Here's the FAQ:

Has anyone used the new CinePrint Studio yet? I'd love to hear some feedback, especially how it compares to the Filmbox Pro.

Even with the latest DaVinci update, Mac users are still experiencing color and contrast differences between Rec.709A and Rec.709 Scene.

2017 Micro Panel - the knobs at the top are getting a little bit of a soft grinding/metal against metal feel.

I've pulled the caps, wiped the posts, and blew some compressed air down the post to clean any stuck dust but the issue persists.

I THINK the panel originally shipped with a tiny amount of dampening grease in there for smooth rotation / resistance - like old radio knobs. It's also possible the knob caps are just worn at this point so I ordered new ones from Blackmagic (cheap enough to have a spare set around).

What have y'all done to return to the knobs to their smooth behavior? Is it advised to use any kind of dampening grease or electronic safe lubricant?

The main trackballs themselves are mostly okay but starting to get a faint ball on plastic noise as well.

Hey y'all-

So basically I've been developing my color skills for the last four or so years, and in the last year have been promoting myself as such - a client I DP for wants to hire me to grade a 40 minute doc which I also DPed about a third of.

I've been coloring my own work for years, and am not the MOST scrupulous when it comes to workflows (in the sense that by the time I get to content lock I've usually already done about 1/3 - 1/2 of the requisite color work). For this reason unfortunately I don't have great data on exactly how quickly or slowly i grade.

I am looking for help in scoping out this project. They have a real budget on this and he's never coughed when I quote reasonable rates in the past for DP and editorial, what I am trying to figure out though is what a standard timeline expectation might be for a pro colorist. I'm not expecting to be as efficient as a pro given that this is both my first time grading something so long and also my first time round tripping in a real job (I've done enough tests on my own to feel confident in the workflow itself, but the real world is always different).

What I would like to arrive at I think is what a pro would quote and then quote the price based on that, but derive a time estimate that has some extra cushion to accommodate my newness to this stage of professional post production.

The project itself:
- 40 minute documentary about a century long planning organization in a major metro - it's a retrospective piece commissioned by a public-private mega donor organization, you get the idea.

- There are about two dozen talking head interviews with 2-3 cameras each, some archival material and some broll. (I haven't actually seen the cut yet so I'll be sure to get some more exact specs).

- There's no particular crunch in the timeline as they seem to be close to content lock and the film isn't screening until end of October, but of course I can't tell him it's going to be a month of work.

Sorry for the wall of text. Any guidance would be much appreciated!

-hsantrebor

Anybody join - Opinions?

Hi everyone,
I have a Sony A6400 and I’m trying to improve my video workflow. My main goal is to shoot fairly flat/log footage that gives me enough flexibility to achieve a good cinematic-looking grade in DaVinci Resolve.
The A6400 is an 8-bit camera, and I’ve been reading that S-Log3/S-Gamut3.Cine isn’t necessarily the best combination for older 8-bit Sony cameras because the wider gamut and log curve can be difficult to grade without introducing banding, posterization, or other artifacts.
This has left me confused between two options:
1. S-Log2 + ITU709 Matrix
or
2. S-Log2 + S-Gamut3.Cine
I’ve seen people recommend S-Log2 + ITU709 Matrix for 8-bit cameras because the color is already closer to Rec.709 and supposedly holds up better when graded. However, I’ve also seen people say that S-Gamut3.Cine gives you more flexibility and can actually produce better results if exposed and transformed correctly.
I’m also a complete beginner in DaVinci Resolve, so I’m trying to figure out not just which profile to use, but what the correct workflow should be.
A few things I’d really appreciate help with:
Which of these two profiles would you recommend for the A6400?
Is S-Log2 + ITU709 Matrix actually more appropriate for an 8-bit workflow?
If using ITU709 Matrix, what is the correct CST/color-management workflow in Resolve?
How should I expose S-Log2 on the A6400?
Should I intentionally overexpose it, and if so, by roughly how much?
What should I use for monitoring exposure — zebras, histogram, etc.?
Can I still achieve a cinematic-looking grade with ITU709 Matrix?
Are there any specific things I should avoid doing in Resolve because the footage is 8-bit?
I’m not looking for a “cinematic picture profile” straight out of camera. I specifically want to learn how to capture the best possible image with the A6400 and then build a good, repeatable grading workflow in Resolve.
If anyone has an A6400 or another 8-bit Sony and has actually tested these profiles side-by-side, I’d especially appreciate your experience.
Thanks!

Hello everyone,

I get this sub gets this type of post a lot and I’m sorry for adding to the pile, but I really need a direct reply as I dont have anyone in person to really speak to. Will keep this post short

I’m going to buy this ASUS PA3UCR-K 32 as my main reference monitor: https://www.asus.com/uk/displays-desktops/monitors/proart/proart-display-pa32ucr-k/

I just want to know 2 things;

1. Is the next step to purchase a probe like the Calibrite Display Pro HL to calibrate my monitor to REC 709 2.4
2. And once calibrated using the probe, the next step is to connect my Mac into an IO box like the Ultra Studio Express Monitor 12G for example here for a clean feed from my Mac’s OS - https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/store/record-capture-playback/ultrastudio/W-DLUS-15

And then after that I’m good to trust my monitor to display me an accurate image, is that right? (Or as accurate as possible)

I completely appreciate that this type of post is stated to not be allowed in the rules of the sub and you do give a rough guide in there, but I’m at a point where I feel I need a direct response from someone or some people for real help on this.

Thank you again everyone.

This alternates on Sundays

## Would you like feedback on your reel? This is the place to do it!

**An essential point to remember**: A reel won't secure you a job any more than a business card or website will. While it might be necessary, it is not the primary means of obtaining work.

**You gain employment through a network you develop,** not via any online job site. Building a network takes time, which is advantageous, as it allows you to learn the field.

## Rules

* **Rule 1**: Submit your reel *and its running time* as a top-level comment (meaning you reply to this post directly)

* **Rule 2**: *Specify your professional experience in years* (paying taxes = years as a pro, novice).

* **Rule 3**: Indicate how you're monitoring. Is it with a mini monitor + a LG CX?.

* **Rule 4**: You must review two other reels. **TWO**. You have seven days to complete this task, responding to two different reels. **Then** edit the comment where you post your reel: and put and put the two user names.

**Acceptable platforms for posting**: Your Vimeo site or an unlisted YouTube link. If we find a link to a channel or a video with 10k views, we want you to know that this thread is not meant for such content.

The moderation team will monitor this, and we are trying to encourage the community (that's you) to offer assistance. That's why providing two reviews is crucial.

Lastly, as someone who evaluates people's reels, if you start off with **log** footage, I expect to see the color work in passes. If color grading is a skill, and you transition from Log to finished grade, that's a definite red flag.

***Copy/paste this section:***

* Reel Link: (don't forget the running time )

* Experience:

* Monitoring:

* Two reels I reviewed:

I have already seen tutorial video about finding middle grey. I know I can bring the saturation and contrast to zero to find the mid grey but the problem is all the log footages in these tutorial are exposed normally unlike my footage which is shoot by exposing to the right to reduce noise at the shadow. Any suggestion? Mine is to decrease the exposure by lowing the offset then follow the instructions of the tutorials but the result is bad which means I found the wrong middle grey area. but I can't figure out the right way. I shot with Canon R6 mark 2 C log 3 and the color space DWG.

Howdy yall, I recently shot a music video for a friend. It was unpaid, so no pressure, but the footage looks great. Problem is some dust particles, or hair, on some of the saucy shots. I have some experience with stuff like this, but wanted to list the process I have in mind for getting rid of it just to make sure I’m doing it right:
1. Edit footage as is, create my pic lock
2. THEN bring into after effects to content aware away those pesky particles

Or should I bring in the footage I want to use first, remove the dust, then edit it?

Note: this was posted in r/editors but was told it might be a better fit for here

Hi, I've got a short film that I'm excited to send out to festivals, a capstone project from school, but there was something wrong with our B cam. I sent it off to a colorist who wasn't able to give it the time it'd take to fix something like this (he was looking at it as a favor, no bad blood there).

Basically something happened that shifted the colors / light in the sensor. I've heard them say infrared light pollution, or perhaps ultraviolet, but some sort of non-visible light messing with the image. You can see in the two images how one character's shirt changes from navy (what it was IRL) to a maroon.

Doesn't seem to be a simple fix, does anyone have experience correcting something like this? Wondering if it's possible. Willing to pay. Legitimately hoping to find a solution, and build a budget to get this fixed.

Hi, I’m a novice. I’ve been working on a MacBook Max on da Vinci resolve. I ran into a problem with gamma shift when bouncing to quick time that I’ve since resolved by changing last timeline node to rec709a and output to rec709a to watch quick time bounces. It does not look different in da Vinci on my screen regardless if I use output and final conversion to gamma 2.4 but it does shift when I send that to QuickTime. So my answer is to bounce to gamma2.4 when checking exports on different hardware.

Yesterday I went to a friends house to check on their Roku TV. Gamma was set to 2.4. When screen mirroring just the output from da Vinci, there was an extreme gamma shift. But playing web content did not look different.

I changed the display profile on the tv from my MacBook, I changed the display profile on my MacBook, I changed it all back to gamma2.4 in da Vinci, but it didn’t really make a difference.

In order to match something similar to what I saw on my laptop to what I was seeing on the screen mirrored, I had to take contrast past 1.3 in the lift gamma gain offset windows and it still wasn’t quite there. Meanwhile, obviously the display on my laptop was completely crushed. Having watched videos of various colorists, i do get the sense that taking contrast past 1.1 is going to borderline crush things.

I know because I’m using a laptop to do this stuff it’s not going to be perfect, but I didn’t think it was going to be so far off from what I’m seeing on my laptop, no? So what’s going on here.

Randomly came across one of these and wanted to give it a try as I've never personally calibrated more than trying out online settings and eyeball adjusting.

I know it's older (mine dated 2019) but I figure it's still significantly better than eyeballing. Just wondering if anyone knows what software to use as the newer i1 Profiler's don't support it. I am not a serious graphic or video man, I just have some 4k and qhd ips panels for media consumption and gaming.

Seems like DisplayCAL Py3 comes up a lot, so I will try it out first, seems very friendly. https://github.com/eoyilmaz/displaycal-py3/releases/tag/3.9.19

Settings I've seen online to set: color temp 6500k, white level 120, gamma 2.2.

I’m editing this myself and am still fairly inexperienced with grading, so I’m trying to learn rather than pretend I know what I’m doing. This was a small, unpaid passion project made with friends, and I’d be very grateful for practical advice on how you’d tackle it.

The scene was shot in a studio but is intended to feel like a subterranean 1970s Cold War interrogation/bunker: muted olive/amber tones, dense blacks, restrained analogue texture—more Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy / Mindhunter than glossy orange-teal.

The footage is Sony FX3, S-Log3 / S-Gamut3.Cine, and I’m editing/grading in Premiere Pro. I’m reasonably happy with how the grade pushes the walls and curtains back into darkness, but I am losing too much facial information—particularly on the shadow side of the faces.

I don’t want to brighten the overall image or reveal the studio background again. I’m looking for the cleanest way to bring back a little facial/eye detail while preserving the bunker atmosphere and keeping the blacks dense rather than crushed.

In practical terms, what would you try first to bring back just a little facial/eye detail without lifting the walls and curtains too? I’m very happy to be pointed toward a simple Premiere workflow or tutorial terms I should be searching for.

I’ve included graded frames and the equivalent S-Log3 frame for comparison. Constructive criticism very welcome—thank you.

Hi guys, I have a calibrite Display Pro HL, and I'm trying to figure out how to match my Iphone's screen color. I have an Asus Proart PA27JCV, this does not support hardware calibration so I just use DisplayCal to generate a ICC profile. I dont have an I/O box and I use a windows laptop that does not have thunderbolt.

My displaycal setting are on top

After calibrating, my monitor always lean towards the orange/red side abit more, but when I view on ny Iphone its not that saturated.

I know Iphones arent a good benchmark, but as most people use apple devices, I feel like calibrating towards Apple's screen is a close enough benchmark for me.

Where can I buy say a Kodak Vision3 200T lut for Sony log (FX3)? What is the #1 source for buying professional luts like this?

I've tried solving this for over 5 months, however after hours of messing around I've given up every single time. Anyone who could solve this would be an angel sent from the heavens and I would eternally be in your debt.

I export Prores HQ 422 into Premiere, I'm shooting V-log, D-Log, and S-Log. The shot you see in image 1 is V-Log 10Bit.

Hey there! I basically have very, very little knowledge in colour grading. I'm planning on creating a short to have a similar vibe to Gummo. I don't know whether to colour grade it myself or just get somebody who knows what their doing to do it for me.

Anyway, I was just checking to see if it's easy enough to capture that certain vibe! The first photo is from Gummo, and the second is a shot from the short. Thank you!

Has anyone joined CKC Skool yet? What are your thoughts on it? Do you feel the monthly / annual expense is worth it vs knowledge gained / learned?

Hey Guys, I have been working professionally in color grading studio here in Mumbai, there are things I'm learning everyday but today I came across Add Matte and I don't understand what's the use of it, Can you guys help me in understanding that ? Also if possible give examples in which situation it can be used?

morning all,

i have a thunderblade 8tb. a few years old now but only used for aboit 4000 hours.

one of the 4 drives inside is about to fail catastrophically - which as it’s RAID0, will cause all data to be lost.

OWC have refused to look at it seriously because it’s outside their 3 year warranty period.

i think this is shameful for a professional product at this price point to fail so soon, within 4 years with light use.

It turns out that the Aura P12 drives inside aren’t really enterprise class, they’re consumer class.

this has significantly damaged how i feel about the company.

if anyone has a good recommend for other brands i’d love to hear. thanks

Hey guys,

I have both Arri Alexa Classic Pro Res 4444, 2.8 k with Black magic pocket 4k B.Raw in Davinci Resolve.

I've tried almost every project setting, node setups, CST's, etc. Nothing looks right. If the shot is even a tiny bit low-light for the Alexa footage, the ALEXA to REC 709 luts completely crush it.

I don't know if I'm completely daft but for days I've tried to find some youtuber to explain this mixed workflow but haven't. Every time I think I figure it out, I know it's not right.

I should be starting with a correct image, not having to correct it first thing.

I'd prefer to work in Davinci wide gamut for all footage, but i'll do whatever works at this point as long as I have wide control because there is one scene with problem clips I need to make the best of. Everything else is beautiful.

I'm a intermediate colorist but haven't ever run into serious technical problems like this and I guess I'm not well versed. This is a special film of my own, and I've been pulling my hair out for a week trying to understand what I'm doing wrong.

The footage looks great on my hard drive, and great on the monitor when we shot (for the mot part). I know it's a flat image but all the data is absolutely there!

Any advice is so appreciated!! THANK YOU!

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for an experienced colourist who is available to start right away to help finish my independent psychological horror feature film, Daniel, the Goodboy.

This is not a complete grade from scratch, as I’ve already done most of the foundational colour work using Dehancer Pro 7.3.4 and FilmConvert Nitrate 3.59. I can provide both film stock emulations to whoever works with me, and you can keep them after the project is completed.

I’m looking for someone who can work alongside me, help fix a few tricky sections, refine the grade, and ensure everything is consistent and finished to a professional, festival-ready standard.

To make the process as straightforward as possible, I’ve created an instructional breakdown video explaining the film’s different visual styles, what has already been done, the areas that still need work, and exactly what I’m looking for from a colourist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apy6XyR5hlU

I’m looking for someone who:

• Has professional colour-grading experience.
• Works in DaVinci Resolve.
• Is comfortable working with an existing grade and film stock emulations.
• Has a strong eye for consistency, skin tones and image quality.
• Communicates well and is open to working collaboratively.
• Can act as a strong closer and bring the film to a professional finishing standard.

Payment: $2,000–$3,000 AUD, based on an estimated 40–50 hours of work. This is an initial budget estimate, not a fixed final amount. After reviewing the video and understanding the scope of the work, I welcome your professional assessment and a quote for what you believe is fair.

Timeline: I’m looking for someone who can start right away, but the overall timeline is flexible. I would like the work to be completed by January 1, 2027. Quality and finding the right person are more important to me than speed.

If you’re interested, please DM me with:

• Your portfolio or colour-grading reel.
• Examples of narrative work, particularly feature films or psychological horror, if available.
• Your rates or an estimated quote.
• A little about your workflow and experience with DaVinci Resolve.

Thanks!