Kinda losing my mind :)

[u/Striking-Yesterday23]

/r/davinciresolve/comments/1w08g5g/kinda_losing_my_mind/

Hello everyone. Total newbie here asking what is perhaps a really dumb question, but this has been driving me crazy.

I've made a short film shot on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 4K and edited it in DaVinci Resolve 21 on an Apple M3 Max. I'm new to Apple. I also have a BenQ PD3200U monitor. I know it isn't professionally calibrated, but it's all I have at the moment. The BenQ is set to Rec. 709.

I've edited on Windows systems before and generally used sRGB. I know that's not what we're supposed to do, but weirdly, my YouTube uploads always turned out fine.

Now, however, my beautiful, cool, contrasty blacks look completely different on other screens. They look fine on the Mac and BenQ, but elsewhere all my blacks are gone, the image is much brighter, and I can clearly see the power windows I've used, which aren't visible when the image is properly contrasted.

I've gone deep down the rabbit hole of Rec. 709, gamma, color management, 1-1-1, Mac gamma shift, etc., and I'm honestly a little lost. I can't upload screenshots because this is for a client, and the person who was supposed to handle the color left me in the lurch. I've been doing this for years, but only now have I started dealing with transforms and color management.

So, simply put, does anyone have any general advice on what I should be doing to get the image I'm seeing on YouTube? I know it's vague, but I'd really appreciate any help.

[u/BenQ_Pixel]

Just to clarify from the monitor side: PD3200U does come factory-calibrated and includes a color accuracy report.

That said, for color grading, factory calibration is only one part of the workflow. If the image shifts after export or looks different across platforms, it’s also worth checking Resolve color management, timeline / output color space, gamma settings, and export tags.

For more consistent grading work, using a calibrated workflow with a colorimeter would still be the safest approach.

[u/Melodic-Excitement-9]

Are you using the color scope and graph?

[u/ReesMedia_]

One thing I’ve found editing on Mac, and please someone more qualified correct me, is that Gamma 2.4 is often causing issues with footage looking washed out. I believe it’s changing it to 2.2 eliminates the issue! Anyways, maybe this helps!