[Help] How to retain black level?

[Beber]

Hey, guys.
When using a LUT in DaVinci Resolve, sometimes I get a dark grey shade of black instead of the deep black level of the original master I'm working on. It's rather obvious during credits and fades to black, especially when comparing before and after. So can anybody explain to me how to retain the original master black level while keeping the color correction I applied using a LUT?
Thanks.

[PDB]

That’s just going to happen if you use Dre’s color matching program. It sometimes can only get the colors right and not the luma and it pumps the shadows up to meet the target.

I learned pretty quickly is that you always have to be watching your scopes. In general and especially when applying a lut.

To fix it you have to manually adjust the shadows. If all three colors (using parades for example) are elevated you can globally change the shadows to fix it. If only one color is elevated, say blue, you have to change the shadows for that color but then fix it in the mids.

You could overlay the new colors over the old luma but if the goal is to have a “35mm look” then that might not be idea.