As a Director of Photography (DP) on my projects, colour is paramount. The nuances of emotion that can be articulated when something is professionally graded can make or break a visual.

I’ve struggled with getting looks / tone / vibe for as long as my camera has shot 24fps, but recently I’ve stumbled on some simple colour grading recipes that have helped level up my frames.

In one corner, I’ve been using Film Convert Nitrate – a simple film conversion workflow that helps convert Log to Rec. 709, adds film tone and texture, and still allows for decent luminosity and hue control using Lumetri.

In another corner, there’s DaVincis Resolve – the top contender looking to upset the NLE industry. It’s a beast for getting very precise results in your images… but it’s a bear to learn, and I don’t understand… like… most of it.

I did a quick test the other day – grading some 12bit 444 C70 RAW footage in both Nitrate and Resolve.

I don’t think either is superlative… I do think that Nitrate nails good colour FAST, but Resolve nails precise colour CONTROL.