All language subtitles for What BEGINNERS Get WRONG About Scopes [DaVinci Resolve 17]

hi i'm alex jordan from

learncolorgrading and filmsimplify.com

and today we're going to be taking a

look at a lot of misconceptions

regarding scopes a lot of beginner

filmmakers understand scopes however

there are a lot of misconceptions

floating around so today we're going to

be clarifying most of these

misconceptions

let's start

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for example let's take a look at rgb

curves as we all know in rgb curves this

line represents shadows this line

represents highlights

and most people usually try to stretch

the image

you know from the highlights all the way

to shadows

however what if the image you're working

with does not have

any object that should be super bright

for example so let's take a look at this

image here

now clearly this image has some bright

objects to the right

and her face is pretty bright here

however

none of the objects here should be

extremely bright

which means that this image does not

have any object

that actually should be at 100

brightness here none of the objects

should actually

reach the top line however the mistake

that i usually see a lot of beginner

filmmakers to is that they try to

stretch the image all the way to the top

regardless of the elements that are

present in the image

so as discussed this image does not have

any object that should be pure

white like for example there is no sky

present in the image here so i'll use

rgb curves and first i'll start by

bringing shadows down

so i'll simply use the curves controller

and bring shadows down

and then the mistake that i see a lot of

beginners too is that they

try to stretch the highlights all the

way to the top here

however as discussed earlier none of the

objects here

is so bright to the point where it

should reach the top here

actually i'll go the other way around

take a look at the highlights here

i will control the brightest part of the

image and bring it down

and note that i left these parts empty

and now in order to add a bit more

contrast to the image

i'll simply use the curve so i'll just

bring this to the left a bit

and this part here to the right a bit

and this is the image

note that we got the image to look

correct

without needing to stretch the image all

the way to the top because

there are no objects here that requires

that so that was the first misconception

the second misconception is that a lot

of filmmakers or beginning filmmakers at

least think that

the rgb channels should absolutely match

at the top

well that's true if the top is absolute

white however let's take a look at an

example

notice this image here to the top right

of the image at the brightest part

we have some areas that are fairly

bright which means that

in this image the highlights in the red

channel

will always be higher than the

highlights in the other channels that's

because of

this bright red object here which means

that the absolute highlights in

the rgb channels will not match which is

normal here that is not a problem

you don't always need to make the

highlights

match in all the channels so again let's

balance this image i'll bring the

highlights up

and then i'll bring the shadows down and

notice this part

in the red channel it's higher than the

highlights in the other channels and

that's absolutely fine so always

remember that the highlights should not

always match because what if the image

is yellow what if you're looking to

create a yellow image

it's normal for the highlights sometimes

not to match

the next misconception is that a lot of

filmmakers think that you cannot

crush the dark parts in the image first

of all what does that even mean what is

crushing the dark parts in the image

well if you take a look at the scopes

this is the absolute shadows line

and a lot of filmmakers think that you

absolutely need to stop at this line

and not make the shadows cross this line

at all otherwise you'll be losing data

that's true

you if you cross this line you will be

losing data however sometimes that might

be something you actually want to do

so for example let's repeat this take a

look at this image i actually want to

lose some information here and here in

order to create a moody image

so i will simply drag the shadows and

just keep on dragging to the right until

i start losing data here and this is

what i mean by crushing the dark parts

it's basically losing some information

and shadows

and then i will simply increase the

highlights a bit

until i get this smoothy image and maybe

i'll just adjust the mid tones a bit

remember at this point we're discussing

art not science and

you know this moody dark look might be

something that you're actually looking

for

in that case it's absolutely fine to

crush some of the dark areas

and by the same token you might actually

decide to

over brighten the image lose some

information in the highlights

however here you might want to use a

trick to

give it an overexposed look without

actually over exposing the image let's

take a look at let's take a look at this

image i will first start by bringing the

shadows down

and now i want to increase the

highlights however notice that i will

try to

increase the highlight using this point

in the beginning

so let's take a look at the first

example so i'll control this point

and keep an eye on these parts here

while i bring this point to the left so

i

over exposed the image now we lost

information here

and you can see that we crossed the

threshold of the bright

line here at the top which means that we

lost information

great you might want to actually use

this look sometimes for special effects

or something

but there is a better way of achieving

the same look so i just reset the

highlights but

this time instead of controlling the

curve from this point

i will actually be controlling the curve

from some point

here so pulling this point to the left

instead of this point so again take a

look at these parts here

while i control this point and put it to

the left notice that i'm brightening the

image

i am absolutely brightening the image

however what's happening here

is that i'm compressing the highlights

note that the highlights did not really

cross the

line here and what's happening is that

we're simply

compressing the highlights the

difference between these two methods

will become very clear once you look at

the building in the background so i just

reset everything and just keep an eye on

this building here i'll use the first

method by controlling the curve from the

top

point here pulling it to the left and

notice that we're losing

information in the building we're

actually losing information and it looks

very artificial now

the image is very bright but we lost

some information however

let's bring this point back here and now

i'm just going to control it from a

point at the bottom here

you know below this uh this top point

and pulling it to the left

and notice that no matter how much i

pull this point to the left how much i

make the image bright it looks like

there is haze in the image

we're not actually losing a lot of

information we can still

totally see that there is a building in

the background here and actually make

out its shape

again for comparison i'll remove this

point pull it from the point to the left

here and notice how we lost information

here in the background

bring this to the right bring this point

to the left here and where it's just

compressing the highlights and we can

brighten the image as much as we want

while retaining information here

and that is one of the most impressive

things when you're dealing with

with curves uh pin resolve or any other

application it's this

smooth curve that you can create at the

top of the curve

where the highlights are basically

rolling off allowing you to brighten the

image as much as you want while still

retaining information in the highlights

the next misconception is a bit weird i

noticed that a lot of beginner

filmmakers try to

match the rgb curves perfectly

they just keep on looking for the

smallest inconsistencies and trying to

match them using curves

well you don't need to do that let me

explain why for example take a look at

the rgb parade

uh note that this part is different than

this part and actually the green parts

is much higher than the others

and again this part doesn't match this

doesn't match this

they're different and you don't need to

match everything well

that's because keep an eye on rgb curves

here once i reduce saturation all the

way

note that the curves now match perfectly

take a look at this part

this part and this part they're

basically the same curve

just presented three times well this

shows you that if the channels

match there will be no saturation

because

they will all have the same value there

will be no variation at that point

so it's normal for the rgb curves to

look vastly different from one another

and you do not need to keep on matching

them using curves the next misconception

is that you can see

everything in the rgb parade just by

looking at it well

and resolve that is not true you have to

understand that you can

change the view in in some ways that

will show you more information

so for example take a look at this part

here you'll think that you can see

everything in this curve

however i will simply open the menu here

and click on extents

and note that we have a small part that

appeared here

it will become more clear once i balance

the image i just balance the image

and take a look at this part in the

green curve for example

this shows us the boundaries of the area

that

actually has information so these parts

here

are actually extended all the way to

these parts however

if i open the menu here and uncheck

extends now it seems that

there isn't a lot of information here

that is not true you can see the

information here by either

opening the menu clicking on extends or

actually increasing the brightness

of the rgb parade note in resolve that

you have this controller here that

allows you to reduce the brightness

or increase the brightness so notice

that if the brightness is reduced

you will think that there are some parts

that will appear like they do not have

information

however i can increase the brightness of

parade and use extents

in order to see everything in the parade

the next

misconception have been discussed before

but let's repeat it one more time in

this video

because it's important a lot of

filmmakers think that it's normal

that when you control a particular

channel

that the other channels will be affected

in the parade so for example take a look

at the parade here

and notice what will happen to the blue

channel once i reduce the red channel so

i'll

simply reduce the highlights in the red

channel and notice that controlling the

red channel

affected the blue channel and by the

same token take a look at the red

channel

once i reduce the blue channel i'm

controlling the red channel

we discussed this in a previous video

and what's happening here is that

resolve is trying to maintain the same

level of exposure

and it's basically trying to make your

work easier by preventing you from

overexposing the image however

using luma mix you can change this

behavior so this is the luma mix

controller it's currently at 100 i will

reduce it

all the way to zero and now notice what

will happen to the blue channel

once i start controlling the red channel

so i'll control the red channel

down up and notice that no matter how

much i control the red channel it's not

affecting the blue channel at all

so it's not true that controlling one

channel will always be affecting the

other channels

this is a behavior that you can change

and resolve the next misconception is

that a lot of filmmakers think that they

always need to bring

shadows all the way down you know to the

shadows line as

much as they can without crossing the

line but they believe that that's very

important however

sometimes the image will not have any

objects that should be

pure black so let's take a look at this

image here notice that there are no

objects in this image that should be

pure black like the darkest part in this

image maybe this small part here her

hair

and this part and these should not be

pure black so keep an eye on the shadows

here

once i pull shadows down notice that i

do not need to pull shadows all the way

down

because the image will start looking

unnatural

like take a look at her hair here so

let's reset and i will bring shadows

down only to this point here

not crossing this line and the image

looks way more natural

than if we pull shadows all the way down

again when you decide to

pull shadows down or highlights up you

should always look

at the objects in the image just take a

look at the image and ask yourself

is there any objects in this image that

should actually be pure black or pure

white well these were the most popular

misconceptions that i

usually face when i work with starting

filmmakers

so just keep these in mind so i hope you

like this

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