How To Make Resolve’s ‘Color Match’ Easier with the ‘Brightness First’ Rule

Day 25: 25 Insights in 25 Days Holiday Marathon

Why the ‘Brightness First’ Rule Makes DaVinci Resolve’s Color Match Easier

In Part 1 we examined what DaVinci Resolve’s ‘Color Match’ feature is trying to do with test charts.

We also took a guess at what seems to be the problem many users are experiencing when it fails them.

I made the observation that we’re asking ‘Color Match’ to also match exposure… and that’s likely where the workflow is tripping up.

Un-tripping ourselves with the ‘Brightness First’ Rule

In this Insight, I’m going to put my theory to the test.

We are going to do an overall luminance adjustment to get our two test shots to line up on the Waveform Monitor. We’ll also fix overall color balance problems as revealed in the OneShot’s black/gray/white chips.

THEN we’ll see if we get a closer match. But remember…

The goal is a Color Match, not a perfect match

The key here is: We’re looking for a workflow that allows two different cameras to match each other… not get a perfect match from the same exact camera with two different recording profiles.

At the end of this Insight you’ll notice there’s slight differences in saturation. But if these were two cameras from two different angles? A slight saturation adjustment in the shadows on one camera and we’d be good to go!

Try this workflow and let me know how it goes?

As I say in this Insight… color charts are not something I get very often. But if you’re a DP or do a lot of dailies work, you may find this workflow takes a ton of frustration out of matching cameras… especially if you shot test charts for the specific purpose of getting Resolve’s ‘Color Match’ feature to do the heavy lifting.

Please use the comments to let me know if this workflow is working for you! Or if you have any refinements you find to increase the reliability of this workflow.

I’m calling this Insight Series a work-in-progress... for now, at least.

– pat