Secondary Corrections in DaVinci Resolve

Secondary Corrections are a huge part of how we grade. The term ‘Secondary Corrections’ is any kind of color correction that’s done to an isolated part of the image. You can create those isolations in several ways: Creating masks with shapes, pulling keys based on Hue, Saturation or Luminance (or any combination of those three elements).

I noticed recently that I had subliminally been using rules for how I perform my secondary corrections so I thought it would be informative to share my approach and explain why I select each secondary in the way I do.

This Insight assumes that you know the basics of pulling a key and using Power Windows. It is focused on getting the best possible results with the least amount of unnecessary work and also to make sure you get 100% of your footage.

I have to say that this is not a bible on the ultimate way to get the best secondary corrections but what works for me, quickly. I’m very interested to see how my techniques and approach compares to how you all do it!

– Dan