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Editing Video

Cuts, sound, colour and export — taught on DaVinci Resolve, which costs nothing.

Lesson 42 of 778 min

The three wheels, and what each one touches

Not three brightness controls

The primary colour wheels are labelled Lift, Gamma, Gain — or, in some tools, Shadows, Midtones, Highlights. They look like three versions of the same control. They are three different mathematical operations, and using the wrong one is why a correction that should take thirty seconds takes twenty minutes.

Gain: multiply

Gain multiplies every value. Turn it up and white gets brighter, mid-grey gets brighter proportionally, and black — which is zero — stays at zero, because anything times a multiplier is still zero.

So gain is the white point control. It sets where the brightest part of your image lands without moving the black.

Lift: add

Lift adds a constant to every value. Turn it up and black rises off zero, mid-grey rises by the same amount, and white rises too — though at the top the effect is proportionally small because white was already large.

So lift is the black point control. Lifting the black is how you get a faded, milky look; lowering it is how you get a deep, contrasty one.

In practice most implementations pivot lift around the white point so the top stays put, which is why it feels like a shadows control even though the operation is an addition.

Gamma: a power curve

Gamma applies an exponent. Black stays at zero and white stays at one, because zero and one raised to any power are still zero and one. Everything in between moves.

So gamma is the mid-tone control, and it is the one that actually changes how bright a face looks without touching either end. It is the control you reach for most often and the one beginners use least.

Offset, the fourth one

Many tools also have Offset, which adds a constant to everything with no pivot at all — the whole image moves up or down together, including the black.

Offset is the right tool for a straightforward white balance on a log image, because it shifts the entire channel rather than reshaping it. Balance with offset in the shadows, then set the other three.

Four controls, told apart by which end of the waveform holds stillWhite stays putWhite movesBlack stays at zeroBlack movesGammaA power curve. Both ends are pinned and the mid-tones moveGainMultiplies. Zero times anything is still zero, so it sets the white pointLiftAdds, pivoted near the top, so it sets the black pointOffsetAdds with no pivot at all. The whole trace slides togetherSet gain, then lift, then gamma. With both ends already pinned, gamma redistributes what is betweenthem and cannot undo the first two.
Four controls, told apart by which end ofthe waveform holds stillWhite stays putWhite movesBlack stays at zeroGammaA power curve. Both endsare pinned and themid-tones moveGainMultiplies. Zero timesanything is still zero,so it sets the whitepointBlack movesLiftAdds, pivoted near thetop, so it sets theblack pointOffsetAdds with no pivot atall. The whole traceslides togetherSet gain, then lift, then gamma. With both endsalready pinned, gamma redistributes what is betweenthem and cannot undo the first two.

The order that works

  1. Gain — set the white point. Bring the brightest part of the image up until it approaches the top of the waveform without clipping.
  2. Lift — set the black point. Bring the darkest part down until it just reaches the bottom without crushing detail you want.
  3. Repeat once, because they interact slightly.
  4. Gamma — set the mid-tones, which in practice means setting the brightness of faces. This is the only exposure the viewer consciously judges.
  5. Balance — use the colour of each wheel, or offset, to neutralise.

The reason gamma comes third: with black and white pinned, gamma redistributes what is between them without moving either end, so it cannot undo the work of the first two steps.

Reading the waveform while you do it

Every one of these moves has a visible signature on the waveform, which is how you learn what they do:

  • Gain — the top of the trace moves and the bottom stays. The whole shape stretches from the bottom.
  • Lift — the bottom moves and the top stays. The shape stretches from the top.
  • Gamma — both ends stay and the middle of the trace moves up or down.
  • Offset — the entire trace slides up or down as one.

Make each move while watching the waveform, once, and the abstraction becomes concrete.

Balance on the parade

The RGB parade shows red, green and blue waveforms side by side. For a neutral image:

  • The bottoms should align. If blue sits higher than red and green at the bottom, your shadows are blue — pull the blue component of lift down until the bases meet.
  • The tops should align. If red sits higher at the top, your highlights are warm — pull the red component of gain down.

This single reading fixes most white-balance problems in about fifteen seconds, and it is considerably more reliable than your eye, which adapts to a cast within twenty seconds of looking at it.

Where the free tools are

Resolve's primary wheels are in the free version with no restriction, along with offset, log wheels, all the scopes, and the primaries bar mode for typing exact numbers.

Kdenlive has three-way colour wheels and a scope panel. Shotcut has colour grading with shadows, midtones and highlights. Both do the correction work described here perfectly well; what they do not have is the node structure, keys and tracking of the next lessons.

On a phone, colour adjustment is global sliders and filters. Treat it as correction only.

Today

Open one shot, open the waveform, and move gain, lift and gamma one at a time while watching the trace. Five minutes, and you will never confuse them again.

The one thing to keep

Gain multiplies so it sets the white point, lift adds so it sets the black point, gamma is a power curve so it moves the mid-tones with both ends pinned — set them in that order and read every move on the waveform.

Before you move on

A shot's faces are too dark but the highlights and shadows are already exactly where the editor wants them. Which control changes the faces without disturbing either end, and why?

Pick the one you would defend. Nobody sees your answer.

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