okay so this has been bugging me for a while and i finally want to ask because i feel like im doing something wrong. my whole process for editing drone footage is just kind of all over the place and every project i end up reinventing the wheel.

like i shoot in d-log on my mini 4 pro, i dump the files onto my drive, then i open resolve and stare at it for 10 minutes trying to remember what lut i used last time and whether i should color grade before or after i do my cut. sometimes i build the edit first then try to color it, sometimes i slap a lut on right away to see if the footage is even worth using. and i feel like my exports always look slightly different from each other across projects even when im shooting the same drone in the same conditions.

idk if i need a proper project template or if i just need to sit down and actually learn color theory or what. anyone have a workflow that actually sticks?

the lut thing is real ? i wasted so much time hunting through folders of downloaded luts every single project. what i do now is i have one resolve project thats literally just called "template" and it has my node structure already built out, my output color space set, a few luts i actually like pre-loaded, and even some title presets. at the start of every new project i just duplicate that and start dropping footage in. sounds simple but it saved me probably 30 mins of setup confusion per project.

also for the "grade before or after the cut" thing ? i rough cut first, always. no point spending time grading a clip youre not going to use anyway. i do a quick lut pass just so the footage doesnt look totally flat while im editing, but i dont touch nodes seriously until the cut is basically locked. took me a while to commit to that order but it makes everything cleaner.

yeah the inconsistency across projects sounds like a white balance issue more than a lut issue, are you setting a custom WB in camera or leaving it on auto? auto WB in dlog can really mess with your starting point and then no lut is going to behave the same way twice. might be worth locking that in first before worrying about the rest of the workflow tbh