Blackmagic Design unveils DaVinci Resolve 21 with Photo page, launches Fairlight Live mixer

Blackmagic Design released public betas of DaVinci Resolve 21 and Fairlight Live ahead of the 2026 NAB Show, adding a still photography workflow to its post-production application and introducing a software-based live audio mixer.

Both products are available as free downloads from the Blackmagic Design website and will be demonstrated at the company’s booth N2502 at the NAB Show.

Resolve 21 adds Photo page for still image grading

DaVinci Resolve 21 introduces the Photo page, a workflow for importing, managing and grading still photographs using the same node-based color tools the application uses for video. Photographers and colorists can apply primary color correction, curves, qualifiers, power windows and node editor adjustments to stills, including building complex grades with nodes arranged in series or parallel.

The Photo page preserves images at their original source resolution and aspect ratio during reframing and cropping.

A LightBox view provides an overview of an album with grades applied and supports filtering by graded, ungraded, star rating, flag and clip color. Users can organize photos into albums based on criteria such as shoot day or camera model, with albums appearing as timelines on the Color, Cut and Edit pages.

The page supports tethered capture from Sony and Canon cameras, with controls for ISO, exposure and white balance. Resolve FX and Open FX plug-ins work on stills, and the Photo page integrates with Blackmagic Cloud for collaborative workflows.

“The new Photo page in DaVinci Resolve 21 brings Hollywood’s most advanced color tools to still photography for the first time,” said Grant Petty, CEO of Blackmagic Design. He said the workflow gives photographers and colorists access to the full DaVinci toolset, AI tools, ResolveFX and FusionFX and supports real-time global collaboration.

New AI tools across the application

Resolve 21 adds several AI-based tools.

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IntelliSearch analyzes media and lets users search for objects, keywords in dialogue or individual faces, with results returned as clips in the Media Pool. CineFocus enables refocusing of a scene with adjustable aperture, focal range and bokeh, including keyframe control for rack focus effects.

The Face Age Transformer adds or removes age-related features on a tracked face for continuity in flashback or flash-forward scenes. Face Reshaper adjusts eye, nose, mouth, eyebrow and overall face shape on moving subjects. Blemish Removal reduces superficial skin imperfections while retaining natural texture. Slate ID automatically extracts metadata from clapperboards in the frame, including in dark or out-of-focus clips.

The application also adds UltraSharpen, described by the company as its most advanced sharpening tool, for improving clarity on upscaled video or footage with slight focus errors. Motion Deblur reduces streaks and softness from source footage. Speech Generator creates voices from written text and can build unique voices from samples as short as 10 seconds, with controls for speed, pitch and inflection.

Fusion, Fairlight and editing updates

The Krokodove toolset, a library of compositing tools and templates, is now included in Fusion. Blackmagic also updated the Fusion macro editor with a new inspector view for setting up and publishing macros, and the USD toolset has been updated to USD SDK 25.11 with Hydra 2.0 API for the Storm renderer.

In Fairlight, folder tracks allow audio tracks to be grouped and collapsed into a single composite view. The Fairlight Animator modifier connects Fusion to Fairlight’s audio engine, driving animation parameters from audio levels in timeline clips or media pool sources.

Keyframing updates include ease animations with loop, pingpong and relative modes, four-point Bezier easing and simultaneous adjustment of multiple clips. The cut and edit pages can now adjust Fusion effects directly in the keyframes and curves editors. Resolve 21 also supports OGraf HTML graphics and Lottie animations, with .json and .lottie files usable as rendered animation clips in the media pool.

The MultiMaster trim manager lets users generate multiple HDR and SDR trim deliverables from a single timeline, with the node editor displaying additional layers for trim operations. Node graphs can now be viewed as a layer list, arranging nodes in rows according to their number in the graph. The Magic Mask palette adds a render in place option that caches tracked masks as traveling matte nodes.

Apple Immersive workflows add support for foveated rendering, which prioritizes high-resolution rendering where the viewer is looking to reduce GPU workload. Delivery presets for Meta Quest and YouTube are included, along with spherical Panomap rotation for pitch, tilt, pan, yaw and roll adjustments, and ILPD retargeting data in the Fusion page for stereoscopic compositing.

IntelliScript now supports Final Draft and plain text screenplay imports, comparing script text against transcribed audio to build an initial cut. The metadata panel supports five-star rating and tagging for clips.

Fairlight Live enters public beta

Fairlight Live is a software-based live audio mixer that supports SMPTE-2110 broadcast workflows and spatial audio mixing. Blackmagic said the mixer handles thousands of audio channels and works with standard computer audio or USB audio from ATEM live production switchers.

The application supports mono, stereo, LCR, 5.1 surround, immersive and ASAF formats, with panning options that include 1D, 2D, 3D and a spherical panner for ambisonics. Each channel includes a 6-band EQ, expander/gate, compressor, limiter and panner, and users can add four effects slots per channel with ChainFX hosting up to six plug-ins per slot, supporting native, AU and VST plug-ins.

“Fairlight Live is the world’s most powerful live audio mixer,” said Grant Petty, CEO of Blackmagic Design. He said the software-based architecture removes the channel count limitations of traditional hardware mixers, with performance tied to the host computer.

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Fairlight Live supports up to 128 VCA groups, including nested VCAs for grouped control of elements such as commentator microphones. The application includes a cue player with 16 audio cues for jingles and stingers and 16 MIDI cues for controlling external hardware such as lighting. Snapshots save the entire mixer state for recall between show segments, with transition controls for fades between snapshots.

For SMPTE-2110 workflows, the mixer supports primary I/O for extracting specific audio streams from 2110 networks, with PTP clock synchronization and sample-level delay compensation. Connection to ATEM live production switchers is handled through USB-C, with audio-follows-video camera selection for up to 100 cameras, talkback management and bi-directional microphone gain control.

Output matrix busses support up to eight simultaneous output mixes for distributing separate feeds to stage monitors, translation feeds, recording devices and other destinations. The system includes virtual soundcheck recording and playback for rehearsal.

Fairlight Live supports Core Audio on macOS and System Audio or ASIO drivers on Windows. The company also offers Fairlight Live Audio Panels, hardware control surfaces with touchscreens for every group of 10 faders, available in three sizes.