

With Resolve 17, there was a host of new color grading features that made it clear that all of Resolve is going to continue to get upgrade attention. There were a few years where it felt like Blackmagic was not as focused on expanding the color grading toolset but was instead focusing on improving sound, compositing, and editing. Resolve started as a color grading program, but has expanded its feature set to include picture editing, 3D compositing with Fusion, and a full digital audio workstation (DAW) with Fairlight, all from within a single interface. All wonderful features to have that make the upgrade worth it, but all features that you can easily live without while working within the free version of Resolve. Studio includes tools like noise correction for grainy footage, face detection driven by a neural engine, and shared user workflows over a network. Resolve is available in two flavors: Resolve, which is free to download, and Resolve Studio, which costs $299 and adds some key features that working professionals will appreciate. Best Almost Free: Red Giant Magic Bullet Suiteīlackmagic DaVinci Resolve is currently the best, and really the only, choice for those who want to color grade their footage in free software.If you are looking for an option that doesn't cost you anything, there really only one that sits at the top. Plus, there are powerful plugins you can add to that software to make it even more powerful for coloring your footage.Īlmost all of that costs money in some way, shape, or form, however. On top of that, there are some great grading tools built into most editing software like Premiere Pro's Lumetri color tool or Final Cut Pro X's color tools. There are a lot of software options available to grade footage including Baselight, Nucoda, and Assimilate Scratch. However, it's not just hardware you need to color grade, but also a software solution that allows you to have all the tools you need at the touch of a key to make your footage look the best it can be to tell your story. It's also increasingly possible to do complicated color grading on relatively affordable hardware, with even the entry-level MacBook Pro being capable of color grading HD and 4K imagery with some workflow tweaks. While you might not become a colorist yourself, you need to have a handle on what is possible and how to be a great client when hiring colorists for your projects. Need to grade your footage? Check out these available programs.Ĭolor grading is one of the essential skills filmmakers must master to get the images they want to tell their stories.
