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A three-node starting point on the Color page that converts log footage, balances the shot and adds a look, with the free and Studio differences spelled out.
To color grade in DaVinci Resolve, open the clip on the Color page and build it up in separate nodes: one that converts log footage with Color Space Transform, one that balances the shot with the Lift, Gamma, Gain and Offset wheels, and one for the creative look, whether that’s curves, a qualifier or a LUT. Once one shot looks right, Shot Match to This Clip brings the others close to it. Keeping each job in its own node means you can switch any of them off to see what it’s doing.
Blackmagic Design released DaVinci Resolve 21.1 on 8 September 2026 as a free download, and everything in the steps below works in the free version. If you only need to grade one clip and don’t want to set up a project, the browser colour grading tool handles a single video without installing anything, and our log to Rec.709 page covers the conversion step for each camera brand.
With your clips on a timeline, switch to the Color page. The viewer shows the current clip, the thumbnails above the timeline show every shot, and the node editor starts with a single node.
If the clip was shot in log, drag the Color Space Transform effect onto the first node. Set the input colour space and gamma to the camera’s (for example S-Gamut3.Cine and S-Log3) and the output to Rec.709 and Gamma 2.4. Skip this for normal video.
On a new node, try the auto colour button as a draft, then set the Lift, Gamma and Gain wheels so blacks, mid-tones and highlights are neutral, using Offset to move the whole image at once. Check the scopes rather than trusting your monitor alone.
On a third node, shape the style: the Custom curve for contrast, Hue Vs Hue or Hue Vs Sat for individual colours, the Qualifier to isolate one colour, or a creative LUT. Most versions let you right-click a node and choose a LUT from a LUT submenu, or drag one from the LUTs browser.
Select the shots that should match, then right-click the thumbnail of your finished reference shot and choose Shot Match to This Clip. Fine-tune each match by eye before you move to the Deliver page.
The primary wheels are the core of a Resolve grade. Lift moves the shadows, Gamma the mid-tones and Gain the highlights, each in both colour and level. Offset shifts everything together, which is handy for correcting an overall cast in log-style footage. The same primaries can also be shown as Primary Bars, Log wheels, which target narrower tonal ranges, or HDR wheels.
The Custom curve edits contrast and individual red, green and blue channels. The hue curves are where precise colour work happens: Hue Vs Hue turns one colour into another, Hue Vs Sat calms or boosts a single hue, Hue Vs Lum makes it lighter or deeper, Lum Vs Sat pulls colour out of the shadows or highlights, and Sat Vs Sat tames only the colours that are already strong.
The Qualifier selects pixels by hue, saturation and lightness, so a correction can affect only a sky, a jacket or skin. Color Warper drags colours around on a grid, which is a faster way to make broad palette changes, such as pushing greens towards yellow for an autumn feel. Version 20 added Chroma Warp inside the Color Warper.
Color Space Transform is the most flexible way to turn log into normal video, because it uses Resolve’s own maths for each camera and lets you choose how highlights are tone mapped. Version 21.1 added GoPro Log, Leica L-Log, DJI D-Gamut2 and D-Log2 and Vivo Log as colour spaces, alongside new camera LUTs and ACES options. If your camera isn’t listed, use the maker’s official conversion LUT instead: Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, DJI and GoPro all publish them, and our log to Rec.709 guide links to each.
Resolve’s manuals have long listed a LUT folder per system (on Windows under ProgramData > Blackmagic Design > DaVinci Resolve > Support > LUT, on macOS under Library > Application Support > Blackmagic Design > DaVinci Resolve > LUT), but those paths come from older manuals and Mac App Store builds use a different one. The safe route in any version is Project Settings > Color Management > Lookup Tables, where Open LUT Folder shows the right place and Update Lists refreshes the menus after you copy files in.
Blackmagic’s feature list for 21.1 shows Auto Color and Shot Matching as available in the free desktop version. The paid Studio version adds Magic Mask, the Film Look Creator, spatial and temporal noise reduction, Film Grain, Halation, Dehaze, DCTL support, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision grading and MultiMaster trim passes. Color Space Transform isn’t listed as Studio-only, and the wheels, curves, qualifiers and LUT support used in this guide all work without paying.
So a complete beginner grade costs nothing. Where people tend to hit the paywall is texture and isolation: film grain, halation and tracked masks around a face. For a rough film feel in the free version, a creative LUT plus gentle curves goes a long way, and our film look guide explains what really makes footage read as film.
Resolve is the right tool for a whole edit, but setting up a project for one phone clip is a lot of overhead. colorgrade.video grades a single video in the browser on your own device: the Footage menu under Pro tools converts S-Log3, V-Log, Canon Log, F-Log, LogC3, Apple Log, N-Log and D-Log, Wheels offers Lift, Gamma, Gain and Offset as in Resolve, and the Vectorscope has a skin tone line. Grain, Halation and Bloom are free to use here.
To take a grade into Resolve, press Export .cube (Shift+L), choose LUT size 33 or 65, and load the file on a node like any other LUT. Spatial effects (Grain, Vignette, Halation, Bloom) aren’t stored in a LUT, so rebuild those in Resolve if you need them. Every look in our gallery can be exported this way as one of our free LUTs.
On the Color page, right-click a node and pick the LUT from the LUT submenu, or open the LUTs browser and drag a LUT onto a node. To make a new file appear, copy it into the folder shown by Project Settings > Color Management > Lookup Tables > Open LUT Folder, then click Update Lists. Menu wording can differ slightly between versions.
Drag Color Space Transform onto the first node. For Sony, set input colour space to S-Gamut3.Cine and input gamma to S-Log3; for an iPhone, choose the Apple Log entries in recent versions. Set output to Rec.709 and Gamma 2.4, then grade on the next node. If your version lacks the camera, use the maker’s LUT instead.
It works best between shots with similar content and lighting, and both shots need to be in the same colour space, so convert log clips first. Grade the reference shot fully before matching, select the target shots, then right-click the reference thumbnail. Treat the result as a starting point and adjust by eye.
Yes. The free version includes the primary wheels, curves, qualifiers, LUTs, Color Space Transform, Auto Color and Shot Matching. Magic Mask, Film Grain, Halation, noise reduction and the Film Look Creator are Studio features.
Yes. The primaries palette has an auto colour button that balances colour and contrast for the current shot. It’s a useful first pass on a correction node; tidy it up with the wheels afterwards.
Version 21 added features such as Magic Mask Render in Place, a Layer List View in the node editor and grouped grade versions, plus a Photo page that uses Color-page grading. The 21.1 update added new camera colour spaces, including GoPro Log and DJI D-Log2, and more ACES options.
Yes. colorgrade.video grades one clip at a time in your browser with looks, wheels, curves, HSL, LUT import and log conversion, and the video never leaves your device. Use Export .cube to bring the same grade into Resolve later.