User Manual

In either case, it’s important that the normalizing adjustment happens after your Log control
adjustments, for the Log control adjustments to work as they should. With your node tree
set up in this way, you’ll be monitoring an ordinary-looking image, but taking advantage of
the Log mode controls’ unique tonal ranges to manipulate the log-encoded image data with
great specificity.
When using the Log mode controls, here’s a workflow to consider as you learn how they work:
 First, use the Offset master wheel to set the black point, and use the Contrast and Pivot
parameters to stretch or compress contrast as necessary to achieve the tonal range
you require.
 Second, use the Offset color balance control to adjust the overall color balance of the
image to your liking.
 Third, use the Shadow/Midtone/Highlight color balance and Master Wheel controls
to make specific, targeted adjustments to the color and contrast of the image in tonal
ranges that match where that data is in the log-encoded image.
Working in this way, you’ll find that adjustments made with the Offset color balance and Master
Wheel controls and Contrast controls control the log-encoded image very nicely to create an
overall adjustment, while the Shadow, Midtone, and Highlight controls allow you to fix specific
issues, such as shadow balance and density, after your main adjustment has been set.
The following illustration shows an approximation of how the default ranges of the Shadow,
Midtone, and Highlight controls divide the tonal range of a log-encoded image.
This graphic shows the tonal range of each of the Log
controls when used with a log-encoded image
As you can see, when used with a log-encoded image the color interactions between each
adjustment overlap very softly, while still allowing more specific adjustments than those made
by the Lift/Gamma/Gain controls.
Furthermore, the boundaries of the Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights Log controls can be
customized using the Low and High Range parameters. This gives you added flexibility to apply
more specific contrast and color adjustments.
Once you’ve made an adjustment using Log mode controls along with a normalizing LUT or
curve adjustment, you can always apply additional nodes and use the Primaries mode of the
Color Wheels palette to make further alterations to the now normalized image, working as you
normally would with any of the other tools in DaVinci Resolve.
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