So let’s start off by opening the Colour window and creating our node tree. For this particular grade, I used 8 separate nodes:
Exposure Node
White Balance Node
Colour Space Transform / Conversion LUT Node
LUT Node
Glow Node
Halation Node
Grain Node
Vignette Node
Once we have all of our nodes set up, the first thing I’ll do is bring my footage from the flat or LOG colour profile that I shot it in to Rec. 709. Usually i’d use the color space transform tool in Davinci Resolve to convert my C-Log footage to Rec. 709, however all this footage from Bali was shot almost 2 years ago when I was still shooting on my Canon 1dx mkii which doesn't have a LOG profile, so i’ll just use a Cinestyle conversion LUT as I shot this with the Technicolour Cinestyle colour profile.
So for this particular video I used my Sekumpul LUT that’s in my Bali LUT Pack, which is now live on my digital asset store “CreatorLab”. This LUT pack includes 6 different Rec. 709, Bali-Inspired LUTS, as well as an Underwater LUT that I use when grading underwater Gopro Shots (which I will be breaking down later in this video). Back to my colour grading process, I’ll just go ahead and drag the Sekumpul LUT onto my LUT node.
Now i'm going to go back and make some minor adjustments to the Exposure and White Balance of this clip as it’s looking a little too contrasty and cold. The reason why I do this after I apply my Conversion and my LUT is so I have a more accurate reference as to what the final image will look like, rather than making these exposure and white balance adjustments to a very flat image.
Now that the exposure and white balance has been properly adjusted, I will add some stylistic effects to my grade. First, I will add the Glow effect to give my image a softer look. Set the Composite Type to Softlight and the Opacity to 0.15. Then I will apply the Halation effect and adjust the Strength accordingly, usually bumping it down slightly to give a more subtle effect. Next, I’ll add some film grain using the 35mm 400T preset and bring the Grain Size up to just under 0.2. Finally, I will create a vignette by dropping the Offset Wheel to somewhere between 16-20, create a circular power window mask, feather it out, drag the edges of the mask to the edges of my frame, then invert the mask. This will help bring the attention back to the subject of shot.
