Question on color display from a beginner colorist

Hi all,

I'm currently doing a course by Nico Fink (Color Demystified), one of Davinci Resolve's certified trainers. The resources used are from the Blackmagic's "Davinci Resolve colorist guide" with the end goal of taking the exam for certification.

So I matched everything in the color wheels to his exact adjustments for one of the stills in project 01. However, what displays in his timeline is starkly different to mine, with mine being much more saturated and red.

Can I please ask why this would be? I've attached screenshots of what it shows on his screen vs mine.

Thank you in advance,
Kaito

Without calibration, you have no idea what you're looking at. I would not judge your color work by what the Viewer is showing you on the GUI.

Nico is a very good trainer and a very bright guy, but even he will tell you that you need a calibrated display in order to work as a colorist.

BTW, if you're looking at saturation, check out the Vectorscope. That will generally tell you the truth, even if the display is lying to you.

As Marc says, you really need a monitor calibrated to a known standard to know what you are actually looking at.
Having said that to me the whole Nico UI page looks under saturated, whereas yours looks to be what I'd expect.
Though with a different video, this is what my UI looks like on Windows. Saturation wise it is very similar to yours, but your reds do seem to be a bit brighter.

To assess relative match of two pieces on the same display you have to make sure you are looking at the video the same way you are looking at your Resolve UI. Simply putting a browser window (or video player etc) side by side with Resolve GUI won't magically do it, see the numerous good old gamma shift threads.

Absolute match (how it actually properly looks on calibrated display etc) everyone here is talking about is a different issue that comes after you have first solved the first one. Can't match anything properly if you can't even achieve relative match of two sources on the same display. Calibration won't magically make two different pieces the same.

In your posted screenshots, your computer screen (including the GUI) is way more saturated than the training example. Without a calibrated screen you really can't know which is correct. Added to that is that resolve viewers are not colour managed nor accurate. The scopes are the best way to see differences in the signals of each.

Thank you so much, Mark, Charles, Hendrik and Peter!

I really appreciate all your advice. As someone without the budget for a scientific monitor, I've been editing on the MacBook Pro M3. Given your explanations, I'm relieved to hear that the issue is more to do with calibration rather than the grading itself.

Mark, I saw your post on monitor calibration, where you recommend getting monitors professionally calibrated by an ISF Level III certified company. I think I'm gonna bring my MacBook in to get it calibrated. Man, it would be a dream to have a Flanders Scientific. Maybe one day...

Thanks again, everyone!

I think I'm gonna bring my MacBook in to get it calibrated

I think your best option is the highest quality external monitor you can afford fed from a Decklink. Have that monitor calibrated.

(Even Disney is using consumer LG displays for grading Dolby Vision these days. Doesn't have to be a $30,000 display to do it well.)

Thanks for the feedback, Jim!

I'll definitely do that once I move to the UK in a few weeks. I've been eyeing the Dell Ultrasharp monitors for the longest time, and I know B&H has a two-monitor bundle for a great discount. I'm gonna get them calibrated and buy a Decklink like you said. Thanks!