Davinci Resolve 17: Davinci Wide Gamut Explained
As a colourist it’s important to stay on top of recent developments and updates. The latest update to Black Magics Davinci Resolve is one of the biggest ever.
This is one of many recent additions to colour grading software Davinci Resolve. So why is it an important one?
The chart above (taken from the BMD white paper) shows us just how big the new DWG is. If it’s not clear it’s the black triangle that is swallowing up all the other gamuts.
In short, the new gamut is giving us a bigger field to play on when working with wide gamut material. It was designed to include all other gamuts that you could be asked to deliver to, which is super handy. It is not a viewable gamut, meaning we cannot see the spectrum of colours capable of being included with the working colour space.
Davinci Wide Gamut is a timeline colourspace designed to be used with wide gamut footage but there’s no reason why it can’t be used with SDR as well.
It provides a universal colour space across Mac and PC and essentially makes it easier to work with multiple LOG based image formats such as Arri LogC all within a single colour space.
The transfer function of DWG is logarithmic. This means the colour wheels and various tools within DR will respond with a log style grading experience. The way it maps values means you will have smoother roll off and a different style of control over the parameters. Try switching between the DWG colour space and a non colour managed space and you’ll immediately see the difference when you try to change a luminance value on the wheels as an example.
Play around with different types of colour management settings and see what works best for you. There is no right or wrong way to set this up.
However, before grading a live project always decide and then keep the colour space consistent throughout the grading process. If you change it after grading on clips then you will likely have to revisit each grade again.
So why should you try working with Davinci Wide Gamut?
DWG is extremely efficient in tone and gamut mapping out of range HDR data back into a standardised SDR range of 0–100nits. The majority of your image will sit any from 0–60nits approx. 0 nits being absolute black and 50nits being around middle grey, essentially the meat of your image.
This means when working with HDR footage you can use much more of the data captured. Pulling back bright highlights that in a standard SDR colour space just wouldn’t be possible without creating multiple windows or keys to pull back the out of range data.
DWG is giving you back more of the colour and image data of the HDR original and mapping the data ranges to your timeline. This clever function means you can take full advantage of using the new HDR colour wheels. Selecting and grading very specific regions of the image is made easier and you’re able to develop more complex, richer looking grades.
There are infinite ways to use Davinci Resolves Colour Management feature and it would be impossible to list them all here. But if you’re just starting out then it’s easiest to think of it as giving you a base conversion to your timeline colourspace which for most will be Rec 709 Gamma 2.4.
Colour managed workflows aren’t for everyone so try to experiment before applying it to your daily workflow. You may decide a non-colour managed workflow is best especially if the majority of your work is using SDR footage (standard dynamic range).
Hopefully this has helped you understand Davinci Wide Gamut and how it can improve your work when dealing with HDR and SDR footage.