How to Use a ColorChecker 24 in DaVinci Resolve: Step-by-Step (2026)

To use a ColorChecker 24 in DaVinci Resolve, shoot a reference frame of the chart in your scene lighting, import the footage, navigate to the Color page, drag the chart frame onto a node, right-click and select Color Match, draw the chart bounds with the four corner handles, set your source and target gamuts, and click Match. Resolve generates a calibration LUT that you can apply to every clip from that lighting setup. The whole process takes about three minutes once you’ve done it a couple of times.

That’s the short version. What most tutorials skip is what to do when the auto-detect misses the patches, how to handle multiple cameras with one chart, and why your match looks great in Resolve but wrong on delivery. Below is the complete workflow with the details that matter.

I’ve helped colorists and DPs run this workflow at CalibVision for years. This guide assumes you know your way around the Color page; if you don’t, Blackmagic’s free training will get you there in an evening.

What You’ll Need Before You Start

Five things:

• A ColorChecker 24 — any size. For single-camera narrative or interview, the Classic at 216 × 279 mm is the right call. For multi-camera live or wide-set work, an XL at 570 × 370 mm so the B and C cameras 5+ meters away can still resolve the patches.
• DaVinci Resolve 18 or 19 — Free or Studio. Color Match works in the Free version, contrary to what some older tutorials claim. Studio adds a few more matching options (more on that in Step 4) but the core workflow is identical.
• Your video footage in a Resolve-supported format. RAW (BRAW, R3D, ARRIRAW) gives the most flexibility, but ProRes 422 HQ, H.265 10-bit, and most camera-native codecs work fine.
• About 5 GB of free disk space for cache and timeline storage during the process.
• About 10 minutes of uninterrupted time, especially the first time.

One quick clarification. The “Color Match” feature was introduced in Resolve 12.5 and has been refined in every release since. If you’re on Resolve 17 or older, the workflow is similar, but the UI looks like a different — upgrade if you can.

Step 1 — Shoot the Reference Frame on Set

Place the ColorChecker 24 in the scene where your subjects will be performing or being shot. Same lights, same modifiers, same camera distance, same lens, same exposure settings. Roll the camera for 3 to 5 seconds with the chart in frame. Then remove the chart and shoot your scene.

This is the most-failed step in the entire workflow, so worth being explicit about what “same” means:

• Same key light position and intensity. If your key moves between the reference shot and the scene, your match is wrong.
• Same camera ISO, shutter, and aperture. Auto-exposure on a video camera will drift between the chart shot and the scene shot — lock everything manually.
• Same white balance preset. Either lock to a Kelvin value (5600K daylight, 3200K tungsten) or to a custom white balance you’ve set on the camera. Auto WB ruins the workflow.
• Same color space and gamma curve. If you’re recording LOG (S-Log3, V-Log, C-Log3, Log3G10, BRAW Q0), shoot the chart in the exact same LOG curve as the rest of the footage. Don’t switch to Rec.709 for the chart.

Frame the chart so it occupies between 5 and 15 percent of the frame. Below 5%, Resolve’s chart detection becomes unreliable. Above 15%, you’re wasting frame space without gaining accuracy.

Two camera operator tips most guides leave out:

1. Hold the chart perpendicular to the lens, not perpendicular to the light. The angle that matters is the lens angle. If your key light is 45° off-axis from the camera, the chart still faces the camera, not the light.
2. Avoid specular reflections on the patches. A glossy ColorChecker face reflecting your key light into the lens creates a hot spot that breaks the match. Tilt the chart 5-10° away from the light if you see specular pop.

Step 2 — Import and Set Your Project Color Management

Open DaVinci Resolve. Create a new project (or open the project you’ll be working in). Before importing footage, set your project’s color management.

Go to File → Project Settings → Color Management.

For most narrative and commercial work, set:

• Color science: DaVinci YRGB Color Managed (DRCM)
• Color processing mode: HDR DaVinci Wide Gamut Intermediate (gives you the most headroom)
• Outputcolor space: Rec.709 Gamma 2.4 (standard delivery) or Rec.2100 ST2084 (HDR delivery)
• Timeline color space: DaVinci Wide Gamut / Intermediate

For ACES workflows:

• Color science: ACEScct
• ACES version: ACES 1.3 or higher
• ACES Output Transform: Rec.709 (or your delivery format)

Why this matters first: Color Match generates its calibration based on the input color space you tell Resolve the chart was shot in. If your project color management is wrong, the math is wrong even if the chart detection is perfect. Set this once at the start of every project and you avoid 90% of “the colors look weird” problems later.

Now import your footage normally — File → Import → Media — and drop the chart reference clip plus your scene clips onto a timeline.

Step 3 — Find the Frame and Pick Your Node

Switch to the Color page (the icon that looks like a color wheel, fourth from the right in the page tabs at the bottom).

In the timeline strip at the top of the Color page, scrub to your reference frame — the one with the ColorChecker visible. Pause on a frame where the chart is clearly visible and well-exposed. If you shot 3-5 seconds, pick a frame from the middle of that range.

Now look at the Node Graph in the upper right of the Color page. You’ll see one default node labeled “01” connected to the input.

For the Color Match workflow, you have a choice:

• Apply the match directly to the source clip — fast, simple, but locked to that one clip. Right-click on Node 01 with the chart frame loaded.
• Generate a LUT and apply it as a node on multiple clips — slower setup, but reusable across an entire shoot. This is the recommended approach for any project with more than 3-4 clips.

For this guide, we’ll cover the LUT approach because it’s the one that scales. Right-click in the Node Graph → Add Node → Add Serial to add a new empty node. Label it “ColorMatch” by clicking on the node label (Cmd+Click on Mac, right-click on Windows).

Step 4 — Run Color Match on the Chart

With your reference frame visible and your ColorMatch node selected, right-click anywhere on the viewer image and select Color Match from the context menu. A dialog box opens.

You’ll see four corner handles overlaid on the viewer image. Drag each handle to one of the four corners of the chart so the rectangle frames all 24 patches. Resolve will auto-detect and overlay green dots on each patch as you go — those green dots have to be roughly centered on each patch for the match to work.

In the Color Match dialog box, set:

• Source Gamma: match what your camera recorded. S-Log3 → S-Log3, V-Log → V-Log, BRAW Film → Blackmagic Film Generation 5, etc. If you shot Rec.709 directly, pick Rec.709.
• SourceColor Space: same logic. S-Gamut3.Cine, V-Gamut, Wide Gamut, etc.
• Target Gamma: usually Rec.709 Gamma 2.4 for standard delivery. ACEScct if you’re working in ACES.
• Target Color Space: Rec.709 for standard. ACES AP1 for ACES.
• Color Chart: select ColorChecker Classic 24-patch from the dropdown. (DaVinci recognizes this as the standard 24-patch layout regardless of brand — CalibVision, Calibrite, X-Rite all auto-detect identically.)
• White Reference: leave at default (D65) unless you have a specific lighting scenario requiring D50 or other.
• Match Type: “Linear” for most professional workflows. “Pivot” for footage with extreme highlights or shadows that need preserving.

Click Match.

Resolve generates the calibration in 1-3 seconds. Your viewer image immediately reflects the new color match. The 24 patches should now read close to their reference values — meaning the chart in your image should look like a properly white-balanced, color-accurate ColorChecker.

Step 5 — Save the Result as a LUT for the Whole Shoot

Once the match looks right in the viewer, you need to save it so you can apply it to every clip from that lighting setup.

Right-click on the ColorMatch node in the Node Graph → Generate LUT → Save As 33 Point Cube LUT.

Name the LUT with a format that’s actually findable later. I use:

[Project] [Camera] [Scene] [Date].cube

For example: Project_Aurora_FX3_Studio_Day1_2026-04-25.cube

Save it to your project’s LUT folder, or to Resolve’s user LUT folder so it’s accessible across projects:

• macOS: /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/LUT/User/
• Windows: C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\LUT\User\

After saving, restart DaVinci Resolve so it indexes the new LUT.

To apply the LUT to other clips:

1. Select the clip you want to apply the LUT to in the timeline.
2. In the Node Graph, right-click on the empty node → LUT → User LUTs → [your LUT name].
3. The clip now has the same calibration as your reference frame.

You can apply the same LUT to dozens or hundreds of clips. As long as they were shot in the same lighting and color space as the chart frame, the match holds.

How to Match Multiple Cameras to One Chart

This is the workflow that separates Resolve from Lightroom for video work.

When you shoot with two or three cameras (A-cam, B-cam, C-cam) on the same scene, each camera has a slightly different color signature even if they’re the same make and model. Without correction, your edit will visibly cut between cameras.

The fix is to color-match all cameras to one reference, using one ColorChecker shot on each camera. Here’s the workflow:

1. Have each camera shoot the chart before the scene starts. A-cam shoots the chart for 3 seconds. B-cam shoots the chart for 3 seconds. C-cam shoots the chart for 3 seconds. Same chart, same lighting, same approximate framing.
2. In Resolve, do a separate Color Match on each camera’s reference frame. A-cam gets its own ColorMatch node + LUT. B-cam gets a separate ColorMatch node + LUT. C-cam gets a third.
3. Apply each camera’s LUT to clips from that camera. A-cam clips → A-cam LUT. B-cam clips → B-cam LUT.

The result: all three cameras’ footage maps to the same target color space (Rec.709 or ACES) with the same white reference. When you cut between A-cam and B-cam in the edit, the color match is invisible.

For larger productions with more cameras, this scales linearly — five cameras need five LUTs. The chart frame for each camera can be shot in the same 30 seconds at the start of the day, so it adds almost no time to your production schedule.

How to Verify the Match Actually Worked

A match that looks right at first glance isn’t always a match that’s mathematically right. Here’s the 30-second sanity check:

In the Color page, with your matched footage loaded, open the Scopes panel. Use the Parade scope (RGB).

Scrub to your reference frame and look at the parade reading on the Neutral 5 patch — that’s the middle gray patch on the bottom row, the third from the left.

The R, G, and B traces should all align at the same vertical position on Neutral 5. They should also align on the Neutral 8 (white) and Neutral 3.5 (dark gray) patches.

If R, G, and B are visibly offset from each other on a neutral patch, the Color Match didn’t fully succeed. Two common causes:

1. The chart was over- or underexposed when shot. Re-shoot the chart with the white patch reading around 90% on the waveform.
2. The source gamma/color space in the Color Match dialog was set wrong. Open the Color Match dialog again, double-check that the source gamma matches what your camera actually recorded.

If the parade alignment looks good on the neutral patches but the match still looks off subjectively, the issue is usually monitor calibration in your edit suite rather than the Resolve color match itself.

How to Use Color Match with ACES Workflows

For ACES productions, the Color Match workflow is essentially the same as standard, with two changes:

• In Step 2, project color management is set to ACEScct (or ACEScc for older pipelines).
• In Step 4, SourceColor Space is set to your camera’s IDT (Input Device Transform). For example: Sony S-Log3 / S-Gamut3.Cine → “ACES Input Transform — Sony Venice S-Log3 S-Gamut3.Cine.”

For each camera in a multi-camera shoot, the IDT for that camera handles the ACES translation. Color Match then refines the white balance and saturation to match the chart, on top of the ACES IDT.

The output of Color Match in an ACES pipeline is not a Rec.709 LUT — it’s an ACES-aware correction node that lives inside your ACES color management. Don’t try to bake it down to a 3D LUT; let Resolve handle the conversions through the ACES Output Transform.

If you’re delivering to Netflix, Apple TV+, or any major streamer with ACES requirements, this is the only correct workflow. The non-ACES workflow described in Steps 1-5 is fine for commercial, broadcast, web, and most narrative work but not for major streamer delivery.

Four Common Problems and How to Fix Them

I’ve seen these four come up almost every week from colorists emailing us at CalibVision.

Problem 1. “Color Match doesn’t auto-detect the chart.”

Three causes, in order of frequency. Chart is too small in the frame — re-shoot with the chart filling 8-15% of the frame. Chart is angled relative to the lens — keep it perpendicular, even if the lighting is angled. Chart has specular reflection from a hot light source — tilt the chart 5-10° away from the light source.

Problem 2. “The match looks right in Resolve but wrong on delivery.”

Almost always a color management mismatch. Check that your project’s Output Color Space matches your delivery format. If you’re delivering Rec.709 H.264 to YouTube, your project must be set to Rec.709 Output. If you’re delivering ProRes 422 HQ to a broadcast network, your project should match their delivery spec. Don’t trust your monitor preview as ground truth — use the Scopes.

Problem 3. “Multi-camera footage doesn’t match even after Color Match.”

The chart wasn’t shot under identical conditions on each camera. If A-cam shot the chart at f/2.8 and B-cam shot it at f/4, the exposure compensation creates a small but real color shift. Reshoot the chart on each camera with identical exposure settings. If you can’t reshoot, you can manually compensate in Resolve’s primary color wheels — but it’s faster to reshoot if production allows.

Problem 4. “The skin tones look too magenta after Color Match.”

A neutral ColorChecker match gives mathematically accurate skin, which often looks slightly cool or magenta compared to “broadcast pleasing” skin. The fix is to add a second node after the ColorMatch node and warm the skin tones selectively using a Skin Tone qualifier. The ColorMatch is your accurate baseline; subjective skin warming is a creative choice on top.

FAQs

Get a ColorChecker 24 from CalibVision

We manufacture the 24-patch ColorChecker in 9 standard sizes at CalibVision, plus full custom sizes on request. For DaVinci Resolve workflows, the Classic (216 × 279 mm) is the right starting point for single-camera narrative and interview work, and the XL (570 × 370 mm) is the standard for multi-camera live and large-set commercial productions.

Every chart is QC-measured against the published reference values before it ships. For commercial and ACES production work where deliverables require documented color references, we offer optional per-batch L\*a\*b\* and sRGB measurement reports generated on an X-Rite i1 Pro 2 spectrophotometer at D50 / 2°.

What to Read Next

• ColorChecker 24: The Complete Guide for Photographers, Filmmakers and Vision Engineers — the main reference covering what the 24 patches do and how they work across software.
• How to Use a ColorChecker 24 in Lightroom (Step-by-Step) — the equivalent workflow for Lightroom Classic and stills.
• ColorChecker 24 vs Passport: Which Should You Buy? — deciding between the flat 24 family and the fold-up Passport.
• Best ColorChecker Size for Each Type of Photography — full size guide with working distance recommendations for stills and video.