Pro Colorist explains HDR tools in DaVinci Resolve

if you've spent a little bit of time in DaVinci resolve's color page you've probably been exposed to both the primaries palette where our lift and our gamma and our gain and our offset and all that stuff live as well as the HDR zones palette and at first glance these two pallets these two tool sets seem pretty similar don't they we have the same sort of trackball icons in both cases we seem to have the ability to control the tonality and the color in different zones of our image by moving things around so the question sort of naturally comes up like okay which one is better how do I know when to use which how do I know when I might want to avoid using one over the other that's what I want to talk about today I want to talk about the real difference between these two tool sets and when you want to use which when you might want to avoid using one or the other before we dive into resolve if you haven't had a chance to subscribe yet make sure you do so we've got two new videos a week coming out every week here on YouTube we have a live q a session that we do every Friday morning grade school tool where we talk about what we've been exploring in that week's videos so lots of great stuff on color grading and color grading inside of DaVinci Resolve and if you're looking to grow in this area this channel is where you want to be let's dive into resolve and talk about the HDR zones versus the primaries palette so let's start by talking about a principle that really points to my book the color is Ten Commandments one of the quote unquote Commandments one of the chapters in that book is entitled Simplicity beats complexity and if you want to save yourself the read it's not a long read but if you want to get it in like a sentence the Simplicity versus complexity chapter simply says that if you can get something done with a simple tool you shouldn't use a more complex tool to get it done that makes sense right the simpler your tool the more effectively the more quickly the more efficiently you're going to be able to use it so here's the tldr here's the simple rule of thumb if you don't take away anything else from this video but this if you're trying to decide between the HDR zones palette and the primaries palette the primaries win by default if you can get it done with the primaries get it done with the primaries you're going to be more effective you're going to be more efficient it's when you want to do something you can't do in the primaries that the HDR zones palette become an interesting option to consider okay that's principle number one now let's talk about some of the differences in application in practice between these two tool sets let's take a look at this image here and I'll just point out before we dive in that I am working as I always do in a color managed environment if you're not sure what that means or if you need to brush up on color management I encourage you to check out lots of the great content that we have here on the channel on that subject but for today I'm just going to mention that I'm working color managed and I'll also point out that I have my template node graph in place like I always do and I'm going to start working my way through this template node graph and grade up this image to my taste to my preference I'm going to start here in my exposure node and go to my offset I actually really like where my exposure is sitting I'm going to open up maybe just slightly but other than that I think I'm good here it's really this ratio node where I need to put in some more work my issue here the next thing that I'm seeing what I want to work on is the fact that my highlights and my sort of overall exposure out this window are rather hot compared to my subject right I want to bring those things in they're a little bit distracting they're kind of pulling my eye away from the subject so one way that I could do that would be to go to my gain wheel here within my primaries and pull things down and you can see that as I do so cool that's working we're definitely pulling in things out there in the background right all good to go right huh not so much we're moving our subject's exposure a lot when we do that right we really need something a bit more focused than the very broad adjustment that we get with a gain uh wheel right so something that we might try here within our primaries we could go to our highlights maybe pull things in there that's a more localized adjustment isn't it that's having less effect on my subject but by the time I get down to the exposure level that I'm looking for for the area out that window I'm still having quite an effect on her aren't I and there might be a way to sort of blend my adjustments together and work my highlights against say my Gamma or my lift or my offset to get a good fit and that's actually a great strategy that's something that I encourage however for today let's say for the sake of argument we're looking for a knob we're looking for a single knob that we can turn that's going to bring that down and leave our subject alone okay that's not a crazy idea that's not a crazy thing to want to do that's the kind of idea that might lead us to swing over into the HDR zones palette and give things a try over there so let's go over to the HDR zones palette and get sort of oriented to the way that this palette works so if we compare the HDR zones to our primaries our primaries are essentially slicing up our image into three zones bottom end middle and high end with lots and lots of overlap between those two that overlap is good it makes for broader smoother adjustments but there is lots of interaction as we saw when we were trying to pull our highlights in just now that was having a huge effect on our mid-tones as well when we made that gain adjustment here in the HDR zones palette we are able to make narrower more precise manipulations because instead of having three zones effectively we have eight we have our Dark Shadow light or rather we have our black dark shadow and then we have light and then we've got highlight and then we go all the way up to specular ah I take it back I can't count apparently I should stick to being a colorist and avoid the math we have six zones total here so we have double the amount of uh Focus that we are able to uh apply in our primaries all right so what that means is if we look at an agenda like the one we have here where we want to pull in our background I'm just going to go ahead and reset this node back to where it started and what I can do is find the appropriate Zone in this case that appropriate zone is going to be my Highlight Zone and I can pull in my exposure and remember I said a moment ago I'm looking for a knob well there it is that works doesn't it that's making a very targeted adjustment to that area and it is barely touching my subject if it's touching her at all so check there we're getting that narrower adjustment we're getting that single knob that's doing what we want but take a look at what you're seeing here anybody if you ever like this is a an odd analogy but like I used to love to drink Coca-Cola I don't drink Coca-Cola anymore I try to take better care of myself but when I first was trying to kick Coca-Cola I would go oh maybe I'll drink a Coke Zero and you start to drink it and at first it tastes just like the real thing but then that aftertaste kicks in you're like that's not the real thing that's not that where's the sugar I'm looking for the sugar right that's kind of how I feel about what we just did like yeah that's doing a thing but as you start to sit with it for a minute you're like yeah but it looks weird feels odd doesn't it now I'm not saying that to dog on the HDR zones palette I'm simply pointing out that when you start to make narrower more sharp adjustments to your image it's easy to get results like this in fact it's sort of unavoidable when you start doing these things more aggressively that you're going to get a result like this but there are some mechanisms within the HDR zones palette that are going to allow us to mitigate this somewhat so if we wanted to we could pop our zones window out here to the right I'm going to turn off my scopes for a moment so you can see what I'm working on and you can see these zones and what what light versus highlight versus specular means we can actually customize these and that's pretty cool so let's go over here to our Highlight Zone where we've been working and what I want to do is change around my Pivot for that zone that's what it's called in the HDR zones palette so I'm doing that here on my control surface but you can also just do it by sliding this Zone and you can see that more or less of that background is being included when I sweep this to the left or to the right and I can get a more naturalistic reproduction by making this Zone a bit larger like so so that's starting to feel pretty reasonable but interestingly you can see there's sort of an edge where now I'm beginning to affect my subject again so it's getting more organic feeling but it's also getting broader in nature that's a telling truth that we are observing right there the broader our adjustments are the more naturalistic they feel but sometimes we want to do something narrower so it's all about kind of striking a balance there so I've opened up that zone a little bit but it's still not necessarily the most organic result that we could get so that's either a question of using a broader tool or maybe just just not hitting this adjustment so hard so I'm going to go back and maybe just pull in my exposure a little bit like so okay so that's a great example of the difference in approach that we might take to a problem using our primaries versus using the HDR zones and some of the pros and cons on both sides as well as some of the unique features that we have within the HDR zones that that of course we don't have within our primaries I can't designate what my zone for high end is in the primaries that just is what it is but here in the HDR zones you can actually move around and change your zones you can even change your falloff which is how gradually you are Feathering in and out of that zone is here within the palette so it's a really interesting tool with a lot to offer when you are using it in the right setting and not overplaying your hand and getting the kind of inorganic results that we're looking at right here and the other thing that I'll point out in terms of sort of like laying out the pros and cons of both of these tools is the amount of time that we have spent today talking about the HDR zones palette even just the amount of time that I've spent on trying to finesse this adjustment within the HDR zones palette the average shot that I grade as a colorist in my professional practice I do not have that much time I I need to be grading I need to be spending an average of about 20 seconds per shot in a given pass it's a little bit more if we're doing a commercial but generally speaking I need to be moving at a rate of about 20 seconds per shot in order to grade all the shots that I need to for a particular job okay so that's the last thing that I'll point out about like well when should we use which of these versus the other the HDR zones palette that's like that's like dessert that's like a a special thing you can break out when you really need it but you can have it all day every day it just doesn't work you need to break it out when your primaries won't do when a simpler approach won't work and you really need to make a narrower more targeted adjustment as we're seeing here so I hope that gives you a general sense of the key differences that I see between the primaries and the HDR zones palette and some of the different results that we can achieve by tackling each of these pallets to accomplish our goals and I am just going to point out that if we do go all the way back to the good old primaries and we do a simple combination of bringing in our highlights and I'm just going to keep going until I've got them where I want not worry about the fact that my subject's moving a little bit and then going to my gamma and opening things up a little bit here I'm basically going to play my highlights and my gamma against each other I'm having to compromise in a sense right I'm not getting to have that razor-sharp control and focus that I had in the HDR zones palette but where I've netted out is with exactly what I wanted in the first place which is a healthy exposure on my subject and a less distracting background so oftentimes blending between overlapping adjustments is exactly what we want when we're color grading rather than one single discrete knob that does a thing that at first taste tastes just like Coca-Cola but after you sit with it for a minute it's uh more like a like a Coke Zero so I hope that helps you guys hope that gives you something to think about when you are considering which tools you want to use in your color grading practice if you enjoyed this content if you enjoy learning more about color grading and working inside of DaVinci Resolve make sure you subscribe make sure you turn in your notifications looking forward to seeing you here in the next recorded video and of course in our live sessions that we do on Friday mornings grade school we always have a blast hope to see you there as well

Channel: Cullen Kelly

Views: 15,332

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Id: -ALuCzjNjwQ

Length: 12min 18sec (738 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 31 2023