Learn to colour correct like a pro with our free course DaVinci Resolve Colour Grading for Beginners. You’ll learn how to use each important tool in Resolve, including how to set up your project using scene cut detection, how to get clean skin tones with noise reduction and how to create cinematic looks.
In this lesson we’ll take a quick look at how the Halation effect can give you a nice, ambient background glow.
What is Halation?
Halation is something that appears in areas of high contrast in over-exposed areas. If you think about a streetlamp when you photograph it, you get a sort of bright halo bleeding into the darker areas around the lamp – that’s halation. Quite often, this can have a red glare to it in the midtones, too.
While this might sometimes be something you want to avoid, you can use a Halation Effect to add a soft glow to your lighting, particularly in the background, to help give it a nice ambience. Here’s a quick how-to.
How to Use the Halation Effect on Background Lighting in Resolve
On the footage I’m working on, there are some highlights on the metal, and some light hitting the back wall, so if I dragged Halation into the Effects node, it would apply to the whole image and be too much.
Instead, I’ve dragged it onto the Ambience node, because that’s just applying to the background, so it’s added a natural glow to the back wall.
Here it is side by side, you can see the right has a subtle, warm orange glow to it compared to the original – that’s Halation!
Create Light Effects with a DaVinci Resolve Template
With a professionally created template set, you can make awesome light effects in just a few clicks. Try this example from Envato Elements, where everything is included in a monthly subscription.
Light FX & Transitions for DaVinci Resolve
Just drag and drop these light FX for DaVinci Resolve into your project and you’re ready to go. This set also works with the free version of Resolve and there are live previews so you can see the effects before using them.
More DaVinci Resolve Tutorials and Templates
How to Make a Promotional Video in DaVinci Resolve
- 3 Top Product Promo Templates for DaVinci Resolve
- 26 Top Free Graphics, Titles, Projects, and Transition Templates for DaVinci Resolve
- 3 Top Live Commerce Video Templates for DaVinci Resolve
About the Authors
Tom Graham created the video course that includes this lesson. Tom is a multi-skilled content creator with a background in commercial filmmaking. Marie Gardiner wrote the text version of this lesson
