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Clip the blacks


Nicolas Hanson

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In Resolve to clip, not soften / soft clip:

Low = shadow clipping

Low
The Low Soft Clipping Point slider lets you adjust the minimum signal level at which the signal clips. This defaults to a digital level of 0 relative to the DaVinci Resolve internal video scopes. Dragging this slider to the right causes the shadows of the image to clip at a higher level, resulting in lighter minimum levels, and a lower-contrast image with lighter (possibly
milky) shadows.

High = highlight clipping

The High Clipping Point slider lets you adjust the maximum signal level above which the signal is clipped. Any pixels above the clipping level are made equal to the clipping level.
The High Clipping Point defaults to a digital level of 1023 relative to the DaVinci Resolve internal video scopes. Dragging this slider to the left causes the highlights of the image to clip at a lower level, resulting in lower, dimmer maximum levels.

 

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There is is a place for everything, if it:

A. Supports the emotion of the story

B. You like it

C. The client likes it

I always preserve both shadow and highlight detail, especially important during the first grading pass (balancing a scene), what you do esthetically afterwards is really up to you. I’ve deliberately clipped images to make images harsher. In the 90s clipping was popular, especially in music videos (that was before my time behind a gradingpanel). Some directors I work with today still love deep clippy blacks.

Personally I like to maintain detail, even when pushing to blacks hard. Useful tools in Resolve are: Good taste 🤓, soft clip (compressing black detail), curves (opening up the image just before it hits absolute black), log primaries (adding “bite” with black instead of using lift).

That got a bit longwinded, hope it made sense.

Dylan

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