Not being happy with the native tools like “Color Warper” and “Hue vs Hue”, I developed a tool to shift and manipulate colors in a broad way. I was very inspired by FilmLight’s Baselight “Hue Shift” tool, where you have the option of first shifting hues into neighborly colors and then, in a second step, adding more saturation, changing the brightness or desaturating a specific hue value. It focuses exclusively on 6 main colors and is therefore very reduced and clearly designed. Here is an interesting video about the “Hue Shift” tool in Baselight. Other inspirations were “Capture One” and “Photoshop”.

I built this DCTL package called “COLOR SHIFT” to create different looks in a broad way by adjusting the main colors red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow.

The pack often includes two DCTLs per category, each based on different mathematical foundations, which leads to slightly different results. “T” stands for Tetra, which I have extended with my own code. The user can choose which DCTL they prefer to apply, depending on which yields the most appealing results for their specific footage. This flexibility allows for greater customization and ensures the best possible outcome for each individual project. All DCTLs can be freely mixed and arranged according to your own liking.

DENSITY

“Density” reduces luminance, concurrently with an incremental increase in saturation. This results in “film-style colors” that exhibit rich, saturated hues. As for the “Deep” slider, it doesn’t directly boost the color density in the shadow zones. Rather, it acts as a regulating mechanism when utilizing density tools, making their influence more marked in the shadow areas and less so in the midtones and highlights.

SATURATION

The “Saturation” DCTLs provide a way to adjust hue values using subtractive color adjustments. This method delivers more visually pleasing results compared to the native tools in DaVinci Resolve.

The DCTLs also feature a “Deep” slider, which helps to reduce the impact on highlights. Additionally, a “Hue Range” slider is included, allowing users to adjust the narrowness or wideness of each slider’s influence on neighboring hue values. This offers greater control and precision when fine-tuning color adjustments.

DESATURATION

With these DCTLs, you can independently desaturate each of the six hue values. One of these DCTLs allows you to independently adjust the brightness for each hue value, providing an extra level of precision.

BRIGHTNESS

With this DCTL, you can independently adjust the brightness for each of the six hue values. This DCTL enables you to individually fine-tune the brightness for each hue value, providing an additional level of precision.

HUE SHIFT

These DCTLs allow users to effortlessly shift hue values to neighboring colors.

On the left we have the original image. In the middle, we use “Hue Vs Hue” curves to shift the blue more towards cyan. But instead of cyan, the blue color becomes greenish. As you can clearly see on the wall. In the image on the right, I’m applying the DCTL, which shifts blue more linearly toward cyan, resulting in a more pleasing result.

The “Saturation” DCTLs allow for adjusting hue values using subtractive color adjustments. This method delivers more visually pleasing results compared to the native tools in DaVinci Resolve.

Users can control the impact of the effect on darker hues in shadow areas by adjusting the “Deep” slider, which has been added into the “Density” and “Saturation” DCTLs. While providing better control over the richness and intensity of less vibrant colors in both Density and Saturation adjustments, this addition ensures that highlights and midtones are not adversely affected.

HUE RANGE

SLIDER

The “Hue Range” slider controls how much the hue slider influences neighboring colors. For instance, if the yellow value is set to a lower value, the orange value and, by extension, the skin tone value will be less affected. A greater value will have a stronger impact on adjacent hues.

In this image here, you’ll notice I’ve increased the saturation of yellow using the slider. You’ll also observe that when the “Hue Range” slider is set lower, its influence over adjacent colors is minimized. Conversely, when the “Hue Range” slider is increased, its effect broadens, resulting in a greater alteration of neighboring colors.

The Desat-DCTL will lower the the saturation of certain hue-values while and adjusting the brightness values atomatically. Addionialy there is a second DCTL included where you can adjust the brightnes values of each hue value indipendently.

The Desat-DCTL is designed to reduce the saturation of specified hue values, all while it adjusts the brightness values automatically. For even more control, I’ve included a second DCTL where you can fine-tune the brightness of each individual hue value, giving you more flexibility.

ORIGINAL

DESAT A

This Desat-DCTL is designed to reduce the saturation of specified hue values while simultaneously adjusting the brightness values automatically, matching these adjustments to the corresponding hue values.

DESAT B

This DCTL provides even more control. Six additional sliders allow you to fine-tune the brightness of each individual hue value, granting you increased flexibility.

“Density” reduces luminance, while saturation is subtractively increased to avoid greyish colors. This results in “film style colors” where colors appear deep and saturated. The results are very similar to the PowerGrade methods available in my “Film Emulation” package. The advantage of this DCTL is that we can apply density and intensity individually for red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow.

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Directed by Wes Anderson
© Focus Features

Anima (2019)
Directed by P. T. Anderson
© released for Netflix

Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020) by Eliza Hittman / © Universal Pictures

Buffalo ’66 (1998)
Directed by Vincent Gallo
© Lions Gate Films

Her (2013)
Directed by Spike Jonze
© Warner Bros. Pictures

The “Deep” slider doesn’t directly boost the color density in the shadow zones. Rather, it acts as a regulating mechanism when utilizing density tools, making their influence more marked in the shadow areas and less so in the midtones and highlights.

In this example I demonstrate the differences between the “Saturation”, “Density” and “Deep” look. “Density” compresses the colors more evenly, resulting in less color contrast, while the “Deep” look gives us more color density in the shadow area, leaving midtones and brightest areas more untouched, resulting in an image with a higher contrast and very nice depth rich colors in the shadows.

SATURATION

The “Saturation” DCTLs provides a unique way to adjust hue values by using subtractive color adjustments. This method delivers more visually pleasing results compared to the native tools in DaVinci Resolve.

DENSITY

“Density” will lower the luminance while slightly increasing saturation in a subtractive way. This leads to “film like colors”.

DEEP

The “Deep” slider doesn’t increase color density in shadows directly. Instead, it enhances the impact of “Density” sliders on shadows while minimizing its effect on midtones and highlights.

As I wrote in the beginning, the main inspiration came from Filmlight’s Baselight tool, where we have the possibility to make adjustments in a very broad way. With this tool I wanted to create something similar, so that we can make adjustments in a wide range with a focus on 6 main hue values. First, we can move a specific color to neighbouring colors, and in the second step, we can decide whether we want to increase or decrease the saturation or add more density to a color.

There is no wrong or right way in which node to add a specific DCTL first. The best thing to do is to play around with it, experimenting freely until you find a configuration that yields the desired result.

STEP 1

HUE SHIFT

Use “Hue Shift” to create an overall look. Decide if you want to shift your greens more towards yellow or more towards cyan. The blue more towards magenta or more towards cyan.

STEP 2

SAT / DESAT

Decide if you want to desaturate specific hues or add more saturation/vibrance to a specific color.

STEP 3

DENSITY / DEEP

Decide which hue you want to add more density to.

The DCTLs are designed for “DWG / DaVinci Wide Gamut” color space. Input and Output is DWG. You can work in a CST-color managed workflow. You can find more information on the topic in my blog post about color management. The DCTLs also works fine in LogC and other large color spaces, which leads to slightly different results.

The zip includes a “PDF user manual” that provides instructions for installing the package and offers guidance on utilizing the DCTLs.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/RqWf0HrQDUA
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/828695257

COLOR SHIFT

DEMO VERSION

This version includes a watermark, displayed as a grid of black pixels on the image. The demo version is perfect for users who want to explore the software’s features and functionalities before making a purchase.

COLOR SHIFT

FULL VERSION

One-time payment.
No subscription.
Free updates.
Format: Encrypted DCTL

1. The odd appearance of the “Cyan” icon on macOS is a harmless display bug that can be safely ignored.

2. When using DCTL with mini panels, DCTLS with emojis in it may lead to
disconnections. To avoid such issues NE DCTL versions are included.
(NE = no emojis)

“Color Shift” is versatile, operating seamlessly on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms. It has been rigorously tested with NVIDIA and AMD GPUs on PCs, as well as with the M1 chip on Macs, leveraging both CUDA and OpenCL infrastructures. It’s crucial to note that DCTLs are only supported in the DaVinci Resolve Studio.

Minimum Requirement:
CPU: Intel Core i7, AMD Ryzen 7, or Apple M1
RAM: 16 GB
GPU: 4 GB VRAM

Recommended Requirement:
CPU: Intel Core i9, AMD Ryzen 9, or higher-tier Apple Silicon
RAM: 32 GB
GPU: 8 GB+ VRAM