Blackmagic Forum

Hello,

I have been struggling with getting the in app screen color to match my output after color grading. I have jumped through all the hoops I can find and everything is calibrated.

My color grading and output still do not mach. I am looking for any guidance to setting up a calibrated monitor for color grading on a Mac. I read something somewhere about a piece of hardware I might need but I have not been able to find any related articles.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Troy

You need an I/O device (like: www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/intensity) between your Mac and the external, calibrated monitor. And ONLY trust that external monitor once you got that!

I believe you need a fairly high end grading monitor that accepts internal hardware calibration to use a Decklink card or similar. If your monitor does not support that you can start by reading the sticky thread on the Resolve side of this forum: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=101253

For what it's worth, my humble setup to try optimize color accuracy:
- Make 3d viewer LUT for Resolve with DisplayCAL using an X-rite ColorMunki Display.
- Load the LUT to 3d viewer in Resolve preferences and "Use mac display color profiles" OFF.
- Set project color space to rec709(scene).

That has given me fairly reliable color. Of course your needs for accuracy may be different from mine. For truly accurate colors you need a proper grading monitor and an I/O device like Uli said.

I did a tutorial on this a while back...I really should update it but the basic idea remains the same:




At the very least, get yourself a used Decklink Mini Monitor HD which you can find on eBay now for about $50, and connect it to the best panel you can afford, and calibrate it!

Second that. I have the same, even for 4K, since there is no cheap, external device of that kind for 4K.
You can still judge the colors in lower resolution.
And you'll be surprised.

@Steve Shaw has a good essay on "Why Calibrate" at his Light Illusion website, along with tech papers on how to use his software and what probes to use for calibration:

http://www.lightillusion.com/why_calibrate.html

Be aware that things will change in terms of the look when you watch them on different kinds of devices. Read these:

"Grading for Mixed Delivery: Cinema, Home, and Every Screen in Between" by Cullen Kelly
https://blog.frame.io/2019/10/14/gradin ... -delivery/

and I think it covers the issues and the solutions very well. Understanding color management is also helpful:

"Color Management for Video Editors"
https://jonnyelwyn.co.uk/film-and-video ... o-editors/

Great info!

Thanks for all the tips. I will be diving in this week to get my system dialed. I'll let you know what I settle on.

Thanks again!

Troy

Kays Alatrakchi wrote:I did a tutorial on this a while back...I really should update it but the basic idea remains the same:

At the very least, get yourself a used Decklink Mini Monitor HD which you can find on eBay now for about $50, and connect it to the best panel you can afford, and calibrate it!

Hi Kays! I love your video - but there is a problem in time: 7:58,
you forgetting to change 1D Color Viewer Lookup Table, 3D Color Viewer
Lookup Table, 1D Scopes Lookup Table, 3D Scopes Lookup Table -
from Use Video Monitor Selection to No Lut Selected!

That's probably what gave Dave Dugdale problems when he wanted to:
Calibrating with DisplayCal in Resolve thru Mini Monitor!

Best,
Ole

Ole Kristiansen wrote:Hi Kays! I love your video - but there is a problem in time: 7:58,
you forgetting to change 1D Color Viewer Lookup Table, 3D Color Viewer
Lookup Table, 1D Scopes Lookup Table, 3D Scopes Lookup Table -
from Use Video Monitor Selection to No Lut Selected!

Yeah, I typically change that setting in my sessions as a routine. My biggest question is why are they on by default? Particularly the Scopes makes no sense to me. I always want my scopes to show me exactly what data I recorded and not what the data through a LUT looks like. I don't get it.

I was a following this right up until I got the white screen to begin calibration. Because I have my output to my reference monitor going through the Ultrastudio 4K mini, I could not find a way to get my calibration window to that area.

Any thoughts?

jallen0 wrote:I was a following this right up until I got the white screen to begin calibration. Because I have my output to my reference monitor going through the Ultrastudio 4K mini, I could not find a way to get my calibration window to that area.

Any thoughts?

@Jallen0 can I ask how you set your Ultrastudio 4K mini up to get a feed to your monitor? I'm setup on a Macbook pro, running a thunderbolt 3 cable to the Ultrastudio 4K mini, then a UHD 4K HDMI cable to my LG OLED TV as a monitor but am not getting a feed. Any advice on how you've set yours up would be great.

Thanks, Greg

Many regular TVs seem to have a problem connecting with it, this has been discussed here before.
The cheapest solution is a simple Chinese HDMI-splitter that doesn't care about HDCP on the second output if the other has established a connection.