UTILITY DCTLS
ANALYSIS TOOL
INTRODUCTION
The “Utility DCTL” pack encompasses tools for image analysis and adjustment. It includes the “Balance DCTL” for analyzing skin tones in footage and managing color deviations, the “Clipping DCTL” for identifying and handling clipping in light or dark areas, and the “Isolator” features for color isolation in bright and dark regions, emphasizing ‘pure’ colors.
BALANCE
DCTL
The “Skin Tone Indicator” highlights skin tones as yellow and indicates deviations from the skin tone line as magenta or green.“Exposure Heatmap” shows over/underexposed areas, while “Saturation Heatmap” highlights saturation extremes. “Gray Out Non-Skin Areas” simplifies skin tone correction by desaturating non-skin regions. “Split Horizontally” and “Split Vertically” enable comparison between corrected and original footage. “Highlight Neutrals” emphasizes neutral tones, and “Monochrome” enables grayscale for better color balance.
CLIPPING
DCTL
The “Clipping DCTL” identifies clipping in light or dark areas. “Darken BG” darkens the image except for the clipped regions, which remain highlighted, aiding in the clipping check process. Adjust the “White” and “Black” thresholds to control clipping detection for highlights and shadows. “Saturation 100% + 75%” highlights areas of high saturation, and “Saturation 100%” isolates only fully saturated regions for more precise color control. Split options allow for comparison between clipped and non-clipped areas.
RGB-MINMAX
DCTL
The DCTL visualizes the RGB and Luma values in footage. “RGB Parade” and “RGB Parade Clipping” display the RGB channels with an option to highlight clipping. Adjust “Trace Thickness” for better clarity, and control the visibility of the RGB and Luma channels with the “RGB Opacity” and “Luma Opacity” sliders. “Guide Lines Opacity” adjusts the visibility of the grid for precise monitoring, while “Darken BG” darkens the background for clearer separation of the data.
SKIN TONE INDICATOR
The advantage of using the ‘Balance DCTL’ is that it simplifies the color correction process. You don’t need to switch to the COLOR PICKER tool, or move it over the face to analyze each region.There’s no need to draw a circle with a mask to isolate the skin region. It’s eliminating the need to check the scopes for analysis. By activating the DCTL, you immediately see which areas on the face align with the SKIN TONE line and which areas shift more towards magenta or green. The “Skin Tone Indicator” slider enables you to set the range that turns skin color into yellow,
WORKS WITH ALL SKIN TONES
The ‘Balance DCTL’ tool assists in balancing skin tones in film by highlighting them as false colors when they align with the natural skin tone line, which typically shifts between red and yellow hues. This alignment is influenced by melanin, which primarily affects luminance rather than chroma values in the skin. By visually indicating when skin tones meet this established hue range, the Balance DCTL tool helps filmmakers ensure that all skin tones, regardless of ethnicity or lightness, are accurately represented according to the skin tone indicator line. This feature is particularly useful for maintaining consistent color accuracy across various lighting conditions and scenes, making it an essential tool for film projects aiming for visual continuity and authenticity.
ALSO, GREAT FOR
ANALYZING FILMSTILLS
Dunkirk (2017) / Directed by Christopher Nolan / © Warner Bros. Pictures
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2019) / Directed by Rian Johnson / © Netflix
Phantom Thread (2017) / Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson / © Universal Pictures (International)
Dunkirk (2017) / Directed by Christopher Nolan / © Warner Bros. Pictures
Battle of the Sexes (2017) / Directed by Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton / © Fox Searchlight Pictures
Nope (2022) / Directec by Jordan Peele / © by Universal Pictures
Blonde (2022) / Directed by Andrew Dominik / © Netflix
CONSISTENCY CONTROL
The ‘Balance DCTL’ is a valuable solution for maintaining consistent skin tones across different shots in film. The tool’s primary benefit lies in its ability to ensure uniformity of skin tones from one shot to another. This feature is particularly useful in helping to achieve a cohesive look across various scenes by providing immediate visual feedback on skin color consistency.
Gray Out Non-Skin Areas
Skin Tone Indicator
Exposure Heatmap
Saturation Heatmap
EXPOSURE HEATMAP
The Exposure Heatmap visualizes post-production exposure using false colors: overexposed areas show warm yellows and reds, while underexposed regions display cool greens and blues. Centered on mid-grey for balanced exposure, it accurately renders skin tones by aligning with this key reference. Inspired by Ed Lachman’s EL Zone System, the tool offers an intuitive interface for adjusting exposure, ensuring natural and consistent skin tones. It operates post-capture, analyzing exposure on displays to fit various workflows with a broad, color-coded overview instead of precise stops.
Isabella’ test image by ARRI, with a heatmap applied after a CST transform from ARRI LogC3 to Rec709.
SATURATION HEATMAP
The Saturation Heatmap uses false colors to display saturation levels, with cool tones (blues/greens) for low saturation and warm tones (reds/yellows) for high saturation. It helps fine-tune color intensity in post-production. In the example, the face is mostly green, indicating balanced saturation, while the yellow shirt shows high saturation, and the background appears in cool blues, reflecting low saturation. This tool ensures consistent and natural color grading.
HIGHLIGHT NEUTRALS
The “Highlight Neutrals” button in the DCTL tool is designed to facilitate color balancing in DaVinci Resolve. When activated, this function identifies colors within an image where the RGB values are similar, signaling a neutral tone, and converts those colors to green. By isolating these areas, it simplifies the process of adjusting color balance within a shot, allowing for more precise control and consistency.
CLIPPING
DCTL
The “White Threshold” and “Black Threshold” sliders fine-tune the clipping levels of bright and dark areas in the footage. The “Darken BG” slider turns the background black and highlights the clipping false color, making it easier to identify clipping issues in the footage.
ORIGINAL
CLIPPING
CLIPPING WHITE
CLIPPING BLACK
CLIPPING SATURATION
100% + 75%
RGB MIN MAX
DCTL
ISOLATOR
DCTL
SHOW HIGH
The “Show High” feature is a powerful tool that isolates colors in the highlights of your footage, enabling focused and precise vectorscope analysis. It functions by converting all other colors that don’t fall within the defined bright area into shades of grey. This selective color isolation facilitates an in-depth examination of the color values in the brighter parts of your image, without interference from other color ranges.
SHOW LOW
The “Show Low” feature concentrates on revealing the colors within the shadows or darker sections of your footage. Any colors not encapsulated within this predefined low-light spectrum are rendered as grey. This functionality paves the way for a detailed exploration of color values in shadow areas, undisturbed by the presence of colors from brighter sections of your footage.
LUTs Included
balance.cube
LUT
33x33x33
neutrals-to-green.cube
LUT
33x33x33
heatmap.cube
LUT
33x33x33
clipping.cube
LUT
33x33x33
NODE TREE
COLOR SPACE
VIDEOS
FREE DEMO
INSTALL GUIDELINES
- Open the “Project Settings.”
- Go to “Color Management” and choose “Open LUT Folder.”
- Drag and drop the folders with the DCTL files into this directory.
- Restart DaVinci Resolve to apply the changes.
BUY
One-time payment.
No subscription.
Free updates.
Format: Encrypted DCTL
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€ 79,00incl. 19% VAT