Guest post by Justin Nederkoorn,
travel photographer and videographer

Color grading is an art form in itself. Coming from a photography background, I used to get lost in grading a single frame—pushing and pulling tones, obsessing over small shifts in color. The problem is that it often led to a lack of consistency across my project. I’d end up creating a look for one shot, only to struggle with matching it to the rest of the scene. Eventually, I realized I was thinking too much like a photographer—treating each frame as a still image—when in reality, a grade is only successful when it holds together across an entire sequence.

That’s where grouping comes in. Once I started using groups in DaVinci Resolve, my grading process completely changed. Instead of working shot by shot, I began working scene by scene. In this article, I’ll walk you through how groups work, why they matter, and how they can make your color workflow faster, simpler, and more consistent.

Why Batch Grading with Groups Makes Sense

Let’s say you’ve got a three-minute dialogue scene shot across ten angles. You’ve matched the exposure, contrast, and white balance manually across each shot—but the moment you want to change the mood or shift the tone of the scene, you’re back to regrading every clip one by one.

Groups remove this bottleneck. They let you think in terms of scenes instead of individual shots. This means you can shape the look of the whole scene with just a few adjustments and still retain the flexibility to tweak each clip where needed.

It also mirrors how professional colorists work. In a client session, you need to be able to adapt quickly—shift contrast, hue, or brightness on a scene level without getting bogged down by technicalities. Grouping allows for this kind of efficiency, and more importantly, it helps maintain a coherent look with less effort.

Understanding Group Structure in DaVinci Resolve

In DaVinci Resolve, a group functions like a container. Every clip inside the group receives the same set of group-level nodes, while still maintaining its own individual node tree. What makes this setup powerful is Resolve’s layered node structure, which splits a group’s processing into three separate stages:

• Group Pre-Clip: Nodes applied before the individual clip adjustments
• Clip: Nodes unique to that specific shot
• Group Post-Clip: Nodes applied after the clip-specific corrections

You’ll see these represented as dots above your node editor. Alternatively, you can use the label “Group Post-Clip” to switch between views.

Here’s a breakdown of how I typically use them:

• Group Pre-Clip: Used for technical corrections like a Color Space Transform (CST). This ensures all clips are brought into the same working color space before grading.
• Clip: Used for individual balancing—exposure corrections, white balance, shadow recovery, etc.
• Group Post-Clip: Where the actual creative grade lives. Here you shape the overall mood, contrast, and color of the scene.

By separating the technical, balancing, and creative stages, you gain a clean and repeatable structure.

Creating Your First Group

Start by selecting the clips that share a similar location, lighting, and camera setup. Right-click and assign them to a new group. Label the group with something practical (e.g. “INT Café Day” or “Drone Sunset”), so it’s easy to find later.

Now it’s time to set up your group nodes.

1. Color Space Transform (CST) in Group Pre-Clip

If you're grading in DaVinci Wide Gamut, add a CST node that converts your footage into that space. I usually convert from SLog3 or whatever camera-native space I shot in (V-Log, BRAW, etc.) into DaVinci Wide Gamut / Intermediate. This becomes your grading working space.

2. Exposure and White Balance Adjustments in Clip Node Tree

Choose a clip in the group that’s well exposed and represents the scene accurately. If the shot is over or underexposed, or has a noticeable cast, make the necessary adjustments in the clip-level node tree. The goal is to neutralize technical differences between clips so the creative grade will land consistently later on.

3. Creative Look in Group Post-Clip

Head into the Group Post-Clip section and begin shaping your grade. Build your look as you normally would. But instead of building it from A-Z on this single clip, start by adding your first 2 nodes and then work iteratively across all clips inside your group.

Applying Noise Reduction

Noise reduction should be one of our first, if not the first node in our edit. But since we’re working with Group-specific and Clip-specific nodes, that begs the question where our noise reduction should be placed. To answer this question, we need to look at the noise characteristics of our clips within our group.

• Noise characteristics are similar across the group: place your noise reduction node in the Group Pre-Clip, before your CST. Find the most representative clip and apply Neat Video to denoise your group. Make sure to review your clips for consistent noise reduction, and disable the node until exporting your project to save performance.
• Noise characteristics are different across the group: this means that you need to apply noise reduction on a Clip-Specific level. Apply Neat Video on your first node and denoise your clip accordingly. I recommend disabling the node until exporting to save performance.

Working Iteratively

One of the advantages of this method is that it encourages you to think holistically. Instead of pushing a grade through all at once, work in layers. Add one or two nodes at a time, then flip through a few other shots in the group. See how those changes affect the rest. If something looks off, go back to the clip-specific node and tweak exposure or color balance locally.

This step is critical. Even clips that look similar may have slight exposure or lighting differences. If you notice one or two clips standing out, adjust them in the Clip node tree rather than changing your entire group grade. The fewer local corrections you need to make, the more consistent your grade will be across the group.

Reviewing with Split-Screen Mode

To check consistency, use Resolve’s Lightbox or enable the Split-Screen Mode under the viewer options. Choose “Group” as your display mode. This allows you to view all clips in the group side-by-side, so you can spot inconsistencies at a glance.

This is where grouping starts to shine. You’ll immediately see if one clip doesn’t match the rest—whether in contrast, hue, or exposure. If that’s the case, you can make a quick local tweak without touching the entire look.

Fun Experiment

Once your grade is dialed in, duplicate your timeline or project and then shift the entire group grade in a completely different direction.

For example, say your original grade leans warm and soft. Try pushing it cold and contrasty. You’ll notice that the shift carries across all clips in the group uniformly. The structure holds up, and the scene remains consistent—even though the look is completely different.

This ability to pivot a look quickly and cohesively is one of the biggest strengths of group grading. Whether you’re testing out a new creative direction or responding to client feedback, you’ll be able to make large-scale changes without rebuilding your grade from scratch.

Tips for Organizing Your Grade

• Name your groups clearly
  Use descriptive, scene-based names to avoid confusion later on.
• Use versions for testing
  If you’re trying out multiple looks, create versions at the group node level so you can compare different creative approaches.
• Keep your clip nodes minimal
  The more you tweak at the clip level, the harder it becomes to maintain consistency. Use clip nodes for matching exposure and balance only.
• Lock your CST nodes
  Once your input/output transforms are set, consider labeling or even locking those nodes to avoid accidental changes.

Conclusion

Grading with groups shifts the way you think about color. Instead of focusing frame by frame, it encourages you to think in scenes, sequences, and structure. It saves time, reduces unnecessary copy-pasting, and creates a clear boundary between technical matching and creative grading.

This approach gives you more freedom to explore looks while keeping everything coherent and manageable. Whether you’re working on a short film, a documentary, or a commercial project, learning to use groups effectively will change the way you approach your color workflow—and help you focus more on the creative side of grading, without losing control of the bigger picture.