Grading Controls

This page covers the controls you use on almost every shot: the two Color Management settings that tell the plugin what it is looking at, the Tone group that sets exposure and contrast, and the Color group that balances color and sets saturation. Set them in that order: brightness first, then color.

Color Management

Prime/Grade™ works in your image’s own encoding, so the first job is telling it what that encoding is — it uses this to linearize for its tone math and reference exposure in stops, not to convert the image. Two controls set it.

Input Transfer Function is the gamma or log curve your image is encoded in. Prime/Grade uses it to linearize for the tone controls and to reference exposure in stops. In a color-managed project (DaVinci YRGB Color Managed or ACES), set it to your working space. In a project without color management, set it to the camera’s native log curve, such as ARRI LogC3, Sony S-Log3, or RED Log3G10. Get this right before you touch a slider: a wrong curve throws off every tone move — exposure, contrast, and the speculars all land in the wrong place — and it is the most common reason a grade will not sit where you expect.

Input Gamut names the RGB primaries your image uses. Prime/Grade keeps the grade in those primaries; the setting feeds the Saturation checker so its perceptual reading is correct, rather than converting the image. It defaults to DaVinci Wide Gamut, which pairs with the DaVinci Intermediate default. In the OFX version, a link option keeps Gamut derived from the Transfer Function so the two stay consistent.

Tone

The Tone group sets brightness and contrast. Work top to bottom: exposure first, then the shadow and highlight controls, then contrast.

Exposure moves the whole image up or down in stops. Set the shot where it belongs here first; it is the foundation the rest of your correction builds on.

Flare lifts or lowers the shadow range, the way a small amount of lens flare or a fill light opens up the bottom of the frame. Fill adjusts exposure below the Pivot point (middle gray by default), so it opens or closes the shadows without moving the highlights. Use Flare for a soft lift across the low range and Fill when you want to hold the highlights and work only the shadows.

Speculars lifts or lowers the brightest highlights — the range above a threshold you set. Specular Range (Stops) sets where that range begins, in stops above middle gray (1 stop by default): raise it to act only on the very brightest highlights, lower it to reach further down. Together they let you roll the highlights down without flattening the rest of the image. A mask overlay is available so you can see exactly which pixels the Speculars control is acting on.

Contrast sets overall contrast around a pivot. Pivot moves that hinge point up or down in stops relative to middle gray, so you can add contrast that holds the shadows or holds the highlights depending on where you place it. Pivot also affects Fill.

Color

The Color group balances the image and sets saturation. Balance to neutral first, then set saturation last.

Temp balances the image on the warm-cool axis and Tint on the green-magenta axis, the two axes a colorist uses to neutralize a color cast. The White Balance checker in Tools & Charts shows you when your neutrals are actually neutral. Temp/Tint Axis rotates the direction those two controls push, for footage where the cast does not fall cleanly on the standard axes.

Saturation sets overall color intensity. It uses a subtractive model by default: it scales each color’s distance from neutral rather than clipping, so the most saturated pixels deepen or mute evenly instead of hard-clipping. The Advanced group can switch it to a gamma or gain model if a shot needs different behavior.

In the OFX version, a neutral-sample eyedropper lets you click an area of the image that should be neutral, and Temp and Tint update to balance it for you.

Next

The Resolve Quick Start walks these controls in order on a real shot. Advanced Modes covers the math behind these controls, and Tools & Charts covers the full set of on-screen checkers.