07:59Hermanos Bander · Tutorial
Turn Any Footage Cinematic in DaVinci Resolve With Just 3 Nodes
A colorist builds a full cinematic grade in DaVinci Resolve's free version using only three nodes, no plugins required.
November 7th 2025The argument in one line.
DaVinci Resolve 21's Photo page turns raw-photo import, culling, and grading into one nondestructive workflow inside the same app used for video, so an edit made to a still automatically propagates to every timeline that references it.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You already edit video in DaVinci Resolve and also shoot stills you currently process in a separate raw editor.
- You want a photo edit (crop, white balance, grade) to stay linked to one source file that's reused across several video timelines, instead of exporting a flattened copy each time.
- You're a hybrid shooter who wants raw import, culling, and grading handled without leaving your video NLE.
- You're tracking what's new in Resolve 21 specifically for photographers.
SKIP IF…
- You don't shoot raw stills, or you only ever receive pre-edited JPEGs.
- You need a full catalog-level photo library manager — this is a page inside a video editor, not a Lightroom or Capture One replacement.
The full version, fast.
DaVinci Resolve 21 introduces a dedicated Photo page for organizing, culling, and grading raw stills (Canon CR2, Sony ARW, iPhone DNG, JPEG) inside the same app used for video editing. Photos are grouped into albums, adjusted nondestructively through the same node-based color engine as the Color page, and edits are written to the source clip in the media pool — meaning any timeline that reuses that photo inherits the change automatically, the same principle as remote grades. New AI clip analysis indexes every photo so it can be searched by plain-language description instead of manual keywording, and a batch export tool processes an entire album or just the picks using full GPU acceleration, with metadata preserved on export.
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00:00 – 00:12
01 · Cold open
Presenter introduces the new Photo page and what it does: organize, cull, develop, and grade raw stills.
00:12 – 00:28
02 · Import to Photo Page
Imports a media folder containing mixed raw formats — Canon CR2, Sony ARW, iPhone raw DNG — plus JPEGs, all through the standard media pool import.
00:28 – 00:55
03 · Create a Photo Album
Drags photos from the media pool into a photo album panel to process a whole shoot at once; album strip navigates with up/down arrow keys and is locked on the Edit page.
00:55 – 01:34
04 · Album Rules
Explains where albums are usable (Photo, Fusion, Color pages) and the core rule: photo adjustments are nondestructive but write to the source in the media pool, so every timeline using that photo inherits the edit — the same idea as a remote grade.
01:34 – 02:19
05 · Photo Inspector
Tours the Photo page inspector: RAW decode controls (camera format override, decode quality, white balance), scopes (parade/waveform/vectorscope/histogram), and basic transform/crop controls, plus source looks as starting presets.
02:19 – 03:11
06 · Color Page Node 1
Shows that a Photo-page color adjustment is actually written to the first node on the Color page, so the same photo can be graded further with full node-based tools; sliders like temperature stay in sync across both pages.
03:11 – 03:46
07 · Fusion Clone Paint & Culling
Opens the Fusion page on a still to clone-paint out a distracting object, then demonstrates culling: S to mark a pick, X to mark a reject, same key again to undo, with a filter to view only picks.
03:46 – 04:38
08 · AI Visual Search
Runs AI clip analysis (IntelliSearch) across the media pool so photos can be found by typing a plain-language term like 'dog'; results can be right-clicked into a new photo album instantly.
04:38 – 05:13
09 · Effects
Applies installed Resolve FX directly on the Photo page — demonstrates Film Look Creator (film grain) and a lens flare effect that can be repositioned on the image.
05:13 – 06:11
10 · Crop and Transform
Walks through the on-image crop, rotate, and effect-position tools: aspect-ratio presets, a rotation handle with a pro-tip about drag distance controlling sensitivity, and scroll-wheel zoom to fill cropped edges.
06:11 – 06:45
11 · Batch Export
Uses Quick Export to batch-develop and export an entire album or just the selected picks to common still formats with metadata preserved, accelerated by GPU; sign-off.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- Photo adjustments write directly to the source clip in the media pool, so any video timeline reusing that photo inherits the edit automatically — the same mechanism as remote grades on the Color page.
- The Photo page ingests Canon CR2, Sony ARW, iPhone raw DNG, and JPEG through the same import flow, so mixed-camera shoots don't need format-specific handling.
- A color adjustment made on the Photo page's basic controls is actually applied to the first node on the Color page, so you can jump into full node-based grading on the same image at any point.
- All photo edits stay nondestructive until the moment of export — unlike destructive raster edits in an app like Photoshop.
- Culling uses two keys: S tags a photo as a pick, X tags it as a reject, and pressing the same key again undoes the tag.
- The Fusion page can open directly on a still image, so distracting elements (like a stray object in a snow photo) can be clone-painted out without leaving Resolve.
- AI clip analysis (IntelliSearch) indexes every photo and video frame so a plain-language search term — like 'dog' — surfaces every matching photo without any manual keywording.
- Search results from AI visual search can be right-clicked and turned directly into a new photo album from the selected results.
- Batch export of a photo album uses the same GPU acceleration as Resolve's video render pipeline, making raw develop-and-export noticeably faster than a CPU-bound photo app.
- Resolve 21's photo export now preserves file metadata, which the presenter notes as new in this version.
One edit, linked everywhere the photo is used
WHAT TO LEARN
The core idea worth taking from this isn't a button location — it's the nondestructive, source-linked editing model: an edit written once propagates everywhere that asset is used, and a plain-language search beats manual keywording every time.
02Import to Photo Page
- Format-agnostic raw handling — mixing Canon CR2, Sony ARW, and iPhone DNG in the same batch import — removes the excuse to sort a shoot by camera brand before you start working.
03Create a Photo Album
- Grouping an entire shoot into one album before touching a single image keeps culling and grading consistent across the batch instead of ad hoc per photo.
- A locked, photo-only strip that looks like a timeline but isn't prevents you from accidentally treating still assets like video clips and vice versa.
04Album Rules
- An edit that writes back to the source asset — rather than creating a new derivative file — means every place that asset is reused inherits the change automatically, cutting out repeat work entirely.
05Photo Inspector
- Reviewing raw decode settings and scopes before any creative grading catches exposure and white-balance problems at the cheapest point to fix them.
06Color Page Node 1
- Adjustments made through a simplified basic panel are still fully compatible with a deeper node-based tool underneath, so a quick pass now doesn't lock you out of a more advanced pass later.
07Fusion Clone Paint & Culling
- Nondestructive editing that only commits at export time means you can experiment freely without ever risking the original file, unlike destructive raster editing.
- A two-key system (pick / reject) with instant undo makes a full cull pass on a large batch fast enough that it stops being a chore you put off.
08AI Visual Search
- AI-driven search-by-description removes the requirement to manually tag or keyword a media library before it becomes searchable.
- Search results that convert directly into a new saved collection turn a one-off search into a reusable, sharable set.
09Effects
- Effects, crop, and transform tools that are shared with the video-editing side of the same tool remove the tax of learning a second, separate toolset for stills.
10Crop and Transform
- A rotation control that gets less sensitive the farther you drag from center is a small but deliberate precision trick worth noticing in any tool with a similar handle.
11Batch Export
- Batch processing that uses hardware acceleration rather than single-threaded CPU work is the difference between exporting a shoot in minutes versus tying up your machine for an hour.
Terms worth knowing.
- Photo page
- A dedicated workspace in DaVinci Resolve 21 for importing, organizing, culling, and grading raw and JPEG still images, separate from the video-editing pages.
- Photo album
- A collection of stills dragged out of the media pool onto a dedicated strip for viewing and processing as a set, similar in layout to a timeline but locked to photos only.
- Remote grade
- A Resolve concept where a color adjustment is written back to the source clip itself, so every place that clip is used inherits the change automatically.
- Nondestructive editing
- An editing approach where adjustments are stored as instructions layered over the original file rather than overwriting the pixels, so the original data is recoverable until export.
- IntelliSearch / AI clip analysis
- Resolve's AI indexing feature that analyzes every frame of video or photo so it can later be found by typing a plain-language description instead of manual keywords.
- Source look
- A stylized preset grade applied at the raw-decode stage of an image, offered as a starting point before further manual adjustment.
- Culling
- The process of reviewing a batch of photos and marking each one as a keeper (pick) or a reject so only the best images move forward in the workflow.
Things they pointed at.
Lines you could clip.
01:16
“Photo adjustments... they're applied to the source and the media pool. What that means is if you do photo edits and then you use that photo in several video timelines, those adjustments are already done. They're linked across the whole project.”
04:08
“This could save so much time from manually keywording photos like some caveman.”
05:43
“When you export, it's real fast because it actually uses all of the GPU power like you would expect out of a proper video editing system.”
Word for word.
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analogy
DaVinci Resolve 21 introduces a brand new photo workflow with a dedicated page to organize, call, develop, and grade your raw still images. Let me show you what it can do.
To start, you can click in the upper left icon of the media pool. I'll choose import media folder with all of my photos. Some of these are Canon raw c r two files, some are Sony a r w's.
There's even raw d n g off the iPhone, and of course, JPEGs work as well. Next, you'll wanna create an album. Drag photos from the media pool down to the photo album panel that's down below.
You can just select a few if you want or more likely, drag them all down to process like an entire photoshoot at once. Once they're on an album, you can close the media pool in the upper left to get more viewer space.
You can navigate the photo album with just the up and down keys on the keyboard for fast navigation, and the album strip is kind of like a video timeline, but it's not. Okay? It's only for photos.
In fact, if you open this on the edit page, you're gonna find it's locked. It has a great play head with no edit control. Albums are for the photo page, the fusion page, and the color page.
Now back to the new photo page in Resolve 21. Now a key takeaway here is that photo adjustments, one, they're nondestructively, but they're applied to the source and the media pool.
What that means is if you do photo edits and then you use that photo in several video timelines, those adjustments are already done. They're linked across the whole project.
If you're familiar with the idea of remote grades in the color page, it's really a similar concept. Photo inspector. In the upper right inspector, there's the raw controls for your raw images.
These are the initial image processing controls. This happens first. Here, you can also override those default project settings for camera formats if you wanna work in a different log format for instance.
You'll also find familiar scopes to objectively evaluate things like balance, uh, saturation, and contrast.
The photo page section of the inspector has controls for your basic transform and crop controls, but more on that with the viewer controls coming up in a few minutes. There are source looks right here, which are stylized preset grades to get you started.
And then below, you'll find the basic color and contrast adjustments. When you make an adjustment here, it's actually applied to the very first node on the color page. So if you wanna jump over there and continue working, you certainly can.
You can actually see temperature here on the photo page is the same temperature slider when I open the color page in the primaries. In fact, it's worth noting that you can apply your color workflow that you already know and love directly as nodes on the color page and then freely hop back to the photo page for organization and culling.
Let's go back to the photo page though because, well, it's new and fun. If you wanna reset the controls, just double click the slider name, and that rule will reset any changes that you had made. To reset all adjustments, in the upper right corner, there's a three dot options menu that you can remove and reset changes there as well on a larger scale.
It's important to remember all photo edits you do here are completely nondestructive until you export, which is unlike a lot of manipulations you might do in Photoshop. In fact, you can even open the fusion page to clone paint out a distracting stick from the snow on this photo that was with one of my dogs.
Culling your photo selects. So to mark your selects, just use s for selects to tag it with a hard or select or you might call it a pick or use x to tag it as a reject. And if you wanna just undo that, just tap the same key again.
Now you look on the far left side of the photo album, you can actually filter to view only the good selects. That's like a filter option over there. And obviously, there's other things like star ratings and more filter options as well.
AI visual search. So this may completely remove the process of keywording for a lot of you. You have this new ability where you can select all the photos in your media pool, and then at the top of there, you click this new button that says AI clip analysis.
If you analyze with the new IntelliSearch, Resolve is gonna index every frame of video or photo so that you can search for it later just by common language. After it's run the analysis, if I wanted to make an album with just my dogs, I could type dog into the search magnifying glass and it gives me all the results.
And then I just want to select all of them, uh, right click, and I can say new photo album using selected clips. Of course, I'll call it dogs and you could see this could save so much time from manually keywording photos like some caveman.
And it has so much enormous time savings potential as long as it recognizes things correctly. Right? Effects.
Now because we never left DaVinci Resolve to do photo editing, we have all of the installed effects from DaVinci Resolve right there at our fingertips on the photo page. Click effects palette in the upper left and search for film look creator. That's a good one.
Drag it onto the image, and you'll have access to all of those familiar controls like the beautiful film grain that's built into this effect. You can even add the lens flare effect and move it on screen.
This opens up so many options to make those old photos feel new and probably a little bit more filmic. Crop and transform. The lower left of the viewer has a special tools control.
Click it, and you get these familiar on image style kind of controls. I crop first. That's in the middle, so let's start there.
There's a drop down menu with some aspect ratio presets like one by one if you need to make it a square. After you crop, you might wanna adjust the rotation angle that's found with the center handle. Now here's a pro tip.
If you pull it out further from where it is, it'll actually rotate with less sensitivity. So once you're happy with the horizon line being lined up with rotation, if you need to zoom in to fix those edges that have like black corners, you can zoom in with the scroll wheel of the mouse to fill the cropped frame boundaries.
The third on screen tool is for those effects like a lens flare. Just make sure the effect is selected in the inspector, and then you can manipulate the position directly on the image.
Finally, to exit those on screen tools, click the tool slider icon in the lower left of the photo page viewer. Batch export. To quickly batch export your photos and develop the raws, at the top, you'll see a quick export option.
This will have all those common still image file formats, which also will include the metadata, which as far as I know is new in Resolve in this version. So you can choose to, uh, export the entire album or just the selected images. And when you export, it's real fast because it actually uses all of the GPU power like you would expect out of a proper video editing system.
My name is Chadwick. Thank you so much for watching. And because there's so much more to learn, I'll see you in the next video.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Resolve has always had a Color page for grading video, but stills got no equivalent — until now. This walkthrough shows the new Photo page end to end: importing mixed raw formats, culling with two keystrokes, grading through the same node engine as video, and batch-exporting a finished album with GPU acceleration.
Named ideas worth stealing.
00:19list
Supported raw & still formats
- Canon .CR2
- Sony .ARW
- iPhone raw .DNG
- JPEG
The Photo page ingests every common raw format alongside JPEGs through one import flow, so a mixed-camera shoot doesn't need separate handling per format.
Steal fora raw-import checklist for any mixed-camera photo shoot
03:29list
Culling keys
- S = mark as pick/select
- X = mark as reject
- press the same key again to undo
Two keystrokes cover the entire cull pass, with a one-key undo and a filter to view only the picks afterward.
Steal forany fast photo-culling pass
01:16concept
Nondestructive-until-export model
Every photo adjustment is layered as instructions over the source file and only becomes permanent at export — unlike destructive raster edits in an app like Photoshop.
Steal forexplaining node-based vs. destructive photo editing
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
06:22next-video
“My name is Chadwick. Thank you so much for watching. And because there's so much more to learn, I'll see you in the next video.”
Soft, single-sentence sign-off with a generic next-video tease — no explicit subscribe ask, no product pitch inside the video itself (affiliate links are only in the description).
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PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
Visual structure at a glance.
