DaVinci Resolve 21 hands-on: A viable Lightroom alternative for casual users

Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve is simply a highly tin free colour grading instrumentality pinch a history making love measurement backmost to nan ‘80s, but it has ne'er been thought of arsenic a rival to Adobe’s Lightroom owed to its video origins. Now, Blackmagic Design has released a new type successful beta that whitethorn alteration people’s minds astir that. The caller Photo page lets you import RAW images past set them utilizing Resolve’s powerful colour grading tools. You moreover get entree to precocious VFX and AI features not recovered successful Lightroom.

When I saw nan caller feature, I instantly wondered if I could cancel my $20 per period Adobe Photography subscription (with Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC). Apparently, I'm not alone. After trying it out, I judge that I could do truthful because photos are secondary to video for me. However, photographers who’ve utilized Lightroom for a agelong clip would apt find it excessively achy to move — astatine least, for now.

The Photo page and Albums

I tested nan caller Photo page functions and galore of Resolve’s caller select effects, but beware that nan first beta is still buggy. I utilized it wrong nan $295 DaVinci Resolve Studio app (which includes free updates for life), because it has a fewer other features not recovered successful nan free version.

With that said, DaVinci Resolve 21 now supports RAW photos from Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon and Sony, pinch different brands to follow. Blackmagic has pledged to support RAW files for caller cameras soon aft they’re released for illustration Adobe does pinch Lightroom. It besides supports TIFFs, JPEGs, HEIFs and different photograph record formats.

To shape files, you tin deliberation of Resolve’s Projects arsenic balanced to Lightroom Catalogs. You import photos into a Project conscionable arsenic you do video, by dragging and dropping photos aliases folders into nan media excavation aliases utilizing nan “import” function. Resolve’s dedicated Media record guidance page besides supports RAW photos. I find Resolve’s import strategy to beryllium easier and much logical than Lightroom’s, pinch little steps required. You tin import a afloat aliases partial Lightroom catalog into Resolve arsenic well.

Once your photos are successful nan media pool, you tin prime and shape them by record name, rating, colors, favorites and different tags. DaVinci Resolve Studio besides offers a caller characteristic called AI IntelliSearch that lets you visually place photos based connected their contented utilizing position for illustration “cats” aliases “dancing.”

Photos tin past beryllium moved from nan media excavation into Albums, a caller characteristic that’s akin to Lightroom’s Collections. Albums activate respective photo-specific features successful nan Color and Edit pages. In Edit, Albums look arsenic simplified, single-track timelines, pinch each photograph shown arsenic a 2 2nd clip. That way, you tin activity pinch photos successful nan Color and Fusion pages conscionable arsenic you do pinch video.

You tin reframe and harvest images wrong Photo (either by typing successful nan size aliases dragging) and make basal RAW-style adjustments for settings for illustration exposure, highlights and shadows. For much precocious grading (like you whitethorn do successful Lightroom’s Develop), you request to jump into nan Color page.

Color and Fusion

On nan Color page, you get nan aforesaid functions for photos arsenic video: superior and log colour correction, curves, qualifiers, powerfulness windows, sound simplification and sharpening. You tin besides employment Resolve’s class-leading scopes, including parades, waveforms, vectorscopes and histograms.

Once you’ve created an Album, you tin prime it astatine nan apical of nan Color page viewer, conscionable arsenic you would a video timeline. You tin besides explanation and benignant photos arsenic you do successful nan Photo page.

Resolve's node-based workflow really shines for photograph editing. You tin adhd nodes successful bid aliases parallel to build analyzable grades, past prevention and use those grades to aggregate images aliases an full photograph album. Resolve’s strategy for doing this via “stills” that show your people is much ocular and powerful than nan 1 successful Lightroom. You besides get support for Resolve’s functions utilized for video for illustration Look-Up Tables (LUTs) and nan caller Film Look Creator effect.

All of Resolve’s filter-style effects — for illustration Vignette, Lens Blur and Film Damage — are disposable straight from nan Photo page. Those see immoderate of DaVinci Resolve Studio’s caller AI effects (not disposable successful nan free version) for illustration AI CineFocus, AI Face Age Transformer and AI Ultrafocus. This gives nan app a limb up complete Lightroom, which only offers comparable features via third-party plugins.

If you want moreover much precocious effects, nan Fusion page is Resolve’s balanced to After Effects. There, you’ll find devices for illustration warping, lights and Paint, which lets you do Photoshop-like cloning. Resolve 21 now includes nan Krokodove filters pinch features for illustration warping and matter animation.

This raises nan mobility of whether you tin do multi-image compositing successful nan Photo page for illustration you tin successful Photoshop aliases After Effects. In short, it’s not imaginable arsenic Photo only supports 1 image astatine a time. However, erstwhile you’ve adjusted a RAW image, you tin driblet it into a video timeline wherever your colour adjustments and different tweaks will transportation over. Then, you tin stack aggregate images and usage immoderate of Resolve’s compositing devices from nan Edit aliases Fusion pages. This is beautiful clunky compared to utilizing Photoshop, but it’s nan only measurement to harvester aggregate images for now.

Once you’ve vanished grading and adjusting images, location are 2 ways to export them. One is by nan Quick Export usability that provides minimal settings for illustration record type, sanction and resolution. The amended method is via Resolve’s Deliver page, which now has dedicated photograph functions erstwhile you’re moving pinch an Album. There, you tin power size parameters for illustration short and agelong side, width and tallness aliases percentage. You tin besides alteration nan record type, solution and quality. This usability is severely lacking compared to Lightroom though, which offers precocious settings missing from Resolve, for illustration contented credentials, watermarking and post-processing.

Finally, different caller dedicated characteristic wrong nan Resolve Photo page is Capture Live View for camera tethering, which only supports Canon and Sony cameras for now. It allows you to link a camera to your PC via USB-C and power aperture, shutter speed, ISO and vulnerability compensation straight from nan app. You tin besides position your images utilizing Resolve’s scopes and tweak RAW settings for illustration achromatic balance, temperature, shadows, highlights and more.

Wrap-up

DaVinci Resolve’s caller Photo page tin do astir of what Lightroom does successful position of image adjustments, while adding powerful effects devices that its Adobe counterpart lacks. It’s not yet a substitute for Photoshop, though, arsenic it lacks nan organizing, exporting, compositing and pixel-level editing devices recovered successful that app.

For now, nan Photo page is perfect for filmmakers who dabble successful photograph editing, on pinch hobbyists and powerfulness users acquainted pinch Resolve’s formidable grading tools. However, master photographers whitethorn want to instrumentality pinch Lightroom, because Resolve still lacks definite precocious features, peculiarly astir statement and exporting.

The caller DaVinci Resolve Photo page only conscionable launched and is bound to amended greatly complete time. If you’re connected nan fence, download nan free type and spot if it useful for you. A batch of video editors made nan aforesaid move from Premiere and person ne'er looked back. Given nan existent grumbling astir Adobe’s subscriptions, I could spot galore group making nan aforesaid move from Lightroom to Resolve.