Learn to PRO Color MATCH Shots in 15 mins!

Having trouble grading and balancing scenes? It is the hardest part of color grading. I’m a UK based broadcast colorist for nearly 20 years - I've graded for BBC, Amazon, ITV, C4 amongst many. In this episode I'm going to show you how I balance a scene using this music video from Beard Meets Food - full nodes and methods revealed. I am a Professional Broadcast Colourist with 13 years on DaVinci Resolve and 28 years in post production.
Thanks to Josh Gudgeon @JoshGudgeon Beard meets Food @Beardmeatsfood and Sister Beard for this one.
BTS from Josh's YouTube Channel

✅Watch 'I Got Cheesecake' here

✅Watch my Resolve Vs Dehancer Episode here

✅Watch How I Grade a Commercial here

✅Watch my CST Anxiety Episode here

00:00 INTRO
00:50 Understanding and developing the look
01:45 Color Management and fixed node tree
04:38 Grading the First Shot
08:16 Balancing the scene and how to grade more than one shot
11:59 Working with Groups in Resolve
13:10 Ripple changes in Resolve

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#colorist #beardmeetsfood #davinicresolvetutorial

[ChaseFraser]

One of the best teachers Ive found on youtube for Resolve grading. Thank you for your work!

[trizzleseven]

"Ripple node changes to current group" just changed my life. Never knew, that this existed! Thank you!

[jamied]

If someone could only watch one tutorial on colour grading, this is it!
Grading isn't just about getting a single frame to look good, it's about getting the whole show matching and looking good. Perfect!

[vinceconstantine]

Darren, you never fail to bring quality content! Actually the best channel on grading out there

[RDRvideoprod]

These little tips (ripple node changes to current group, different modes for watching split views) while talking about your topic is really helpful! Thanks for sharing these!

[tconnollymusic]

This is incredible. As a grading novice, this - and all your other videos - changes everything. THANK YOU.

[makemusicwithalan]

FINALLY

I remember asking for shot matching tutorial on every other community post
Thank you sir

[airbeoneairbeone]

an other very instructive tutorial.
While you perform on balancing, I'm discovering new tips and technics from a pro-colorist,
the way to organise NODES, their hierarchies, no fear for CST, all is clear now for the two CST (to DWG, to Rec 709) within the main nodes's architecture...
thank you so much for efforts you've put into tutorials, very helpfull.
All of a sudden you've become my main source of learning DaVinci Resolve,
great teacher

[WhateverDrippy]

Life saver you truly are, I've been playing around with some old footage and it's like every tutorial you make is the one I need at the time.

[mathieuclavier]

Definitly the most efficient person on earth to teach something... Can't wait for part 2, thanks again !

[michaelwekall]

This is an incredible tutorial. The grouping feature is absolutely essential for my workflow and you explained it perfectly. Cannot wait for this series to continue!

[wano]

The complexity towards the end was actually mind blowing.. I keep procrastinating grading my footage because I feel I need to understand more, but I think I better get on now.. this has been a big help, the most important bits are the explanations of the individual tools themselves, I come from photography LR/PS working with raw, this workflow albeit accomplishing the same things is very different and not easy to grasp in the beginning.. the qualifier referencing was some great content.

[-PiP-]

As a pro non-colorist, that was the perfect clip to choose how to balance and blend the skin tones between two contrasting scenes 👏😀

[REDEpicGuy]

Dude you rock. Best out there in terms of teaching color work in DR. Blow everyone out of the water. Love how humble you are too. Keep killing it

[movie-trailer]

Super technique of applying color correction / grading to the whole group at once. Excellent solution

[Longdancer]

Thanks Darren. As ever....great stuff.

Have a great 2023

[JimRobinson-colors]

Really good subject to cover.
Shot matching is the thing that is left out of most tutorials - yet colorists need to have good grasp on this.
I know I've given you some needling in the past on "not labeling" the nodes. I still really think that for tutorials, people who are new users, that labeling helps them follow the tutorial better. What and how people do in that matter to their own workflow is up to them.

The zooming in with the side by sides - I tend to go a lot further and take out everything but the face to analyze skin or blouse/shirt hues.

Just a few points in exposure and hero choices.
I have been on a bit of rant lately about getting the intention of the photography.
You, of course have been doing this for a long time and probably have good eye for it and do it naturally.
But talking to DPs and Grips, and such I have been researching what they do and which hero shot best represents their intentions.

First being exposure. Depending on the actual DP - if they expose one stop over - it's a good idea to set the exposure accordingly - so knowing what it is shot with, ( the log) and then setting the middle grey, gets you, at minimum, to what they were seeing on set.
Using DWG though means that middle grey should be around .336.

The other thing is the choice of the wide, mid, close takes. Almost every DP I have talked to, have said that the closer they can get the lighting, the more accurate the footage is.
The long shot ( wide ) that usually comes in the edit for an establishing shot, the lighting is pulled back to accommodate not being in the frame. They tend to rely on the fact that you are at a distance, and less scrutiny is put on the frame, as compared to a close-up.
There is a point also ( not so much in this particular scene ) but people should sus out the direction and strength of the light source as part of the shot match.
If that girl had a bright window on one side of her face and then the matching clip was from an angle that is from the dark side - the exposure is a lot trickier and wouldn't necessarily match on the scopes. That's where your experience kicks in, and you don't completely use the scopes, but make them naturally fall into the same world through the grading.

Sorry for the long comment - I love this kind of stuff, keep em coming Darren.

[SamButtram]

Thank you for being a real person that truly wants to share your knowledge in a way that is helpful.

[normanlang]

Genius. All stuff that makes sense once you get the flow. You provide the flow.

[marklholloway]

So glad you put Masterclass in the title. That’s exactly what this is! Thank you for sharing your knowledge ❤