A 23-clip interview cutdown, two cameras, one grade I liked on shot 4. I middle-clicked my way down the timeline and 7 clips in, nothing was landing. Thumbnails refreshed. The image on screen did not change. Learning how to copy a color grade in DaVinci Resolve takes about a minute. Working out why the copy silently does nothing is what eats the afternoon.
The methods below split along two lines that decide everything: whether the transfer replaces the destination grade or adds to it, and whether the clips stay connected afterwards. Get those two wrong and you either overwrite a shot you had already fixed or you assume a change is propagating when it stopped propagating the moment you ran the command.
DaVinci Resolve Copy Grade Methods Compared
| Method | What it moves | Overwrites? | Stays linked? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cmd/Ctrl+C then Cmd/Ctrl+V | The whole grade | Yes | No |
| Middle-click a clip in the film strip | The whole grade | Yes | No |
| Gallery still, then Apply Grade | The saved node tree | Yes | No |
| Gallery still, then Append Node Graph | The saved nodes, added on | No | No |
| Copy and paste a single node | One correction | That node only | No |
| Apply Grade From One Clip Prior | The previous clip's whole grade | Yes | No |
| Groups | A group-level grade | No | Yes |
| Shared Nodes | One node, live on many clips | No | Yes |
| Ripple Node Changes to Selected Clips | One node's change, once | That node only | No |
In this table, the whole grade means the node tree. Keyframes, motion tracking and Input Sizing follow the separate rules covered below.
Only Groups and Shared Nodes keep clips connected. Rippling reads like a live link and is not one: it pushes the current change when you run the command and the clips go back to being independent immediately afterwards.
Copy a Whole Color Grade in DaVinci Resolve With the Keyboard
Click the source clip in the Thumbnail Timeline, press Cmd+C on macOS or Ctrl+C on Windows, select the destination clip or clips, and press Cmd+V or Ctrl+V. Blackmagic documents this in the Grade Management chapter of the DaVinci Resolve Reference Manual, under copy and paste from one clip to another.
The catch is that the same two shortcuts do a different job depending on what has interface focus. With the Node Editor active they operate on the selected node rather than the whole grade. There is also a checkbox at Preferences, then User, then Color, labeled Always perform copy and paste on selected nodes, which pins the behavior to nodes only.
If Ctrl+V is pasting one node when you wanted the whole tree, or the whole tree when you wanted one node, that checkbox and where you last clicked are the two things to check.
How to Copy a Color Grade in DaVinci Resolve With Middle Click
Blackmagic calls this the fastest route on its own Color page documentation: middle-click a clip in the film strip to copy its grade to the current shot in the viewer. Most copy-paste habits run source first, destination second. This one runs backwards.
- Open the Color page and make sure the Thumbnail Timeline is visible.
- Click the clip you want to change. It becomes the current clip.
- Middle-click the thumbnail of the clip you want to copy from.
The destination node tree is replaced outright. Select several destination clips first and the copy reaches all of them at once.
A trackpad has no middle button by default, and you do not need to save a still to work around it. Select the destination clip or clips, right-click the graded source clip, and choose Apply Grade. A third-party trackpad utility can also map a three-finger click to mouse button 3 if you want the one-action version back.
Copy a Color Grade in DaVinci Resolve With Gallery Stills and Apply Grade
A still is not a screenshot. It is a stored node tree with a picture attached to it so you can recognize it later.
- Grade a clip the way you want it.
- Right-click anywhere in the viewer and choose Grab Still. Blackmagic documents this as the way to save a grade into the Gallery.
- The still appears in the Gallery at the top left. Stills sort into albums.
- Select one or more destination clips in the timeline.
- Right-click the still and choose Apply Grade. Middle-clicking the still does the same job.
When Live Preview is enabled in the Gallery options menu, hovering over a still previews its grade on the current clip. If hovering does nothing, open the Gallery options menu and enable Live Preview. Build the habit once it is on: it shows how the saved grade affects the current clip before you apply it.
Add a Saved Grade Without Overwriting Nodes in DaVinci Resolve
Apply Grade replaces the destination tree. When you want the saved correction sitting on top of a balance pass you already built, right-click the Gallery still and choose Append Node Graph instead. Resolve places those nodes after the existing ones rather than in place of them.
You can also drag a still from the Gallery onto a connection line in the Node Editor and drop it when the plus icon appears, which lets you choose where in the tree the nodes land. Command-drag on macOS or Ctrl-drag on Windows appends the saved graph as a single compound node, which keeps a long saved grade from turning your graph into a row of boxes you have to scroll past.
This is the answer to a common complaint about the Gallery, which is that reusing a look destroys the per-shot correction underneath it.
Copy One Node Instead of the Whole DaVinci Resolve Grade
Select the node you want, press Ctrl+C or Cmd+C, select the node on the destination clip, then press Ctrl+V or Cmd+V. Holding Option or Alt and dragging a node onto another node is the same idea with the mouse: it pushes that node's settings across.
This is the route for a skin qualifier you spent an afternoon refining, or a power window you tracked and do not want to build twice. The correction moves. The rest of the look stays put.
How nodes pass signal down the tree is what makes node-level copying safe. Paste a saturation node into position 2 of a tree that expected a balance node there and every node downstream sees a different image than it was built for.
DaVinci Resolve Shortcuts for Copying the Previous Clip's Grade
Two commands live in the Color section of Keyboard Customization: Apply Grade From One Clip Prior and Apply Grade From Two Clips Prior. In the default DaVinci Resolve keyboard preset, Equals (=) applies the grade from one clip prior, and Minus (-) applies the grade from two clips prior.
Custom presets, remapped keyboards and non-US layouts all change this. If neither key responds, open DaVinci Resolve, then Keyboard Customization, choose Color in the Commands list, and search for Apply Grade to see what your build has assigned.
Both commands copy the entire grade from the earlier clip, so they suit grading a scene in timeline order rather than cherry-picking a look from somewhere else in the edit.
Copy a Color Grade to Many Clips in DaVinci Resolve With Groups
Copying one grade onto 40 clips individually is the instinct, and the slowest thing you can do, because the moment the client asks for less contrast you get to do it 40 more times. The alternative: select the clips from the same camera, right-click one of them, and choose Add Into New Group. Switch the Node Editor to Group Pre-Clip or Group Post-Clip before building the linked grade, because changes made in ordinary Clip mode stay on the selected clip only.
Grouped clips give the Node Editor extra modes. Ungrouped clips show two dots at the top of the Node Editor for Clip and Timeline. Grouped clips show four, adding Pre-Clip and Post-Clip group modes. Balance the whole group in Pre-Clip, handle each shot's own problems in Clip mode, then put the shared look in Post-Clip.
Node trees built in Group Pre-Clip and Group Post-Clip affect every member of the group automatically. That is a persistent group-level relationship, not a one-time Ripple Node Changes command.
Share One Node Across Clips in DaVinci Resolve Without Copying It
Shared Nodes are the other truly linked option. Build a corrector node, right-click it, and save it as a shared node with its own label. From then on it shows up whenever you right-click in the Node Editor and choose to add a node, and it can be active on several clips at once.
Blackmagic locks shared nodes by default so you cannot change every clip in a project by accident. Unlock it and your edits transfer across every clip using that node.
Use Shared Nodes for adjustments that must remain identical: a camera-wide CST, a show LUT, a film-emulation layer or an output trim. Use a plain copy for anything a shot might need to deviate from later.
Ripple a DaVinci Resolve Grade Change Across Clips You Already Graded
Rippling is for clips you already copied a grade onto and now need to revise together. Select the clip you want to change so it is outlined orange, then Command-click on macOS or Ctrl-click on Windows to add non-adjacent clips, or Shift-click for a continuous range, so the targets turn red. Make your adjustment, then choose Color, then Ripple Node Changes to Selected Clips. A matching command exists for the current group.
Rippling matches by node number. A change made to Node 3 reaches Node 3 on every other selected clip. Clips with no node of that number receive nothing at all, silently.
Color, then Append Node to Selected Clips, adds the currently selected node to the end of every selected clip's node tree. It helps when the targets are missing the node you are about to ripple, but it will not reorganize node structures that already differ from each other.
Save a DaVinci Resolve Color Grade for Other Projects
PowerGrade albums stay available across projects stored in the same project library. Each project library has its own PowerGrade albums. A regular stills album, by contrast, belongs to one project. Both export as .drx files, a portable Resolve grade format commonly used for sharing saved grades.
Right-click in the Gallery to create a PowerGrade album, then drag your still into it. If a PowerGrade you expected is missing, check which project library you are working in, since Resolve stores projects inside a library rather than as loose files on disk. Exporting the still as a .drx file and importing it on the other side moves a grade anywhere, including to another machine or another colorist.
Blackmagic's free official training guides work through the same gallery and group workflows in lesson form.
Why Copying a Color Grade in DaVinci Resolve Does Nothing
The first assumption is always that Resolve is broken. Often it is a setting in a menu nobody opens on purpose.
- The Keyframe Timeline Mode is on Sizing. Mark, then Keyframe Timeline Mode, sets what a copy carries. All copies both the grade and the sizing. Color copies only the grade and leaves the target clip's Input Sizing alone. Sizing copies only the Input Sizing and leaves the target's grade alone. Sitting on Sizing while you copy a color change looks exactly like nothing happening.
- Copy Grade: Preserve Number Of Nodes is above zero. Right-click the gray background of the Gallery to find it. Set it to 5 and the first five nodes of a copied grade are ignored, as long as the destination clip already has at least five nodes. It exists for colorists who reserve leading nodes for balance and shot matching. On a short node tree this can make the copy appear to do nothing, because every copied node falls inside the protected range.
- Copy and paste is acting on nodes, not the grade. Preferences, then User, then Color: Always perform copy and paste on selected nodes. When enabled, Ctrl+V only writes into the selected node.
- Keyframes are not coming across. Right-click the gray background of the Gallery and open Apply Grades Using. No Keyframes applies the state of the grade at the frame the still was saved from. Keyframes Aligning Source Timecode suits copying back to the same clip or a duplicate of it. Keyframes Aligning Start Frames suits a completely different clip with different timecode.
Work down that list before you rebuild the project. The fix is usually one right-click from where you were already standing.
Keep Sizing and Stabilization When You Copy a DaVinci Resolve Grade
Set Mark, then Keyframe Timeline Mode, to Color so the target clip keeps its own Input Sizing. When keyframes are not part of what you are copying, set Apply Grades Using to No Keyframes as well. Copy Grade: Preserve Input Sizing in the Gallery menu protects the destination clip's Input Sizing values directly.
Stabilization has behaved differently between builds and between copy methods, so treat this as a setup to confirm rather than a guarantee. Copy onto one destination clip, open the Stabilizer panel, and check it survived before you run the same copy across a full selection.
Copying a DaVinci Resolve Grade Is Not the Same as Matching Shots
A copy moves numbers. It does not know that your second camera was a stop and a half under, or that the sun moved between takes. Identical wheel positions on differently exposed footage produce two different images, which is why a copied grade so often looks wrong on the clip next door. Balance first, then copy the look.
For matching rather than copying, Resolve has Shot Match: select the clips you want to change, right-click the reference clip, and choose Shot Match to This Clip. Resolve analyzes the target against the reference and matches it toward that clip. Treat the result as a neutral starting point for grading rather than a finished creative match. The rundown of Resolve's automatic color tools covers where Shot Match beats Auto Color and where neither one helps.
Check both the image and the waveform or vectorscope after every copy. The scopes expose black-point, exposure and color-balance differences that can be harder to judge on an uncalibrated display. The beginner grading workflow covers the correction order that makes copying work at all.
DaVinci Resolve Copy Grade Questions
Does copying a color grade in DaVinci Resolve also copy power windows and tracking?
Power windows and qualifier settings travel with the grade, but a normal whole-grade copy does not automatically bring keyframes or motion tracking. Use the Gallery's Apply Grades Using options when you need keyframes aligned by source timecode or clip start. To reuse motion tracking, copy and paste the individual node. Input Sizing is controlled separately through Keyframe Timeline Mode and Copy Grade: Preserve Input Sizing.
Can I copy a color grade between two different DaVinci Resolve projects?
PowerGrade albums stay available across projects stored in the same project library, so save the grade into a PowerGrade album rather than a regular stills album. Each project library has its own PowerGrade albums. To move a grade to another library or another machine, export the still as a .drx file and import it there.
Do I need DaVinci Resolve Studio to copy a color grade?
No. Copy and paste, middle-click copying, gallery stills, Apply Grade, Append Node Graph, groups, shared nodes and node rippling are part of the standard Color page. What Studio adds is remote monitoring and remote grading, which lets changes on your system appear on a remote one. That is a different feature from copying grades between clips in a project you already have open. The free versus Studio breakdown covers where the real gaps sit.
Can I copy a grade to a clip on a different timeline?
Middle-clicking only reaches clips in the film strip of the timeline you have open. To cross timelines, grab a still first. Stills albums are shared between the timelines inside a project, so the grade will be waiting for you when you switch.
How do I undo a copied color grade in DaVinci Resolve?
Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z works if the copy was your last action. Otherwise Resolve lists separate reset commands for the selected node grade, for resetting grades while keeping nodes, and for resetting all grades and nodes. Confirm the current bindings in Keyboard Customization, since defaults change between versions.
Does copying a color grade overwrite the grade already on the clip?
Middle-click, a full clipboard paste and Apply Grade overwrite the destination grade, subject to the Copy Grade preservation settings in the Gallery menu. Append Node Graph adds the saved nodes to the existing tree instead. Copying a single node writes into the one node you paste onto and leaves the rest of the tree alone.
Copying grades is a speed problem before it is a color problem, and the settings above decide whether the speed is real. The color grading hub covers where this sits alongside nodes, scopes, LUTs and color management.
Related guides
- DaVinci Resolve Color Grading: the hub: where copying fits in the grading workflow.
- How to Color Grade in DaVinci Resolve: building the grade worth copying in the first place.
- How to Duplicate a Clip in DaVinci Resolve: the timeline-side cousin, from Alt-drag to Paste Attributes.
