winget install FabioColor.FadedBalancerDCTL
Preferred on Windows: install via winget. For macOS (or fallback), use the installer ZIPs from Latest Release.

Background & Science • Presets Companion • FAQ • Discussions

A DaVinci Resolve DCTL for balancing RGB channels and correcting faded film scans. It provides accessible and flexible tools for channel adjustment, mixing, and restoration preparation.

Current: v1.6.0

• Enhanced Channel Mixing: Added shadow/highlight targeting for all channel mixing operations (matrix and darken/lighten)
  • 🎭 Mixing Shadows: Control how much mixing affects shadow areas (0-1)
  • 🎭 Mixing Highlights: Control how much mixing affects highlight areas (0-1)
  • 🎭 Donor Luminance: Adjust brightness of source channel before mixing (0.1-3.0)
  • All three controls now affect both matrix mixing (e.g. Red from Green) and darken/lighten mixing (e.g. Red darken with Green)
  • Perfect for selective film restoration (e.g., repair blue damage only in shadows, or boost highlights with controlled donor brightness)
• 👁️ Channel Preview: Toggle between Normal, Red Only, Green Only, Blue Only isolation modes
  • Essential for film restoration workflow - inspect individual channels without keybindings
• Improved Pipeline: Streamlined processing with better tonal masking algorithms

• New Channel Mixer: RGB matrix mixing for advanced highlight recovery and channel reconstruction
• Cross-channel boost controls enable rebuilding clipped channels using data from other channels

• Added non-destructive preset system (10 starter corrective presets; toggling back to None restores baseline UI state).
• Internal pipeline clarified (see Pipeline section) – ordering unchanged from spec; presets occur before global stage.
• Minor doc clarifications; no processing math changes versus v1.3.0.

• Added Preserve Luminance (⚖) – normalizes luma after per-channel stage only (global adjustments still shift exposure).
• Renamed channel "Copy" operations to clearer Replace (e.g. "Replace Red → With Green").
• Locked processing order: Global → Fade Correction → Per-Channel → Mixing → Replace → Removal → Output.
• Consolidated UI/label/icon overhaul (option text simplification, Darken/Lighten composite combos, consistent icon set, duplicate definitions removed).

• Removed final hard clamp to preserve full floating-point range during grading.
• Added Output to Cineon Log checkbox to inspect and balance channels safely without clipping.
• Added per-channel Offset controls (Red/Green/Blue) for finer pre-lift channel alignment.

• Film Fade Correction: A dedicated tool to correct faded footage by adaptively enhancing contrast and saturation.
• Global & Per-Channel Balance: Adjust Lift, Gamma, and Gain for all channels together or individually.
• Preserve Luminance (⚖): Optional re-normalization of luma after per-channel adjustments.
• Channel Mixer & Highlight Boost: RGB matrix mixing for highlight recovery (e.g., boost clipped red channel using green/blue data) plus Min/Max composites.
  • Donor Luminance, Mixing Shadows, and Mixing Highlights affect both matrix mixing and darken/lighten mixing. This means you can control where and how strongly donor channels contribute to repairs, for all types of mixing.
  • Use these controls to target only shadows, only highlights, or adjust donor brightness for precise restoration.
• Enhanced Channel Mixing (v1.6.0): Shadow/highlight targeting for precise tonal control of darken/lighten operations and matrix mixing.
• Channel Preview (v1.6.0): Individual channel isolation (Red/Green/Blue Only) for inspection without keybindings.
• Channel Replace & Removal: Replace a channel's data with another or remove a channel entirely.
• Optional Cineon Output: Linear → Cineon-like log inspection mode.
• Presets (v1.4.0): Non-destructive internal presets. See docs/presets_companion.md for details.

• When to use Donor Luminance:
  • If the donor channel is too bright and over-corrects, lower Donor Luminance (e.g. 0.7-0.9).
  • If the donor is too dark, increase Donor Luminance (e.g. 1.1-1.5).
  • This works for both matrix mixing and darken/lighten mixing.
• When to use Mixing Shadows/Highlights:
  • Set Mixing Shadows to 1.0 and Highlights to 0.0 to restrict repairs to shadow regions.
  • Set Mixing Highlights to 1.0 and Shadows to 0.0 to target only highlights.
  • Use both at intermediate values for smooth transitions.
• All mixing controls (matrix and min/max) are affected by these settings.
• Channel Preview: Use to inspect individual channels for damage before and after repairs.

The image is processed through the following steps in a fixed order:

1. 🎨 Preset Application (Internal temporary variables only)
2. 🌍 Global Adjust (Offset / Shadows / Midtones / Highlights)
3. ✨ Fade Correction (Contrast + Saturation nudge)
4. 🎨 Per-Channel Adjust (R/G/B)
5. ⚖️ Optional Preserve Luminance (Post per-channel only)
6. 📈 Channel Mixer (RGB matrix for highlight boost)
7. 🎭 Enhanced Mixing (Darken / Lighten with shadow/highlight targeting)
8. ➡️ Replace (Explicit channel copy)
9. ❌ Removal (Zero out channels)
10. 👁️ Channel Preview (Isolation for inspection)
11. 📜 Optional Output to Cineon Log

Here are a few examples showcasing the plugin's effectiveness in correcting faded film scans.

Example 1: Night Scene

Before	After

Example 2: Boy Scene

Before	After

Example 3: Captain Scene

Before	After

Example 4: Beach Scene

Before	After

Example 5: Table Scene

Before	After

1. Windows (preferred): install with winget:
   • winget install FabioColor.FadedBalancerDCTL
2. Installer ZIP fallback (Windows/macOS):
   • Windows: Download FadedBalancerDCTL-Setup-x.x.x-win64.zip from Latest Release, extract it, then run the contained .exe.
   • macOS: Download FadedBalancerDCTL-x.x.x-macos.zip from Latest Release, extract it, then run the contained .pkg.
3. Manual .dctl fallback:
   • Download FadedBalancerDCTL.dctl from Latest .dctl download.
   • Place it in your DaVinci Resolve LUT folder:
     • Windows: C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\LUT\
     • macOS: /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/LUT/
4. Restart DaVinci Resolve.
5. In the Color page, add a DCTL effect and select FadedBalancerDCTL.

Simple install guide: docs/INSTALL.md

Maintainer release notes: docs/MAINTAINERS_RELEASE.md

• Download test footage to try the DCTL quickly: Archive.org — Film BAR: 70 Trailers Reel (1440x1080, 24fps)

For a visual guide on how to use the plugin, check out the video tutorial below:

• Discussions: Share ideas, ask questions, or suggest features in the GitHub Discussions.
• Contact: For direct inquiries, you can reach out via Email or connect on Instagram, LinkedIn, or YouTube.

If you find this plugin useful and would like to support its ongoing development, please consider making a donation. Your support is greatly appreciated!

The "Film Fade Correction" feature was partially inspired by insights from the following paper:

• Trumpy, G., Flueckiger, B., & Goeth, A. (2023). Digital Unfading of Chromogenic Film Informed by Its Spectral Densities. Link to paper

MIT License