The Nodetree

The very first node, even before the color space transform. Noise reduction works best on the untouched camera data, where the most information is still available and nothing has stretched the noise yet. Every operation after this point, contrast, saturation, sharpening, amplifies whatever noise is left, so it gets removed once, at the start, and the whole tree benefits: keys pull cleaner, gradients stay smooth, the LUT lands on a clean image. One exception: on Rec.709 footage, avoid the denoise or apply it after the CST in node.

A Color Space Transform that converts the camera's log, Apple Log on my clips, into ARRI LogC / ARRI Wide Gamut as the working space. Grading in one fixed working space means every tool behaves the same no matter which camera the clip came from, and the creative LUTs are built for exactly this input. The same setup works with DaVinci Wide Gamut / Intermediate if you prefer Resolve's own space, the principle is identical: camera space in, working space for the grade, delivery space out.

This row is color correction, not color grading. Balance levels the exposure, WB neutralizes the color cast, Curves sets the contrast base. The goal is a balanced, neutral image so every clip in the timeline starts from the same point, that is what makes fourteen different shots cut together like one piece. The creative decisions come later; if you grade on top of an unbalanced image, every shot needs its own fix and nothing matches.

Power windows, gradients and AI Magic Masks with tracking live here, deliberately before the look. Selections and trackers grab onto the full log data while all of it is still there. After the LUT the values are compressed toward the final look, and masks, keys and tracks have less to hold onto. Sky gradients, a brightened face, a tracked subject, they all key cleaner from this position in the tree.

The actual look. The Look node carries the creative adjustments, Dehaze cuts the atmospheric haze that flattens mountain footage, and then the LUT, Base, Comic or Paradise, sits at the end of this chain, receiving exactly the input it was designed for. That is the reason the whole tree is arranged this way: everything before the LUT prepares a clean, balanced, working-space image, so the look lands the same on every clip.

The bottom row is the finishing pass, the "pop". Stylized effects first, then a contrast node that adds punch around a pivot without touching the balance underneath, and a vignette to hold the eye inside the frame. The vignette stays here, before the output transform, so its falloff behaves like real optical falloff rather than a flat darkening laid over the finished picture.

The mirror of CST in: it converts the working space to the delivery format. Because the entire grade lives between the two transforms, the look survives a change of delivery target, swap the output transform and the grade itself stays untouched.

That single node is the whole difference between the SDR and the HDR version of this tree. Same fourteen nodes, same grade in the middle: one ends in Rec.709, the other in Rec.2100 HLG.

Output sharpening is the last touch, after the output transform. It goes at the end for the same reason denoise goes at the start: anything applied after sharpening amplifies its halos, so nothing comes after it. The output transform changes contrast, which is exactly the kind of thing that would stretch those halos, so sharpening sits on the far side of it.