Hello to everybody,

I prepared a video for sharing how I recovered some clips taken with the Mini 4 Pro in a nice location with a bad weather. Everything can be done with DaVinci Resolve, a free software.



I hope you can enjoy it !

That is a nice presentation of the before and after.  Can you share your settings or workflow?  Are you using the free version or studio?  Thanks!

Nice save. Did you use a LUT or color grade, or both. I’m a Final Cut Pro user but DaVinci Resolve is the same just a different name.

Thats a nice touch of colour grading.

smbishop Posted at 1-10 10:30
That is a nice presentation of the before and after.  Can you share your settings or workflow?  Are you using the free version or studio?  Thanks!

I did everything with the free version. Concerning the workflow, here following some details:
the clips are in HLG format and the same for the final output. The timeline color space is Rec.2100 HLG. I'm working on a MacBook Air M1, with 8GB memory. For monitoring the color correction activities and simulating with a reasonable approximation the appearance on the MacBook monitor, I created a LUT that converts from HLG to Rec.709A by tone mapping. This LUT does not have any effect on the workflow, it is used for monitoring purposes only and it allows to run all the activities in a HLG color space.

All the corrections has been performed in the Color page, chaining sequences of nodes:

Color grading: I performed some basic color grading (saturation, temperature, exposure of Highlights, Lights and Shadows) using the HDR palette.

Crane removal: I defined a mask (with a Power Window) surrounding the crane and I tracked it for the movement. Then I replaced the inside with a Color Generator effect, matching the gray sky. Even if there are some differences and the edges of the masked areas are sharp,, everything is fixed by the following step.

Sky replacement: I masked the sky combining a 3D HSL qualifier with a moving mask. Then I used the Sky Replacement effect, generating an artificial sky with clouds. In some cases, the artificial sky needs to be animated to follow the foreground.

2sticks Posted at 1-10 16:27
Nice save. Did you use a LUT or color grade, or both. I’m a Final Cut Pro user but DaVinci Resolve is the same just a different name.

LUTs and color grading are not enough to deliver that result. Please see the detailed explanation of the workflow in the previous post.
By the way, I'm been using Final Cut Pro since years and just recently I started with DaVinci Resolve. It required a huge investment of time, but I discovered a new world. Please believe me, they're not the same thing ! DaVinci Resolve provides much more tools, also in the free version. I would not be able to run this correction with Final Cut Pro, just because the Sky Replacement effect is not available at all. For FCP there are some plugin available, but you've to pay even more $$$.
The real advantage of FCP is that it's user friendly and you can implement the simplest workflows with less effort.

FabioV Posted at 1-11 00:43
I did everything with the free version. Concerning the workflow, here following some details:
the clips are in HLG format and the same for the final output. The timeline color space is Rec.2100 HLG. I'm working on a MacBook Air M1, with 8GB memory. For monitoring the color correction activities and simulating with a reasonable approximation the appearance on the MacBook monitor, I created a LUT that converts from HLG to Rec.709A by tone mapping. This LUT does not have any effect on the workflow, it is used for monitoring purposes only and it allows to run all the activities in a HLG color space.

Nice work Fabio

  

I am not experienced like you are, I want to learn, so will you be so kind to tell your setup, ofcourse if you have time and will, for the next:

  

Project settings:

  

   Color Management

  

        Color science: ?

  

        Timeline color space: Rec.2100 HLG

  

        Output color space: ? (suppose it is Rec.2100 HLG)

  

Thanks in advance

paki1955 Posted at 1-11 11:19
Nice work Fabio  I am not experienced like you are, I want to learn, so will you be so kind to tell your setup, ofcourse if you have time and will, for the next:  Project settings:     Color Management          Color science: ?          Timeline color space: Rec.2100 HLG          Output color space: ? (suppose it is Rec.2100 HLG)  Thanks in advance

I'm not experienced, I started with DaVinci Resolve just one month ago. But I invested time in learning: the manual is very detailed and I've read many sections; on YT there are a lot of tutorials.

Coming back to your question about the color management setup:

Color science is the default DaVinci
Timeline Color space Rec.2100 HLG
Output Color Space: Rec.709A

When working with a Mac, after setting "use Mac display color profiles" in the preferences, the Output Color Space options determines how the video is displayed in the timeline viewer. I created a LUT that transforms the color space from HLG to Rec.709A and I'm using it in the Video Monitor Lookup Table Setting.
In that way, DaVinci Resolve shows in the viewers the HLG video in a reasonable good way, tone mapped to Rec.709A. But no color space transformations occurs between the source and the final deliverable.
In fact, at the end of the activities, when creating the final deliverable, its color space and gamma tags must be set to Rec.2020 and Rec.2100 HLG.  

I'd want to record a YT tutorial for explaining how to manage HLG videos, but I'm too lazy ...   

FabioV Posted at 1-12 00:38
I'm not experienced, I started with DaVinci Resolve just one month ago. But I invested time in learning: the manual is very detailed and I've read many sections; on YT there are a lot of tutorials.

Coming back to your question about the color management setup:

Hi Fabio
Thank you very much, very usefull
In fact, at the end of the activities, when creating the final deliverable, its color space and gamma tags must be set to Rec.2020 and Rec.2100 HLG.
does it mean:
Color Management
   Color Space&Transforms
        Color science
        Use separate color space and gamma "checked"
Regards

paki1955 Posted at 1-12 06:05
Hi Fabio
Thank you very much, very usefull
In fact, at the end of the activities, when creating the final deliverable, its color space and gamma tags must be set to Rec.2020 and Rec.2100 HLG.

No, I don't change the project settings when exporting the final deliverable. I usually just put the right Color Space Tag and Gamma Tag  information in the Advanced tab of the export page.

FabioV Posted at 1-12 06:52
No, I don't change the project settings when exporting the final deliverable. I usually just put the right Color Space Tag and Gamma Tag  information in the Advanced tab of the export page.

Hi Fabio
Thank you very much
Regards

Excellent way of showcasing the color grades, you have learnt the software quite well & your HDR grading shows quite well with Mini 4 pro.
Does the free version allows you to edit 10bit HLG footage & replace sky? I thought these features were only part of Resolve Studio.

FabioV Posted at 1-12 00:38
I'm not experienced, I started with DaVinci Resolve just one month ago. But I invested time in learning: the manual is very detailed and I've read many sections; on YT there are a lot of tutorials.

Coming back to your question about the color management setup:

Hi FabioV
as per my understanding on M1 macbook pro if you check "use Mac display color profiles" the viewer in Resolve would show the HDR correctly (without over blown highlights), isn't that the case?

Can you please share the LUT you created for Video Monitoring?
While you use the custom lut, will the scope output not get effected based on the LUT, if yes then how are you monitoring your highlights correctly.

Here is one of your video where the snow is perfectly captured & rendered in HDR without over blown highlights.

Ranjan Posted at 1-13 05:22
Excellent way of showcasing the color grades, you have learnt the software quite well & your HDR grading shows quite well with Mini 4 pro.
Does the free version allows you to edit 10bit HLG footage & replace sky? I thought these features were only part of Resolve Studio.

In the Mac version they should be available in the free version.

Ranjan Posted at 1-13 05:29
Hi FabioV
as per my understanding on M1 macbook pro if you check "use Mac display color profiles" the viewer in Resolve would show the HDR correctly (without over blown highlights), isn't that the case?

On my MacBook Air the HLG output is not properly viewed in Davinci Resolve, even if I set "use Mac display color profiles" (in Final Cut Pro everything works out of the box ...). For that reason I created my custom LUT. The advantage of this LUT is that it works only for the viewers, it has no impact on the output nor in the scopes, allowing for a fine adjustment of the highlights. You can easily create one by yourself: you start defining a project (timeline HLG and output rec.709A) with a single HLG clip (nice and colorful), then you add a color correction node for transforming the colorspace from Rec.2100 HLG to Rec.709A (tone mapping method: saturation preserving). At this point, you can add one more node for fine-tuning exposure,  saturation and level. You can compare the output in the viewer with the original clip in QuickTime. When you obtain a good result, you can export the LUT and use it. This is not perfect, of course; a perfect grading can be done only with a professional equipment that includes a calibrated monitor. But it helps a lot and it's enough for my purposes. As you can see, the HDR videos in my channel are quite decent in terms of exposure and dynamic range.

FabioV Posted at 1-14 03:18
On my MacBook Air the HLG output is not properly viewed in Davinci Resolve, even if I set "use Mac display color profiles" (in Final Cut Pro everything works out of the box ...). For that reason I created my custom LUT. The advantage of this LUT is that it works only for the viewers, it has no impact on the output nor in the scopes, allowing for a fine adjustment of the highlights. You can easily create one by yourself: you start defining a project (timeline HLG and output rec.709A) with a single HLG clip (nice and colorful), then you add a color correction node for transforming the colorspace from Rec.2100 HLG to Rec.709A (tone mapping method: saturation preserving). At this point, you can add one more node for fine-tuning exposure,  saturation and level. You can compare the output in the viewer with the original clip in QuickTime. When you obtain a good result, you can export the LUT and use it. This is not perfect, of course; a perfect grading can be done only with a professional equipment that includes a calibrated monitor. But it helps a lot and it's enough for my purposes. As you can see, the HDR videos in my channel are quite decent in terms of exposure and dynamic range.

Thanks FabioV,
I tried everything you said but cant get the preview correct from generated LUT .
Kindly post screenshots of your project settings & color space transform settings, that might help me.

What I understand is that CST node is sending the preview to viewer in Rec 709A, till here all is well, but after this when LUT is generated & then used in original HLG project the preview is not more the same & scopes also change which is what I originally mentioned that scopes will change.

Ranjan Posted at 1-23 07:31
Thanks FabioV,
I tried everything you said but cant get the preview correct from generated LUT .
Kindly post screenshots of your project settings & color space transform settings, that might help me.

After generating the LUT you don’t need a CST node anymore in your projects. And the scopes are not affected at all by the LUT, if you it as “video monitoring LUT”. The settings of my projects are described at the beginning of the thread.

Nicely done!