Three Tricks to Improve Your Grade

While I love to do deep dives in many of my videos, sometimes all we need is a quick tip (or three) that we can apply to our grades, so in this video I'm sharing three things that are working for me right now in my pro grading work.

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[seanlefloch]

That Qualifier for power window truck is money 💰

[etvisland]

You're the most legit Colorist I've come across on YouTube. I can tell you're an artist who genuinely loves their craft and wants to share knowledge and not just trying to sell us a product or teach us BS for views. Love the fact that you encourage trusting our natural inclinations and feelings instead of being crazy technical about the scopes and numbers. Love it, keep going.

[Visethelegend]

That last tip was very cool! I do not know if you have talked about trying to separate the skintones from the background, when the background or other elements have very similar color but I think it would be a cool topic

[VAZZlD]

THE best color grading channel on youtube for sure! Thanks Cullen 😍

[KaurH]

Working with linear gain is also great for micro and mini panel users as you don't have to switch the wheels over to offset.

[michalguzikfilms]

this color warper tip is such a game changer! thanks a lot for your content Cullen

[frenchiecolorgrading]

Finally, a use of linear color space not only to send for VFX 🤘
Really useful tricks ! I am very happy to have learnt new things today !

[mkheisenberg]

thank you so much for taking the time to share your very professional workflows!

[brown]

Really appreciate the fact that you always ground us with "what you've done thus far" before you dive in. It matters so much having that management context that SOOO many others just leave out. Thank you my friend :)

[TubeSilva]

Thanks again Cullen for your awesome tips. By the way, the longer hair looks better than when you cut it short.

[LennonMapes]

Gosh I rely on the qualifier way too much. Thank you so much for providing another angle to approaching these selective color adjustments!

[JeremiahBostwick]

The title as is typical, understated. The value though can't be overstated.
Probably one of the best of yours I've seen, and I've been a subscriber for at least 4 years. Don't know how I missed this one until now.

Not that I expect you to go back and edit your description, but having chapter markers for videos like this and in general would be helpful.

[vmixer]

Appreciate you articulating a putative story point at 8:10 as the motivation for your grading decisions! 👍

[gianlucazanga]

Hi Cullen, you can do what you did with the color warper by selecting the extreme in the color warper web, having maybe 8 circular points, you select the green and you drop down the luma value. I love color warper. Is wonderful and artifacts free

[chadtomas]

Really liked the last tool for increasing the density and luminance of chroma and luminance in the greens using the color warper. I play with my greens a lot so that's a nice broad-stroke tool I need to keep in my pocket and implement more. Nice, signed up for your course this spring and i'm fucking stoked.

[apocryphal_man]

I’ve been subscribed for quite a while as your videos are the only ones I find truly instructional. I wanted to use the opportunity to recommend your excellent voyager pro luts. They are the only luts I use because of the sheer quality and modularity. Also the provided powergrades are very insightful even or maybe especially to someone who grades professionally.

[Milan____]

An alternative to the second tip - using Power Window + Qualifier - is to use HDR color wheels with the Power Window. They're gentle, easy to use, and to some degree they're also an alternative to (the first tip) switching a node to Linear, as you always have a flexible crossover point, and isolation between darker and brighter regions, unlike with LGG.

[grahamf]

Brilliant tips thanks. I find the colour wheels are often too aggressive, especially when adjusting white balance. I hadn’t found a way to reduce their strength, so Tip 1 is really useful. I guess now you could use the AI Magic Mask to select the man’s face, although that is much more processor intensive than a qualifier.

[BrianMarcWhittaker]

Thank you! It helps me understand Resolve even better. Clear and actionable. A technician and an artist.

[markarnold]

Yes sir. Good stuff Cullen. thanks for getting nerdy and pulling back the layers in being a colorist. Will be trying out in next project.