Revisiting Glow Effects With New DaVinci Resolve 20 Updates

November 6, 2025

Explore Resolve 20.2's new Secondary Glow, Atmosphere controls, and AI Cinematic Haze. Can these updates rival paid Glow and Haze plugins?


Series

Can Resolve’s New Lighting Effects Finally Rival Third-Party Plugins?

If you’ve watched my previous Mastering Glow Insights, you already know how much I love using glow and lighting effects to elevate a grade, taking an image from a solid 8.5 to a jaw-dropping 11. These effects are powerful tools for drawing attention to key elements, such as talent, products, or environmental highlights, and adding a touch of magic that’s often impossible to achieve with primary controls alone.

That said, I’ve always felt that the glow tools in Resolve were a bit limited—until now. In the latest release of DaVinci Resolve 20.2, Blackmagic has expanded the creative potential of its lighting tools with new features like Secondary Glow, Atmosphere, and the all-new Cinematic Haze effect.

In this Insight, I dive deep into these new additions to see if they truly deliver the control and refinement colorists have been asking for, or if Resolve’s glow toolkit still lags behind the competition.

“You can integrate Glows into your grades really well, much better than you could previously… [with] additional controls for the main Glow… a secondary Glow… [and] the Atmosphere functionality.”

Jason Bowdach, Colorist & Finisher
The Depth Map preview from the Cinematic Haze Resolve FX introduced in DaVinci Resolve 20.2.
The Depth Map preview from the Cinematic Haze Resolve FX introduced in DaVinci Resolve 20.2.

Key Takeaways

By the end of this Insight, you’ll understand:

  • How to better control the Glow effect, including the new secondary glow and atmosphere controls.
  • The Atmosphere control is identical in each lighting effect—it’s simply offered as a built-in option, so you don’t need to apply another effect, and it adds depth to the glow or rays.
  • Like all previous lessons on glow, take the glow or rays a bit too far and then reduce to taste using Global Blend or Key Output (it’s way easier to adjust when it’s more intense, but for the final effect, less is more).

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