So I did a little experiment here on my Website and I fooled all of you you yeah you and you in the back there all of you sorry not sorry because I did it for a good reason that I will reveal in this video so let's talk about the secret to cinematic color grading and I will also show you some simple techniques and adjustments in Davinci resolve 17 that I use myself when I'm color grading cinematically okay so here's what I did a few weeks ago i made a video in which I showed you different cinematic color grades different clips now let's not talk about what makes a color grade cinematic or not because you know it's super subjective and it's pretty much an endless discussion so let's not get into that but anyway at the end of that video I asked you what your favorite grade was your favorite clip my favorite clip was this one is from a video I shot on a misty morning but a lot of you also like this one a commercial i shot here in the attic and this one was also super
Popular this is a clip from a solo b-roll that i
shot the thing is of all the clips that I showed there wasn't one that didn't get at At least one comment of someone liking it but here's the plot twist they were all the same color grade I used exactly the same lut for all those clips and then of course I tweaked some simple things that I don't really consider color grading like you know tweaking the white balance a little bit now why did I fool all of you so shamelessly besides the fact that it was super fun well I just wanted to show you again how important light is the same color grade applied to different lighting conditions will look completely different it's really amazing sometimes so if you have a specific look in mind a specific color grade well then it starts with light and even if you're not a color grading expert you have to realize that you can do a lot with just light now the problem that we small solo filmmakers have is that especially when we're shooting outside we have to rely on available light and that makes things a bit more complicated sometimes a bit more difficult and that's what i Wanted to show you as a small solo filmmaker if
you want a nice cinematic look for your commercial or your short film whether it starts with light you have to pay attention to light first, in my opinion, it's even more important than having a nice color grade because the color grade is the cherry on top if you will you know what I mean okay now that that's clear uh like I said I used exactly the same lut for all those clips all those different grades are pretty much the same grade and that also means that if your color grading skills are not yet on a super high level or a normal high level you can do a lot with luts you know lots are not wrong using luts is not wrong some people you know they think like let's oh it's evil because I don't know why but using luts is fine not saying that you shouldn't learn how to color grade or at least know the basics but let's use luts is fine okay and now let me show you in Davinci resolve 17 a few simple adjustments that you can do after you've applied a lot so you know to customize a lot and it's really it's super simple even if your color grading skills are still in the baby stage You can do this no problem first of all color
temperature I think it's a very underrated tool or slider and the thing is you don't need the correct white balance every time you make a video for example this shot a correct white balance where the whites are actually white clean white that will look something like this but you know a morning shot or an evening shot a misty shot looks a lot better when there's actually some blue in the shot adds more to the atmosphere of course I know it's subjective but I like it blue so don't be afraid to pull that slider toward blue and the opposite of course if it's a very bright and sunny scene something in the desert for example and also don't forget the tin slider but be a bit more careful with that one because if you use it too much or if you go too far then your the image will look unnatural what else can you do well what I did for example is change the hue of a specific color, it's also super simple but it does a lot for example in this clip the blues are a warm kind of blue like a true blue but in this clip, I felt like it looked better when the blues were more of a teal kind of blue you know a
Greenish kind of blue now how do you do that well
super simple in the color tab select the curves and then here select the hue versus hue tab and here you can select the blues and drag the lineup and down to change the hue just keep in mind that it affects all the blues in the whole image if you don't make a selection first and you can do this for greens yellows reds but of course, if you start fiddling with reds and oranges and you do it for the whole scene you're also going to affect the skin tones so be careful and then finally lifting shadows and lowering highlights and movies are quite often not 100 white they sit a bit under that let's say 90 and lifting the shadows doesn't necessarily make your image look more cinematic a lot of people think that just lift the shadows and it looks cinematic but i don't think that's true I think it just helps with getting rid of the harshness of the digital look so it's another simple way to customize your image you can use the curves and just pull up the shadows here or drag down the highlights or you can go to the color wheels and do the same here shadows up or highlights down and that's it A few super simple tricks and adjustments that
you can do to customize a lot that you're using or if you're not using a lot the image that comes straight out of your camera but remember the most important part of this video light light is super super important it decides what your color grade is going to look like thank you so much for watching guys and see you in the next one you
