Choosing the right tone curve when calibrating for Resolve

[Anton]

Hey guys,

I am currently trying to calibrate my secondary “reference” grading screen, Dell U2515H, for use as my GUI Monitor, as I cannot afford a decklink or better monitor yet.

I followed the wiki, but can’t decide on a few things:

1. I will create almost exclusively content for web (Vimeo/YouTube). What Gamma settings should I change/use? Would it be intelligent to directly work in Gamma 2.2 only, or should I calibrate for 2.4 and then convert into 2.2 at the end/when exporting?

2. Should I set the Tone Curve in calibration to “As measured”? (I guess that’s gamma 2.2 for my screen”

3. What should I set source color space and tone curve in the 3D Lut tab to?

4. When I leave the Tone Curve in calibration tab as measured, I should leave “Do not use video card gamma table” toggled OFF right? What if I want to still use gimp/darktable besides Resolve?

5. What should I set my resolve timeline gamma to?

I do try to understand what each gamma setting is for and how gamma works. But there are a lot of different points to set gamma, which confuses me :/

Thanks for helping!

Anton

• This topic was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by Anton.

[MW]

I set calibration to gamma 2.2. My 3DLUT tab uses defaults. That way I can use BT.1886 gamma in Resovle. In non color-managed programs gamma 2.2 will be used. Make your content look reasonably good in both modes.

[Anton]

But should I really chose BT.1886 when my videos are for web and therefore will probably be played on Gamma 2.2 Displays?
And when you calibrate for Gamma 2.2 in the calibration tab, you turn on the advanced option  “Do not use video card gamma table”, right?

[MW]

I set calibration to gamma 2.2. My 3DLUT tab uses defaults. That way I can use BT.1886 gamma in Resovle. In non color-managed programs gamma 2.2 will be used. Make your content look reasonably good in both modes

No, I set up an exception for Resolve in the Profile Loader and it disables the video card gamma table when Resolve runs.

BT.1886 is variable, on an IPS display it will turn out as an average gamma of around 2.2 with shadows expand to account for non-zero black levels. On an OLED it turns out to a pure gamma 2.4. Stock displays are all other the place, most averaging to gamma 2.2, some in the last five years follow BT.1866. I trust the defaults and the science behind BT.1886 allowing for a reference that’s valid for displays with varying characteristics. The best thing is to evaluate your work at your friends house, on your phone etc. Then you know how your work actually holds up. For photos I use gamma 2.2 because BT.1886 is a video standard primarily.

[Anton]

Okay, but what settings for gamma do you use in Resolve?

[Anton]

Should I set resolve to BT.1886 too?

[MW]

I don’t think so. BT.1886 pertains to the display, while Rec709 pertains to the content. I would leave settings at default and let the 3DLUT do it’s job.

[Author]

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