User Manual

A graded HDR image being output looks similar to a log-encoded image
At the time of this writing, there are four approaches to mastering HDR that DaVinci Resolve is
capable of supporting, including:
 Dolby Vision™
 HDR10
 HDR10+
 Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG)
Each of these HDR standards define how an HDR signal isencoded for export and later
mapped to the visible output of an HDR or SDR display. Grading to each of these standards
requires some degree of color management, and DaVinci Resolve gives you three main ways to
handle this:
 The easiest way is to enableResolve Color Management (RCM) or ACES in the Color
Management panel of the Project Settings, and use the Color Space conversion
options that are available. There are options there for each supported type of HDR.
 The transforms that are available in RCM are also available as ResolveFX operations,
if you want to organize your grading pipeline more manually.
 LUTs are also available to accomplish each of these color space conversions if you
want to do things the old fashioned way.
Overall, Resolve Color Management and ACES are reliable and recommended approaches to
handling HDR grading in DaVinci Resolve in most instances. For more information about
Resolve Color Management, see Chapter 7, “Data Levels, Color Management, and ACES.”
What Do I Do With HDR?
While thesestandards make HDR mastering and distribution possible, they have nothing to say
abouthow these HDR-strength levels should be used creatively. That’s up to you, because the
question of how to utilize the expansive headroom for brightness and saturation that HDR
enables is fully within the domain of the colorist, as a series of creative decisions that must be
made regarding how to assign the range of highlightsthat are available in your source media to
the above-100 nit HDR levelsyou’re mastering to as you grade, given the peak luminance level
that you’re assigned to master with. Which HDR peak luminance level you use (1000 nit, 3000
nit, 4000 nit) probably depends on which display you have access to and who’s distributing the
resulting program.
Chapter – 8 HDR Setup andGrading 239