This adds contrast to the image as we’ve stretched the distance between the darker and
lighter regions of tonality. In addition to having a lighter image that no longer appears washed
out, things also appear a bit sharper as a result of this adjustment.
However, we can do more to create purer color, since right now the image is a bit yellowish. In
particular, if you look at the bottom of the Parade scope, you can see that the middle of the
red, green, and blue waveforms are significantly offset. This indicates that there might be a
color cast.

5. To get a closer view of the Parade scope without enlarging the Scopes window, choose “1 UP”
from the pop-up menu at the upper righthand corner. This sets the Scopes window to display
only one large video scope.

Then, click the option pop-up menu underneath and choose Switch View > Switch to Parade.

Move slowly as you drag, until the center of all three graphs in the Parade scope line up a little
more, and the image looks more neutral (the middle of the blue graph will still be a bit lower)
The image now looks contrasty and neutral, but the color is subtle. Raising the saturation, or
color intensity, might help

Move the pointer until it’s over the number of the Saturation parameter, below the color
wheel controls, then click on the number and drag to the right to increase the saturation value
using that parameter’s “virtual slider” control. A small orange arrow shows if you’re raising or
lowering the value.

You don’t always have to start from scratch. Now that you’ve got one graded clip, you’ll see how that
preexisting grade can be leveraged by other clips.
1. Click the second clip in the Timeline.

Like the initial state of the first clip, this clip looks a bit dark, and a bit warm. So much so, in
fact, that you may be able to copy the correction you applied to the first clip and use it as your
starting point.
2. Click the first clip in the Timeline, then choose Color > Memories > Save Memory A. If you
move the Scopes off to the side, you should notice that a small thumbnail of clip 1 now appears
in the Memory A bank of the Gallery, so you can keep track of which grades you’ve saved to
which memories.

Click the second clip in the Timeline, and choose Color > Memories > Load Memory A.
That immediately copies the grade in Memory A to clip 2, and it’s a big difference. To see how
big a difference you can turn the grade off and on to see a before and after.
4. Choose Nodes > Enable/Disable All Nodes, or press Option-D.
It’s an improvement, but the highlights and shadows are a bit off, as can be seen by the
misalignment of the tops and bottoms of the Parade scope.

5. Drag the Gain Color Balance control towards blue/cyan until the tops of the red, green, and
blue waveforms line up a little more closely (with the red channel still somewhat higher then
the blue), and then drag the Lift Color Balance control towards blue/cyan until the bottoms
of the waveforms line up a little better, too (but not too much, or you’ll make the blacks look
blue).
When you’re done, the image should look fairly neutral and bright, and the three channels in
the Parade scope should be fairly even.

A neutral and balanced grade with scopes aligned at the top and bottom

Grading with Custom and Hue Curves
Things look good, but again the shadows look a bit washed out. Assuming you want denser looking
shadows, but you don’t want to crush the blacks so much that you end up clipping detail, this is a fix
you can make with DaVinci’s Custom Curves, in the Curves palette..
1. Hold the Shift key down, and click on the Luminance curve about one third of the way from the
top to add a control point without moving the curve

This locks off the top of the curve without making any changes.
2. Click on the Luminance curve about one third from the bottom, and drag the curve down to
darken the shadows without clipping the signal at black.

You may now find yourself wanting to readjust the top control point you added, dragging it
up to make the highlights more intense. You can do this using the Large View Custom Curves,
which make it easier to make fine adjustments using curves.

At this point, the overall Saturation of this shot is a bit much, but we don’t want to desaturate
the image completely. Instead of using the overall Saturation parameter, you’ll use Hue Curves
to selectively alter image saturation.
5. Double-click the Saturation parameter in the Color Wheels palette to reset it to 50. Doubleclicking
the name of any parameter resets it to its default value.

Different palettes have a variety of modes, with different controls. These additional modes are
available from pop-up menus in each palette. In this case the Hue Vs. Sat curve lets you raise
or lower the saturation of specific ranges of hues throughout the image.