Blackmagicdesign URSA - DaVinci Resolve Workflow; Using Scopes for Color Grading

Using Scopes
Most colorists make creative color choices by focusing on the emotion and the look they want
their program to have and then simply work using the monitor to achieve that look. You can look
at everyday objects and how different types of light interact with them to generate ideas on
what you can do with your images and a little practice.
The parade scope helps you optimize highlights, mid tones and shadows.
The ‘lift, ‘gamma’, ‘gain’ and ‘offset’ color wheels give youtotal control over the
color and tonal balance of your clips. To make auniform adjustment to all colors for
each tonal region, drag thedial underneath the color wheels back and forth.
Another way to color grade is to use the built in scopes to help you balance shots. You can
open a single video scope by clicking the ‘scope’ button, which is the second from the right on
the palette toolbar. You can choose to display a waveform, parade, vectorscope and histogram.
Using these scopes you can monitor your tonal balance, check the levels of your video to avoid
crushing your blacks and clipping the highlights, plus monitor any color cast in your clips.
The ‘color wheels’ palette contains the ‘lift’, ‘gamma’ and ‘gain’ controls which will generally
constitute your first adjustment. These should resemble controls you’ve seen in other
applications for doing color and contrast adjustments. For more accurate control of each
colorusing a mouse, you can change the color wheels to ‘primaries bars’ which let you adjust
each color and luminance channel for the lift, gamma and gain controls separately. Simply
select ‘primaries bars’ from the drop down menu near the top right of the color wheels.
1 Adjusting the ‘lift’
With your first clip selected on the color timeline, click on the ‘lift’ dial underneath the
first color wheel. Slide it back and forth and watch how it affects your image. You’ll see
the brightness of the dark regions of your picture increase and decrease. Set it to
where you want the dark areas to look their best. If you decrease the lift too much,
you’ll lose details in the blacks and you can use the parade scope to help avoid this.
The optimal position for blacks on the waveform is just above the bottom line of the
parade scope.
60Using DaVinci Resolve