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FilmSkool — a free film school

3 Proven Commercial Looks That Make Projects Look Expensive

Frenchie Color Grading demonstrates three commercial grading looks in DaVinci Resolve, each built to make a low-budget spot read as a more expensive production.

Frenchie Color Grading · 10 min · Intermediate · COL · Color · 2025

What you take away

Pick one of these three looks and build it as a reusable powergrade.

Watch it

Filed under

Films to study for colour

Books on colour

Color Grading 101 — Charles Haine
Color Correction Handbook — Alexis Van Hurkman
Color and Mastering for Digital Cinema — Glenn Kennel
If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die — Patti Bellantoni
The Secret Lives of Colour — Kassia St Clair
The Camera — Ansel Adams

Kit for this lesson

Aputure MC Pro — Pocket RGBWW — an eye light that fits in a pocket
Aputure Light Dome Mini III — The Dome for small rooms and small fixtures
Amaran COB 60x S — Small, battery-friendly, a good first fixture
Aputure Light Dome III — The softbox most Bowens fixtures wear
SIRUI Nightwalker T1.2 cine prime set — Three fast Super 35 primes for the price of one lens
Rokinon Cine DS prime bundle — Geared manual primes — most people’s first cine set

More Color

Grade School: Watch a Senior Colorist Color Grade in Real Time — Cullen Kelly · 22m · Advanced
5 Levels of Look Development in Color Grading - Cullen Kelly [ResolveCon '24 - Day 3] (HQ) — Casey Faris · 41m · Advanced
How a Pro Colorist uses film grain — Cullen Kelly · 16m · Advanced
Color grading | Color science | Computer Animation | Khan Academy — Khan Academy Labs · 2m · Intermediate
My Perfect Node Tree for Color Grading - Darren Mostyn [ResolveCon '24 - Day 2] — Casey Faris · 36m · Advanced
Introduction to gamuts | Color science | Computer animation | Khan Academy — Khan Academy Labs · 2m · Intermediate
Masterclass in color grading with Mark Todd Osborne — Lowepost · 32m · Advanced
CIE chromaticity diagram | Color science | Computer Animation | Khan Academy — Khan Academy Labs · 2m · Intermediate
How Professional Colorists Read Scopes featuring Darren Mostyn — timeinpixels · 15m · Intermediate
Halation effect: What is it and why is it important for the film emulation? — Dehancer · 13m · Intermediate
I wish I knew this when I started color grading | DaVinci Resolve — Waqas Qazi · 14m · Beginner
Learn professional color grading and look development in DaVinci Resolve. — Lowepost · 27m · Intermediate

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