the car, when you change gain in linear. It got bigger and sharper compared to the log. Do you know why is that and is it going to have the same effect on other blurred elements?
Good catch -- that artifact with the red light is due to an oversight in my setup that I'll be explaining in a follow-up video!
Rarely these days i stumble upon such an informative video that instantly helps with my workflow! Thank you!
I have seen a similar video explaining the same workflow.
Only difference was that they also set the Lum Mix slider to 0.
Is that necessary ?
Hello, Thank you very much for the trick. It is realy impressive! I just saw high saturation troubles in the lights in the background when you use the node in linear. would you have a trick for this? Thank you very much 🙂
So, on a subsequent node after the Linear node, should I switch the new node back to Gamma 2.4 or whatever I was using? Or does the Linear change only effect the singular node and not the whole chain?
Thanks for the video! Curious to try this out. What about creating a serial node, not switching to linear and just using offset with the vectorscope to balance the image?
Each time it's like a "Revelation" Thanks Cullen. Just a question is there a possibility to force DVR to stay in Linear mode after a reset of the node? It will be really more easy :)
Semi-related, was wondering on what your views on the AGX view transform were, and how it compares and converts to Davinci Wide Gamut? Was wondering if any pro colorists would be able to chime in on it, especially with VFX work and conversion from Blender to Resolve/Fusion; Gleb Alexandrov has a solid course on it which touches on differences briefly, but was wondering about a talk from seasoned pros fully experienced working with Resolve and DWG
Great topic! We'll be talking about different DRTs here on the channel soon -- I definitely think there are some great alternatives to RCM. I haven't spent much time with AgX yet, but hope to do so!
@@CullenKelly For sure, AGX is great afaik, but doing post in Resolve and converting to DWG, I'm sure that I can eyeball it but given what AGX claims to do with avoiding the color skew and giving more exposure option, I don't know is there's a solid conversion route or not
Totally appreciate the time you're taking to be so informative, honestly wouldn't know where to go without yours and a handful of other Colorists' in-depth guides, thank you so much
Weird question, you may have addressed it in earlier videos but I'm new to your channel -- why do you have your monitor below eyeline and tilted slightly down?
Really just because I cycle between standing and sitting all day, and monitor is positioned for a functional viewing angle from both positions
This is not related directly but do you have a video on the importance of what display you edit on as a colorist? Or maybe just a video that tells us what you like to use and how you set that up? Thanks! This page is fantastic
hi Cullen 😌 just wanted to say that I love your work and appreciate all you’re doing for the colorist community :)
Hey Cullen, quick question here! how does working in linear differ from working in ACES? It's my understanding that ACES is a Linear color space too. just with a wider color gamut right?
btw just want to also thank you for all the information you share. it has helped me so much in my work!
When you look at the red traffic light in the background at 5:52 you can see that it becomes excessively red when using linear. In a similar situation, wouldn’t it be better not to use linear?
Great catch! That issue is caused by a mistake I made while recording this demo that I'll be releasing a quick follow-up for. In the meanwhile, I've got a big high five ready for the first person who can spot the simple mistake I made (it's hiding in plain sight).
@@CullenKelly I'm looking forward to the follow-up video you mentioned. Thank you for always making such great videos, they are very helpful to me.
Thx fir sharing. Do you mind making a short maybe about the grading envjronment..what brightness the mknitor and the lighting kn the room. Forgive if you hav alresdy talked about it. 😊
Good topic for a future video!
I only use one (Kensington Orbit Track)ball so I'm used to that way of working, but often I change R,G and B on gain numerically when a little adjustment is needed because it's hard for my finger with very small changes, even if the trackball has a "low gear". So showing me the Linear Gamma option is great! Thanks, that's a really good tip!
Thank you for making this video. I always disliked how sensitive the track balls on my control surface are. This makes color correcting way more enjoyable. You're content is awesome and super helpful.
Unsure if you've seen Darren Mostyn's workflows, but curious about where it would be best placed in a node tree.
Can someone explain to me what's the difference between using the gain instead of the offset in this case? I always used the offset and had the idea that was the "best" thing to do
That’s what I thought too, l’d love to hear the rationale behind using the gain wheel instead.
@@ChristopherRosiVideographer the are 95% identical. depending on the working color space. in ACEScct it would be 99%. The main difference is how they treat colors in the blacks / shadows. (if lumamix is at 0, which it should be tbh) I will make a video on that in the near future, but in the meantime, try it for yourself, try pushing an imagine with linear gain and then matching it with offset instead. results are very similar, except for the shadows.
@@NOIRGRADE interesting! Thank you
Great question! Check out this video for an explanation and comparison of log offset vs linear gain: ruclips.net/video/pRCd1VkmycQ/видео.html
@@CullenKelly thanks!
Cullen, I thought that in a previous video when you were talking about the HDR palette, the Global Offset, when not in a color managed workflow, was operating in the linear space, or in a linear way. For those who do not use a color managed workflow, could that be an even faster method, to just pop into the HDR primaries and use the global offset to set white balance? And maybe I am wrong, it may also work that way in a managed workflow also?
Not 100% sure I understand the distinction you're making between color managed vs non color managed, since the HDR palette really requires some level of color management. But I can confirm HDR Global does operate in linear...the catch is that it uses a different color space than DWG for balancing, so you'll get different results using HDR Global vs linear gain.
@@CullenKelly HDR palette doesn’t operate based on the selected timeline colorspace? Whether you’re working in ACES or DYRGB? Or even by assigning the colorspace in the palette itself(is there any advantage in doing that?)?
@@dm.colorist HDR palette does change behavior based on the color space you tell it you’re working in, but that’s only because the path to its internal working space is different depending on where you’re starting initially…happy to break this down in Grade School!
Hi Cullen, I am returning to this video to say I tried out your technique and it was certainly extremely helpful. I am by no means a colourist, but correcting WB on a shoot I did last week on a verite doc I'm making. Skin tones were all off from the lights, I was able to dial it in super quick! So thank you!!
i really still can't believe it's possible to adjust WB tints with one color wheel move. I gotta try that.
What I'm missing here is a tool to also double check we're consistent. What tool could this be (besides checking skintones with the Vector scope)?
I have a question: Why is it just the gain in a linear node but all 3 in the other colourspace? What do your lift and gamma do in Linear mode? Just curious to understand the science a bit
Hi ! I've tried to apply this technique on a grey scale while looking at the waveform to see how it reacts, and it seems that changing the gamma to linear does not change how the waveform reacts. It looks like the only benefit we have from changing the gamma, is that it's less sensitive, which is nice when using a mouse. Did I overlook something ? Thanks a lot
Hey Cullen, great vid! I'm experiencing contrast issues on export when trying to deliver to RUclips, is there a workaround for this? For reference, I'm on a Mac Retina desktop, working color space is DWG/Intermediate, output CST at the end of my node tree is Rec 709/Gamma 2.2. I've tried fiddling with the color space and gamma tags in the render page, but not sure what are the best tags.
Very nice! Maybe I missed that point, but do you have to switch the gamma, after this node? Thank you!
Nope, gamma automatically goes back to default after the balance node!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS TUTORIAL Straight to the point and very very very helpful. Great job Cullen keep up the great work.
Great video Cullen! what is the different between linear Gamma and adjusting gain, and primary or HDR offset? Thanks!
The HDR palette works in coordinates (or the XYZ color space) while Linear gain is well, just gain. Exposure wise it's the same but when dealing with color balance it's different.
Thanks! Rafa's reply below is dead on
@@CullenKelly thanks, looks like i need to do some homework!
@@RafaelBernabeuParreno hey Rafael, thanks for the input, do you have any resources to learn about this?
@@jaykellett7693 Hey Jay! Unfortunately the Resolve manual does not clarify this question so I had to run a few manual tests comparing to the Chromatic Adaptation plugin I could make them match 95% except with a slight difference in the saturation levels which seems they used as compensation. Also, if you look at the interface they're also using coordinates instead of RGB values. Usually Resolve does not hide a lot on the interface, it's pretty straightforward (such as gain starting as 1 instead of 0, for example) so if you understand the math behind a tool is easy to understand what is doing. Hope it helps!
I've been happy balancing by using the HDR/global/ball. Isn't that the same as using the SDR/GAIN wheel set to linear?
It's close, but not the same! You're in linear in both cases, but HDR global has a very different primary set than if you just flip a DWG node into linear as I did here...
@@CullenKelly ahhh..thanks for the feedback
Thank you for this Cullen! just curious, why not going into the HDR offset? Isn't that practically the same?
I have same question
Sure thing! And great question: HDR global is 1:1 identical for making exposure adjustments, but *not* for making balance adjustments -- there's actually quite a difference in this case, and I prefer what I get with linear gain.
Oh really? Thank you so much. Not asking you to, but if you were to make a video on this at some point, I’d love to watch a more in depth explanation about it. Thank you as always for all the awesome tips
Sorry I’m sure you’ve explained this before, but why is this better than just using the WB sliders? Me not being a “professional” colorist, but instead just having experience coloring most of my DP work, I find that to be the cleanest way to balance an image. That being said, I’m not usually working with footage that’s so far off like in these examples. I have had to dive into the log wheels to find a more pleasing color contrast between shadows and mid tones before.
I’m curious too
Great question! The WB sliders are at best an approximation of the same controls on our camera, which leads me to ask the opposite question: why use the WB sliders when you can use a single trackball that's more flexible and produces equivalent or superior results?
@@CullenKelly I guess for me it’s harder to mess up adjusting WB on essentially an XY scale. I’ve also gotten pretty quick at knowing how many points to adjust based on how it looks. But again, I’m not a full time colorist, so I’m sure it’s faster on the wheels. If there’s something under the hood that makes the wheel a better mathematical adjustment then I’ll for sure make that switch. I do like the concept of the sliders being essentially “the equivalent of making the adjustment in camera”. Haha.
Great trick and looking forward to the updated video for explaining your project settings. I was wondering if this node would be saved in an exported LUT file. Often I’m working on quick turnaround projects as a DP and my clients want a LUT because they don’t have the time nor the budget for a colorist.
I can’t always get it right in camera because it’s a run n gun documentary approach:)
Great question! No, this node won't reliably cook out into a LUT, but you CAN get what you're looking for by doing manual CSTs to/from linear on either side of your balance node instead of flipping the Gamma to Linear within the node itself.
Is there a way to operate linear gain similar to printer lights where you easily take just red out, for example? I typically just use the mouse but I miss the offset knobs on my control surface.
Yep, you can just use your gain knobs instead of offset knobs!
Love this. Thank you. I always just used my offset color waveform to achieve this. Going to give this a go.
Same result but more efficient and faster is to use the HDR offset wheel
@@russo-filmmaking note that the HDR wheels do not produce the same result. While I get it, changing gain in linear is exactly what the hdr global wheel does - as soon as you touch color, you will get hue shifts with the hdr palette. I'll make a video on that, because it's hard to explain with just text. but in short, linear gain can still be a prefered option, because you work in the original gamut and don't convert to the HDR palette's (weird) color model
@@NOIRGRADE I see.... for exposure and balance I always use the HDR wheel in DWG color space, I’m used to it and I get always the results I want. It will be interesting to see your video on this topic, I’ll wait for it
@@russo-filmmaking if it works, then it works. it's not a bad tool, but it just creates results, that I personally don't like - especially if I have the option to create (imo) more aesthetic results with other tools.
If you want I can let you know, once I released it. Or you can just subscribe :)
Just curious guys Ive got davinci studio 19 and latest fusion will that make it better than ae and premiere combined?
@NOIRGRADE with another home run! Explanation above is exactly right.
Worth adding that for it to be a true scene-linear representation of your source, so your adjustments are properly colorimetric, the "Timeline colour space" setting needs to match your working colour space (LogC3, ACEScct or whatever). Otherwise Resolve will be linearising based on your output colour space (e.g. Rec.709 2.4 gamma) which is not actually the colour space the image is at that point in your node tree.
Good call Nick!
Hey Cullen, great tips as always but I wanted to emphasize about something on the second shot; if you can focus the traffic lights bokeh on the background, they are kinda artifacting-clipping like ACES used to. And I also I had a similar thing with the HSV-Sat recently on some RED footage, never had before but some glass light fracture had a weird clipping.
Great catch! That traffic light breakage is actually due to a simple mistake I made while recording this demo -- I'll be releasing a follow-up shortly showing what happened and why...
thankyou for the video, im very new to davinci, i have a question, what is linear gain? and whats the difference between linear and standard color grading?
Sure thing! Gain is just math we perform on our image, linear gain is simply performing that math in a linear space. I talk more about linear vs log spaces here: ruclips.net/video/pRCd1VkmycQ/видео.html
Oh really interesting. So how would this compare to doing a colour balance in offset or the HDR wheels?
You'll get a cleaner response with linear gain than with offset or HDR Global -- these two can work OK but each have their downsides.
is using this the same as using the Global wheel in HDR section, because HDR section applies linear transforms?
Oddly, I'm a 3D animator and life long photographer floundering in Resolves colour space - Subbed!!! :D
I don't really understand what you mean by linier. Could you please point me towards one of your episodes that explains this method in more detail please?
As for getting "White Balance" I have evolved towards using the HDR Global Wheel, or the standard Offset Wheel and keeping my eye on the Vectorscope. I try to get the biggest blob in the centre of the Vectorscope.
For my modest skill-set level (Hobbyist) I'm getting good results keeping an eye on the Vectorscope and moving one wheel rather than trying to juggle various wheels, sliders or Primaries.
Is working in Linier Gain, to get White Balance, the same as moving the HDR Global Wheel/Offset Wheels?
Or am I completely wrong and missing something important?
Sure thing! In this video I explain log vs linear in more detail: ruclips.net/video/pRCd1VkmycQ/видео.html
And yep, HDR global and Offset are both standard approaches for balance, but I definitely prefer linear gain!
The way you simplify and explain things is a game changer for me bro, thank you for sharing this 🙏🏽
Bro! Totally and completely wonderful. Never would have thought about this. Using this every time from now on.
This method looks so promising! One thing I'd love to know is how different is it from using HDR Wheels Offset adjustment. And if it's quite different, it'd be great to under the science behind why
Agree
Great question! Balancing with HDR Global is performed in a whole different color space that can cause odd behaviors with extreme colors, and in general it adds unnecessary complexity compared to simply linearizing while staying in DWG as I'm doing here. Hope this helps!
@@CullenKelly Thanks for the explanation Cullen! Really appreciate it. I've been using HDR Global for my Balance for the last 2-3 projects and I didn't face any issues with it, so I thought that was the best way to go about it. Time to switch it to Linear Gain now! Thank you!
I use the offset to balance and use printer lights. Not sure what metod is better
Using the temp and tint options seem to do exactly the same linear grade. Or is there an advantage in other situations doing it the way you mentioned?
Temp and tint can produce similar results, but they're at best an approximation of a true color temperature adjustment, making them no more accurate than what I'm doing here. Given this, my question would be "Why use temp/tint over linear gain?" as opposed to the opposite one.
very helpful, I was always lost between lift/gamma/gain, thank you very much!
hey m8, what about lum mix whe you work in linear color space?
Way cleaner shifts. Thanks for the demo! Great stuff.
Please, please... Does anyone have an answer as to why this is better than just using the Temp & Tint sliders? I use the Temp & Tint sliders for every shot I white balance, and it's quick and easy and produces good results. On the Mini panel I have the Temp knob in my left hand, and the Tint knob in my right hand and I can quickly work them together to get great results quickly. How is this approach better?
I have a video coming out very soon on this exact topic! TLDR: temp and tint like they should do the same thing you’d get from camera temp and tint, but they don’t.
Is there a advantage with this approach compared to using temp and tint in the hdr wheels?
Great question! I definitely prefer the feel of the gain trackball over the HDR palette's temp and tint sliders, and there is indeed a pretty big difference between the two in terms of underlying behavior...the TLDR is that linear gain is a simpler operation, so I'd stick with that unless there's something you can't get with it, and that you can get with HDR temp/tint.
Great. But why gain as opposed to lift or gamma? Thank you
Great question! Gain allows us to model changes in physical light, in a way that lift or gamma don't.
Great content, as usual. I know you've talked about linear space being the superior space to do other adjustments in, as well. Would it be worth just doing all basic corrections and adjustments in linear space before moving on to other creative/look adjustments?
Great question! I discuss log vs linear spaces and when to use which in this video: ruclips.net/video/pRCd1VkmycQ/видео.html
What would be the technical differences between this linear method opposed to just using your offset wheel?
Great question! Check out this video where I compare and explain log offset and linear gain: ruclips.net/video/IHJsfzBCKO4/видео.html
Cullen, have been watching your great videos for a while. I have a question.
When you set a node to Linear my understanding is that you don't convert it to linear BUT you tell to DaVinci work with this clip AS IF IT WAS linear. Which is basically applying linear adjustments on a log clip.
Do you see yourself this as just a trick and not actual mathematically corect way to work linearly?
Thank you!
Great question! So, to clarify, setting a node to linear does indeed convert the image to linear, it doesn't just operate on the clip "as if it were linear" (though TBH I'm not exactly sure what that would entail anyway). Hope this helps!
@@CullenKelly hello Cullen, thanks for your answer!
Indeed i had some misconceptions about per-node gamma and color space. You are indeed right saying that when you choose different gamma on a node, it inside the node converts it to that gamma, applies whatever that node does in the new gamma, and then converts back to the timeline gamma/space.
Is this a DaVinci only function? Or is there an equivalent in other editors?
Thanks Cullen!! Why Gamma vs one of the other innumerable control dials for WB?
I'm recommending gain in this video, not gamma, but to answer the question of "Why gain?": it's because this operator allows us to model changes in physical light, while controls like lift, gamma, offset etc don't. Hope this helps!
@@CullenKelly Thanks for the reply! I'm a long time still shooter but recently doing some video capture and editing. Your videos have been amazingly helpful! A lot of things translate from still editing but there's a lot more moving parts to video (obviously).
Anyway it's not exactly what I hoped for but it's close. Still figuring out the focus system limitations, for video on a mostly still camera setup and capture settings that differ with fLog and still vs video. Here's my 2nd effort that wouldn't be as balanced without your help. Snow can be a surprisingly difficult backdrop
ruclips.net/video/3VVNT4w6rzI/видео.html
I think soft lit dark shots will be this gens bleach bypass of the late 90s or shakey cam of the noughties. Hope we get back to properly lighting shots again maybe even bring back day for night.
I use a Tangent Ripple controller in FCPX color wheels (don’t hate me lol) and I’d love to try this method somehow. Any idea where to look for a linear setting?
Sorry, not sure on this one!
This is amazing. Breathtaking to encounter such an important reveal.
Maybe a silly question.
In your process you capture a frame for reference then delete the node - I understand the process completely.
Is there a difference if you were to make the two nodes as parallel nodes side by side to be switched on/off when showing?
I guess I am not well versed in how parallel nodes otherwise effect the total output for the simple demo use case.
Thanks for another great video!
@@inknpaintCW I do that all the time, the only difference I am not using a parallel node, but a layer node. Parallel nodes work differently, they would combine both adjustments which is obviously not what you want. but yes, layer nodes work perfectly for that. maybe for Cullen it is easier to explain it like that, so there is no misinterpretation when there are multiple nodes
@NOIRGRADE nailed it here -- you could absolutely do it this way provided you're using a layer mixer rather than a parallel mixer. I tend to do things as Idid in this video because I generally prefer one idea or iteration in my node graph at at time, with stills being used to capture the different potential approaches.
Your lessons are extremely helpful! Please keep creating your educational videos! It is amazing! You are amazing!
Great tip. I actually learned it a couple months ago after quite some research when I had a project wich had footage with a set color temp for all clips regardless of the actual lighting.
It was a nightmare to balance and this trick made it easy with more peace of mind
That was so helpful! Wow. Could so relate to the self doubt inherent (to amateurs) in using the 3 trackballs to get this result. Thanks!!
I'll go look, but if anyone wants to answer, how do I regain the same level of contrast and color density when working in Linear space vs generic or camera profile. Thx
Not sure I understand your question, but sounds like a good one! Happy to discuss in Grade School
it's same as hdr platte doing in RCM Workflow?
For exposure adjustments, yes, but not for balancing adjustments (it's close, but not the same)
Timely and so sensible. The WB spiral is real. Thanks Cullen
Great video, super helpful! I noticed at 5:46 when you A/B your two grades, the liner gamma approach seems to be artifacting/clipping the lights in the far background. Can you speak into this? In this specific clip I feel like your first process yielded a better result in the highlights.
Great catch! That artifact is due to an oversight in my setup, I'll be releasing a follow-up video on this soon
Hey thanks for the awesome video. You touched on a subject that bothers me so very much, its scary. In LOG, if i as much as look at my color wheels i already did a drastic change to the image but the UI barely moved a pixel. Is there a way to adjust the sensitivity of the UI so it can be at least somewhat useful when staying/working in LOG? Grading with mouse by moving the wheel-dots or in the curves tab is almost impossible without frustration and an existential crisis.
Great question! You can dial back the Key Output Gain on your balance node to say .5, and your trackball will effectively become 50% less sensitive.
do we need to set anything in color space settings when using this method?
Great question! Yes, you need to be using color management for this to work properly. Here's a good intro video: ruclips.net/video/RuYBk-YvCZE/видео.htmlsi=R4T2P9iLj6l-G-Sr. I'll also be doing a livestream next week where we deep dive on this subject: ruclips.net/user/liveJpRuQQ__-YA?si=GINH9eKRYUSX1Lw0
Thanks for the video. Most of it I know, but it’s so nice you also speak about the foundation as well. It is helpful 👍🏻🔥
Duuuumb question here, but isn't this similar to using the Offset wheel? That has been my go-to for the "one wheel" approach thus far. Looking forward to trying your method!
Why this top of the line color grading software doesn't do that on default if thats better way to do it? How about Offset wheel?
Great question with a complicated answer that goes all the way back to the days when everything was shot and printed on film. For a direct comparison/explanation of linear gain vs offset, check out this video: ruclips.net/video/pRCd1VkmycQ/видео.html