Baselight For Avid – Colorist Crash Course

Thanks, Dan, really helpful stuff. I think the only thing that you didn’t mention was something that caught me out at first. When keying you should choose the source layer for a keyer from the Reference button. I found I was pulling keys from Layer 0 by default, and like you I prefer to do my log – rec.709 conversion in layer 2, so my keys were tricker than they should be. I think it’s great that you can pull keys from different layers and Baselight assumes you’ll do log conversion in Layer 0, so it’s easy to forget to check.

The Baselight tutorials on their website are good and cover how the features work so I’d recommend anyone go through those too, but they’re a little general so it’s really useful to hear how you would approach a grade yourself. I’ve loved learning Baselight this week and I’m finally getting to grips with the curves… I feel it’s pulling me away from Resolve!

Great advice Paul. I totally forgot to mention that and will make sure to cover that in a future insight. I’m going to cover each area in much more detail from the ground up over the next few weeks. I’m definitely enjoying my baselight adventures so far. I’m still a Resolve man at heart but the change is refreshing!

Sorry for the silly question Dan, but I’m not used to Avid nor Baselight. So what means Baselight for Avid? Is it a color correction plugin aimed to color correct in Avid? Or a standalone app? Thanks for your help. By the way, it is great to see you spread your horizons above Resolve. 😉

Great question Christophe! I should have included a little more information on the background of both softwares. I am guilty of being in the industry far to long and not explaining things as I don’t think about them in the correct way. Watch this space for more information 🙂