Tutorials Motion Graphics

How to Color Grade a Talking Head in DaVinci Resolve

Intermediate · ~45 min

Overview

A colour grade for a talking head video has two phases: primary correction (making the image technically accurate: white balance, exposure, contrast) and creative grade (adding a consistent look or mood). For most YouTube and interview content, a clean primary correction with minimal creative grade is the right approach.

What You Need

DaVinci Resolve (free) with your footage in the timeline
A calibrated monitor, or at minimum, accurate headphones to judge skintones with your eyes
Optional: a colour calibration card shot at the beginning of your recording

Steps

Set up the Color page

Switch to the Color page in DaVinci Resolve. You'll see the timeline at the bottom, the viewer in the centre, and scopes (Waveform, Parade, Vectorscope) in the upper left. Enable View → Show Scopes if they're not visible. Switch the scope to Parade (RGB waveform side by side). This is the most useful scope for primary correction. The Color Wheels and Curves are your primary tools.

Correct white balance with Temperature and Tint

In the Color Wheels panel, you'll see Temperature and Tint sliders at the top. Watch the Parade scope: if the red channel sits higher than blue, the image is warm, reduce Temperature (drag left). If blue is higher than red, increase Temperature. Tint corrects for green/magenta casts. Aim to balance the three channels in the Parade scope in the areas representing white or neutral grey in the image. A person's white shirt or the whites of eyes are useful reference points.

Set exposure and contrast with Lift/Gamma/Gain

Switch to the Waveform scope. Lift controls the darkest areas (shadows), drag the Lift wheel down to deepen blacks until the bottom of the waveform just touches 0. Gain controls the brightest areas (highlights). Set the top of the waveform to around 70 to 80% for a face to avoid clipping. Gamma controls the midtones (the face itself), adjust until the face reads as the correct exposure. These three controls together give you a clean, technically correct starting image.

Check and protect skin tones

Switch the scope to Vectorscope. There is a line pointing toward the "Skin Tone Indicator" at about 10 o'clock on the vectorscope. All human skin tones, regardless of ethnicity, should fall on or near this line. If they don't, your white balance is slightly off, or you have a tint issue. Adjust Temperature and Tint until skin tones sit on the skin tone line. This is the most reliable objective check for portrait-style colour correction.

Apply a subtle creative grade

For YouTube and interview content, keep creative grading minimal. A common approach: slightly cool the shadows (shift Lift wheel toward blue/cyan) and slightly warm the highlights (shift Gain wheel toward orange). This creates a warm-shadow contrast reminiscent of cinematic grades without looking processed. Alternatively, apply a LUT from a subtle pack at 30 to 50% opacity. For all creative decisions: if your viewer notices the grade, it's too heavy.

Pro Tips

Grade one representative clip first, then use DaVinci's still feature to copy the grade to all similar clips: right-click the graded clip in the timeline → Grab Still, then apply to selected clips via the Gallery.
Use our Color Grading Palette to extract a colour palette from a reference frame before grading.
Work from Log footage if your camera supports it. Log captures more dynamic range and gives you more flexibility in the grade than Rec.709.

Knowledge Base

What You'll Learn

Learn to color-grade talking-head interviews and podcasts so skin tones look natural, eyes catch light, and background supports the subject. Proper color grading makes amateur footage look professional and ensures consistent look across all interview segments.

The Color Grade Foundation

Exposure: Subject should be bright enough to see all detail. Not over-exposed (blown highlights on face) or under-exposed (dark, muddy).
White Balance: Skin tone should feel natural, not orange-yellow or blue-gray. Adjust to match room lighting.
Contrast: Add punch by darkening blacks and brightening highlights slightly. Avoid flat, washed-out looks.

Creating Dimension

Use three-point color: shadows slightly cool (blue/cyan), midtones warm (orange/amber), highlights bright and neutral. This creates visual depth and makes skin tones pop. Background should be slightly darker and desaturated to keep focus on the subject.

Consistency Across Multiple Clips

Grade your first interview, then save as preset/LUT. Apply to all other interviews, then fine-tune each clip for exposure differences. This ensures all interviews look like they were shot under the same lighting.

Monitoring While You Grade

Use a waveform monitor to ensure skin tones sit around 60-70 IRE. Use vectorscope to check color balance. Reference on your external monitor, not just the editing display.

Where This Fits

This guide covers one specific part of colour and grading. The wider picture, grading in Resolve from a technically correct starting point through building a look that holds up across a sequence, is in Color Grading in DaVinci Resolve, which frames the discipline as a whole and links out to the detailed guides underneath it, including this one. If you are starting from scratch rather than solving a specific problem, read that first and come back here.

FAQ

Q: Should I grade in Log or Rec.709?
A: If camera shot in Log, grade there first. Rec.709 has less latitude but is faster for already-corrected footage.