Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and DaVinci Resolve (DR) Workflow

[17barski]

I'm trying to establish the best workflow for color correcting/grading. Initially I planned to use solely DR, however, after some tests, I came to the conclusion that ACR debayering engine provides much higher quality results. The problem is that I still want to use the benefits that DR has to offer. So my proposed workflow is as follows:

1. Load the .dng's into ACR
2. Modify basic sliders i.e. exposure, sharpness, noise (leave other sliders to prevent flickering during playback)
3. Use VisionLOG profile
4. Export as uncompressed 16-bit .tif's
5. Load the .tif files into DR and  color correct/grade the footage

The VisionLog profile compresses the histogram and should prevent clamping of shadows/highlights when transferring from ACR to DR. The 16-bit .tif's should preserve all the color information for grading. So I ask you more experienced users if this workflow makes sense? Or would it be better to just use DR debayering and grade raw .dng's? I just want to make sure i'm not wasting important data during the conversion.

Thanks for your help, ML is great!

[Flocksock]

I don't think ACR technic is better. It "seems" better with 25% sharpening. But sometimes thats to much.
You should compare non-sharpening dng files in ACR and DR. And i don't think ACR is better.
Of course you can us "flat picture" style to have alot of information but its not the same like having real RAW Data
in DR. Or real raw in ACR to work with.

my current worflow is:
convert to DNG Files. do everything in Resolve. And thats it.
I cannot undertsand people who are switching to Premiere for editing?
Davinci Resolve is fast. And Version 12.5 is great.
Even if you lose some details. (when you say ACR is better)
grade files in AVC than RV. Do tests. and take a closer look to the final video. and check
what looks/feels better.

working RAW in After Effects or Premiere is pain. If you convert to tiff. you can stay in premiere/AE.
If you want to work with RAW, do it in DR. imho. (not with tiffs)

[jmanord]

I didn't find noticeable difference with sharpness between the two, but ACR(Lightroom in my case) was much better at recovering highlight information without introducing artifacts to the image. Lightroom has a nice auto-stacking feature that makes browsing clips much easier, depending on how you structure them. Lens correction, Hue vs Luminance, and spatial noise reduction in Lightroom are a few other tools that are lacking/missing in the free version of Resolve. I'm still trying to figure out an efficient workflow, but 90% of the corrections I do to the image can be done in Lightroom. As of now:

1. Mount MLVs with MLVFS ( Resolve naming and vertical stripe fix options on)
2. Run the cdngs through slimRaw 10bit lossless encoding
3. Import the dngs in Lightroom, auto-stack, and collapse all stacks. (Default processing includes applying CinelogDCP with a basic starting grade, eg sat. and s-curve)
4. Edit while avoiding Shadows, Highlight, Contrast, Clarity, and Whites ( > 0 ) controls
5. Shift + Click to select all photos in stack then sync settings
5. Export 16-bit tiff with zip compression
6. Open tiff sequence in Resolve and edit

[QuickHitRecord]

I've also found that ACR is better at recovering highlights, and that is really valuable to me. But I've experienced a quirk that has kept me from using ACR (in Photoshop CC 2015.5). When I apply my adjustments to a single frame and then attempt to "sync" to the rest of the thumbnails in the left column, the adjustments will not be applied unless I scroll down so that they are visible in the left sidebar. I end up having to do a lot of scrolling for every clip! Anyone know how to get around that?

[Flocksock]

Maybe highlight recovery is better in ACR. (i don't know. i don't think its better. Its a bit different.)
But if you are doing all the work in Lightroom, than export tiff.
And work with tiffs in resolve...

you don't get the benefit of raw. raw is not only higlight recovery or black level.
if you want to desaturate one spezific color, or using color wheels its so much
better with dng files in Resolve, than with tiffs. (just sayin)