Holy cow! What have you done, Grant Petty? Has Blackmagic Design just outmanoeuvred Adobe’s Creative Cloud with the release of DaVinci Resolve 21? It’s no secret that I love this NLE system, and I think it’s going to convince many of the fence-sitters to finally make the jump from Premiere and Lightroom.
Because now, DaVinci Resolve 21 does photos.
I made the leap to Resolve a few years ago, and it’s the best move I’ve ever made when it comes to production workflow. The only problem is having to keep a Creative Cloud account for photo editing and quirky video exports. I still need Photoshop and a few other things in the Adobe system, but I no longer need to worry about Lightroom given the powerful photo processing features now in Resolve.
“The new Photo page in DaVinci Resolve 21 brings Hollywood’s most advanced colour tools to still photography for the first time,” said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO.
“Professional colourists and photographers now have access to the full DaVinci colour toolset and are able to build complex grades in a node-based workflow that goes far beyond the layer-based approach. They can also use all the DaVinci AI tools, ResolveFX, and FusionFX and collaborate globally in real time. It’s going to be amazing to see creativity flourish with these tools.”
Don’t forget, Resolve is available in a free and paid Studio version, while Premiere Pro is an expensive subscription service. Once you own Resolve, that’s it.
PHOTO PAGE
DaVinci Resolve is cherished by colourists around the world for filmmaking, and now a new Photo page allows users to import and manage photographs, integrating with the colour page for node-based grading. This means colourists and photographers can use Hollywood colour grading tools on still images.
An editor can use primary colour correction, curves, qualifiers, power windows, and node editor across an entire project. Plus, customers can use a DaVinci colour panel to adjust multiple parameters at once.
Once you get used to a node-based workflow, there is no looking back. It’s possible to add nodes in series or parallel to build complex grades, apply different corrections to different parts of an image simultaneously, and use shared nodes to apply the same look across an entire album of photos at once.
The Photo page allows editors to reframe and crop images at their original source resolution and aspect ratio. Every adjustment preserves the full quality of their original file, so customers can refine their composition at any time without ever affecting image quality.
LightBox view on the Photo page gives an overview of an entire album with grades applied. Select any image and grade it live while seeing the results update across the whole collection in real time. Filter by graded, ungraded, star rating, flag, and clip colour for fast library management.
Albums allow editors to build and manage collections directly in DaVinci. Create albums based on shoot days, camera models, or any desired criteria, and save countless hours by tagging and making raw setting adjustments in batches. Albums appear as timelines on the Colour, Cut, and Edit pages for easy access.
Camera Controls enable editors to tether a Sony or Canon camera directly to DaVinci Resolve for live image capture. Adjust camera settings such as ISO, exposure, white balance, monitor with live view, and save capture presets to lock in a consistent look before customers shoot. Images save directly into an album.
Resolve FX and Open FX plug-in support is available for still images on the Photo page, effects, graphics, transforms, and DCTLs. Looks can be applied directly in the Photo page with the help of LUTs or generate LUTs to later apply looks in-camera or while monitoring.
Creators can access DaVinci Resolve’s native AI tools within the Photo page. Tools like the AI Magic Mask let customers make one-click selections of an object or person, and separately colour grade different elements on an image. Or use the new AI UltraSharpen to upscale low-resolution images.
The Photo page is also integrated into DaVinci Resolve’s multiuser collaboration workflow using Blackmagic Cloud. Customers can share the contents of albums, all associated metadata and tags, and all grades and effects with colourists, visual effects artists, and editors, simultaneously anywhere in the world.
This update is massive. Check out some of the other important changes below.
MONO TO STEREO AUDIO
This seems like a trivial thing to start the rest of the updates with, but I can tell you this is huge. When dragging mono clips into a stereo timeline, the audio will now automatically play in both the left and right channels.
INTELLISEARCH
Instantly search for people and content with AI IntelliSearch. Analyse media and use the IntelliSearch tool to find specific objects or keywords in dialog. Customers can even search for individual faces. Results appear as whole clips in the Media Pool for faster clip organisation and editing.
AI SPEECH GENERATOR
An editor can generate speech from written text using one of Blackmagic’s voice models or a sample of their own using AI Speech Generator. The DaVinci AI Neural Engine can create a unique voice from as little as a 10-second clip. Adjust speed, pitch, and even inflection to create multiple performances for voiceovers, narration, and more.
AI CINEFOCUS
Define the focal point of a shot with AI CineFocus. Click to focus on a particular area of a scene and adjust aperture and focal range to change the depth of field. Advanced controls let customers select the aperture shape and add optical effects like bokeh. You can also keyframe parameters to rack focus.
AI FACE AGE TRANSFORMER
I can’t wait to make myself look younger in reviews. Now you can change a subject’s age with the AI Face Age Transformer tool. Analyse a face, enter the subject’s age, and adjust the age offset slider to add or remove age-related features, such as wrinkles and facial fullness.
AI FACE RESHAPER
The AI Face Reshaper lets customers change facial features’ shape and position on a moving subject. After detecting and tracking a face in a clip, use the AI Face Reshaper parameters to adjust the eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows, and overall face shape. Manual controls let customers fine-tune the resulting face.
AI BLEMISH REMOVAL
The AI Blemish Removal tool is perfect for reducing the appearance of superficial skin imperfections such as acne, discolouration, spots, and pores while retaining the texture of the natural skin. Use the strength slider to adjust the intensity of the tool to better suit the subject in the scene.
AI SLATE ID
AI Slate ID automatically detects the slate clapperboard details. It intelligently extracts metadata from the slate in the frame, even in dark or out-of-focus clips, saving hours in metadata entry.
AI ULTRASHARPEN
DaVinci’s most advanced sharpening tool to date lets customers produce significantly clearer, high-quality moving images. Use AI UltraSharpen with upscaled videos to make previously unusable footage sharp in higher resolutions. AI UltraSharpen can also be used to improve or fix slight focus errors.
AI MOTION DEBLUR
Remove common motion blur artefacts, such as streaks and softness, from video content using AI Motion Deblur. Analyse the source media file and generate a new render with significantly reduced blurring for more dynamic images. This tool is best used for more impactful slow motion and freeze frame effects.
KEYFRAMING
Keyframing updates include new ease animations with loop, ping-pong and relative modes plus simultaneous adjustments to multiple clips. The curves editor’s normalised zoom mode automatically scales curves to fill the available vertical space. Four-point Bezier easing supports complex video retiming.
Editors can now adjust Fusion effects directly in the keyframes and curves editors of the cut and edit pages. This allows for more seamless workflows as customers tweak text, transitions and motion graphics without leaving the editing pages. For advanced VFX adjustments, simply click the Fusion button.
GRAPHICS SUPPORT
Native support for OGraf HTML graphics and Lottie animations means that customers can now drag .json and .lottie files directly into the media pool, where they will be treated like fully rendered animation clips. Alpha channels are recognised, allowing customers to layer graphics and titles over video tracks.
SPELL CHECK
Users can now enable multi-language spell check for all text elements, preview fonts in a dedicated font browser window and use emojis in their text. Character-level styling lets customers assign different attributes such as font size, weight and colour within a single text box, simplifying title design.
SMART BINS
In the cut page, the bin list dropdown now features smart bins and quick access buttons for creating new bins. Smart bins allow customers to design sophisticated media pool filters based on a wide range of rules and criteria. For example, filtering to display only .braw clips that have been flagged green.
MULTIMASTER TRIM MANAGER
The MultiMaster trim manager allows customers to generate multiple HDR and SDR trim deliverables from a single timeline. When enabled, the node editor will display additional layers for trim operations, allowing customers to colour manage the timeline for each output standard and render each iteration in one go.
MAGIC MASK RENDER IN PLACE
The Magic Mask palette now features a render in place option, allowing users to cache a tracked mask as a travelling matte node. The resulting matte will automatically link to their active node, allowing editors to continue grading and applying effects in real time, with significantly lighter processing.
TIDY NODES
Nodes are listed in rows according to their number in the node graph. This typically results in a less crowded interface and allows for easier node management when adding, labelling, switching, locking, bypassing, and removing nodes.
KROKODOVE COLLECTION
Fusion now proudly features Krokodove, the popular and ever-growing library of compositing tools. The collection ranges from utility tools that improve productivity, to essential vector and data tools, to customisable 2D and 3D graphic templates that can be used throughout DaVinci Resolve.
MACRO EDITOR
Building Fusion tools and templates is now even easier with the updated macro editor. Significant interface improvements make developing custom tools and templates faster and more intuitive. Use the newly supported inspector view to effortlessly set up, format, and publish macros for immediate use.
FAIRLIGHT ANIMATOR
The Fairlight Animator modifier connects Fusion to Fairlight’s audio engine, enabling automatic animation based on audio analysis. The audio levels from timeline clips or media pool sources are used to drive the control of parameters such as eyes and lips, giving customers dynamic animation.
USD TOOLSET
The USD toolset has been updated to USD SDK 25.11 with Hydra 2.0 API for the Storm renderer. This gives VFX artists an improved Fusion USD environment, with support for 3D matte objects and textures, USD Texture Projector and Catcher, plus global in and out controls for the USD loader.
FAIRLIGHT COMPOSITE VIEW
To optimise Fairlight timeline space, customers can now assign audio tracks to a folder and collapse into a single composite view. When collapsed, mini rectangles represent the folder contents, indicating the number and duration of the contained clips. Expand a folder to access individual tracks.
IMMERSIVE MEDIA
Apple Immersive’s powerful image processing now includes support for foveated rendering for improved playback and enhanced viewer experience. Foveated rendering simulates human vision by prioritising high-resolution rendering only where customers are looking, reducing GPU workload in peripheral vision.
The standard immersive option in the master project settings allows customers to work with any supported immersive formats for delivery to platforms, such as Meta Quest and YouTube VR.
It is now possible to orient immersive media using spherical Panomap rotation for more intuitive pitch, tilt, pan, yaw, and roll adjustments. Additionally, it is now possible to apply ILPD retargeting data in the Fusion page, allowing for more advanced stereoscopic media handling and compositing.
PICTURE IN PICTURE
The new Picture in Picture Resolve FX allows creators to quickly resize and reposition a video clip over the top of another clip as a floating frame. Perfect for presentations, reviews, and reaction videos. Users can adjust parameters such as size, placement, frame rounding, drop shadow, and many more.
INTELLISCRIPT
IntelliScript now supports Final Draft and plain text screenplay formats, allowing customers to assemble timelines quickly. Upon import, it compares the script text to the original transcribed audio and creates a cut of the scene. Editors can then fine-tune the result using standard editing tools.
MEDIA MANAGEMENT
New media pool columns help further improve media management. Access the new rating and tagging parameters in the shot and scene category of the metadata panel. Editors can rate clips on a five-star rating system, or use the tags Good Take, Untagged, Rejected to filter optimal takes and performances.
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
DaVinci Resolve 21 public beta is available now for download free of charge from the Blackmagic Design website.
