Watch these 25 mins to FULLY Understand Color Management [Beginners Guide]

I am a Professional UK Broadcast Colourist with 15 years grading experience on DaVinci Resolve (for BBC, Amazon, ITV, Sky and many more). In this episode I'll teach you ALL the different ways to colour manage your footage, including ACES and WHY and the difference between all the options.

00:00 Intro
04:24 How to use CSTs to match cameras
05:21 Introduction to using ACES
05:52 What is the difference between ACES cc and ACES cct?
06:14 How do you set up an ACES project?
07:07 What is Aces?
08:49 How to tell ACES what the source is using IDT?
09:30 What is the difference between AP0 and AP1?
12:26 How do you set up Resolve Color Management (RCM)?
15:53 What is the difference between ACES and Resolve RCM?
17:46 Comparing ACES and Resolve Color Management
18:50 Using ACES with Nodes in Resolve
21:39 Creating Looks and LUTs for an ACES workflow
22:39 How do you use Color management if you don't know the camera?

✅Watch my CSTs explained episode here

Footage in this episode courtesy of eye-cue films, Blackmagic Design, Arri, Johnny Figgis & Delta Sleep.
Special Thanks to Diego Yhama for his expert advice on ACES.

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#colormanagement #ACES #davinciresolvetutorial

[DarrenMostyn]

** In trying to keep my explanation simple in this beginners guide, my explanation of Display Referred grading in the first few minutes has not come across quite technically correct, however my intention was correct. Display referred grading means to grade AFTER the display profile has been assigned - in my explanation I use an example where you don't assign it and therefore just grade to the display. BOTH my way and the technical way mean that then switching to a different output space after grading is not going to work, so ultimately it's the same result - I just didn't explain very well here. Had I applied a LUT or CST to REC709 and then graded this would be display referred - I skipped that step. However grading with no colour management at all (as in this episode) is still Display referred grading as I demonstrate here. Grading UNDER a display CST, colour management or LUT is Scene referred as I demonstrate correctly here. Apologies for any confusion. Nothing I show in the video is incorrect technique. There is a balance in making beginners guides as to 'how deep to go' in explain something and I appreciate that its very hard to please everyone's level of understanding.. This is why I always clearly label my BEGINNERS episodes.
This is from the DaVinci Resolve MANUAL...
The default DaVinci YRGB color science setting, which is what DaVinci Resolve has always used, relies on what is called “Display Referred” color management. This means that Resolve has no information about how the source media used in the Timeline is supposed to look; you can only setup and judge color accuracy via the calibrated broadcast display you’re outputting to. Essentially, you are the color management, in conjunction with a trustworthy broadcast display that’s been calibrated to ensure accuracy.
This is how I correctly demonstrated in this episode.

[BigFlavorFilms]

Best explanation of ACES & RCM used in Resolve on the planet. Full stop. Bravo!

[heymiranda]

Perfect timing for this video as i am now trying to deepen my knowledge and understanding of various standards (eventually want to get into commercial and movie/feature work).

But what I really came here to say is thank you. Because of you and a couple of others on youtube, I have been able to start a business in this career space and have my first 2 continual clients. This has given me an opportunity to get out of poverty while still managing my disabilities. Literally saving my life giving out information like this and i absolutely cannot wait to take your masterclass in the future. Thank you so much.

[andymcquade]

This was brilliant, Darren. The penny's finally dropped with CSTs here :) I've watched all your previous episodes too....I've no excuses other than an uncompliant small brain. That only took *cough* 12 months.

Thank you, sir. I cannot wait for your next masterclass!

[eddieblanquiz]

Very helpful video! I would love to see a in depth video dedicated to setting up your project color management settings. The various ways and why you would use one over another.

[tsedatcan]

Every video I watch, I learn more and more... And my brain hurts more as well, but in a good way obviously :)

[Longdancer]

Can't believe how much info you cram into such a short space of time!

All coherent, and all informative. Amazing.

Thanks for this. 👍

[ObilloFitz]

Like a putting a face (practical) to a voice (theory) you've been hearing for ages
This is a priceless primer to the world of ACES
Much thanks!

[ChiJee]

I feel less hesitant now to give ACES a try after watching the entire video. Hmm I'll give it a try on an old project to get comfortable with it first!

Amazing episode. Thank you so much for the beautifully explained overview, especially about ACES. Really appreciate it!☺

[chakk]

But what about shifts after exports? I never get what i made in davinci except i set everything to rec709A. It would be so amazing if you could to a video about that topic - specially for us Mac users 🙌

[bruxy]

Great overview Darren. I see you use macOS. Can you please shed some light on tackling the color space on Mac? The videos I found use Display grading, I think they set Timeline color space to Reg 709-A. But I'd like to work in Color Managed workflow with DaVinci WG/Intermediate.
Shall I just set Output color space to Reg 709-A? I did not see you doing anything like that.
I did set Use Mac display color profiles for viewers and Automatically tag Reg 709 clips as Reg 709-A - is that it? Do I need to set the tags on the export settings? Thanks so much!

[davidhany]

i can't be thankful enough, awesome job, preparation effort shows in every part, thank you Darren it's fantastic

[movie-trailer]

A great solution with the ACES color space. But, I'm still working in the DWG space However, ACES has a number of advantages when working with both a large dynamic range of colors and compatibility with other production facilities. I consider ACES to be the future, as it accurately interprets color with greater coverage and greater compatibility

[SoftNoxMedia]

Haha, you saying "logarithmic." Was a major break through for me in understanding a little bit more about t he math of color!

[djvphotography]

Exactly what I expected, another great explanation of a color grading topic so I can understand it the first time I hear it instead of having to work hard to just try to make sense of what the presenter is saying. Keep up the great work, Darren.

[Yousef-Almhimid]

I wish I could give a thousand likes. Thank you for sharing your vast expertise with us

[maximilianyuen]

2:00 this is what i love about Darren. showing us how to do without all those hardware, really understanding what noob need to learn. cheers

[nashhall]

I’ve just created my Aces workflow node tree now & along with your DWG workflow node tree, I’ve got a choice now without having to change my project settings. Thankyou Darren, great tutorial! 👍😝👌🙌

[AxmihaMeuSaco]

Fantastic. A comment on color management in general. I'm a complete amateur (actually a musician) and started messing with image - CGI, After Effects, editing etc - until I learned DaVinci Resolve and did some experiments with color correcting, grading etc. Someone I was doing the music for liked what I did and asked me to work as the colorist for a job. (What??) It was all non-commercial stuff, so I said yes and the first thing I asked myself when I got the footage (all log) was "what do I do with this" - meaning BEFORE starting to grade or correct. No one knew. I asked some friends who work professionally (VFX, colorists etc) and none could even understand my problem. They just start correcting it (display referred grading?). Only after watching your video about color management, I understood the problem. So, strangely, even professional people (here in Brazil at least) don't seem to understand what color space is. They just learn the process without really understanding it, which can be confirmed by looking at some series and ads here, where you can see the look jumping all over the place. There used to be even a "style" here called "francesinha" - little french - which is a greenish log look, if you can believe that. An error turned into a style. So, thank you so much for explaining so well what should be obvious, ha ha. Cheers.

[grboydk]

Thank you Darren for these excellent videos. I'm watching from a purely hobbyist/recreational perspective, but your teaching and presentation skills are outstanding. Your content makes me spend my spare time productively rather than getting lost in random content. Keep up the great work!