Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve 21 takes on Adobe Lightroom with a new Photo page

Many creators have already moved from Adobe Premiere to DaVinci Resolve, and now the developer, Blackmagic Design, is taking on Lightroom and Photoshop. The Australian company just unveiled DaVinci Resolve 21 in beta at the NAB 2026 broadcast convention with a brand new page called Photo designed to let you do things like crop and color correct still images. At the same time, the new version introduces video AI tools that can age a subject or reshape their facial features.

DaVinci Resolve has always let you edit photos as clips on a video timeline, but it’s now greatly simplified with the Photo page. You can import and manage photographs, including RAW files from Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon and Sony, directly in the new page. Then you adjust them using the Node-Based Color page, which offers tools similar to and arguably even more powerful than Adobe’s Lightroom.

Just like video, the Color page includes primary color correction, curves, qualifiers, and power windows (plus noise reduction, sharpening, and more). However, Resolve’s node-based workflow really shines for photo editing. You can add nodes in series or parallel to create complex notes, then save them to apply to other images or an entire photo album. You can also crop and crop images to their original source resolution and aspect ratio, without affecting the original image quality.

The LightBox view lets you see an entire album with notes applied. “Select any image and rate it live while seeing results updated across the entire collection in real time. Filter by rated, unrated, star rating, flag, and clip color,” Blackmagic Design explains in a press release. Albums, on the other hand, allow you to create collections just like you do in Lightroom. These also appear as timelines on the Color, Cut, and Edit pages for easy access.

For professional photographers, the Color page includes camera controls that allow you to connect a Sony or Canon camera to Resolve for live image capture, while adjusting settings such as ISO, exposure and white balance. You can save capture presets to “ensure a consistent look before customers take the photo,” according to Blackmagic.

Other Resolve tools also work with the Photo page, like the AI ​​Magic Mask that lets you select an object or person with one click. It’s also possible to perform advanced visual effects on still photos using Resolve’s Fusion page, or add OpenFX or FusionFX filters directly to the Photo page. Finally, you can collaborate with others using Blackmagic Cloud, although this requires a paid subscription.

I briefly tested the color tool and, as a DaVinci Resolve connoisseur, found it easy to understand. It’s simple to import and organize images (easier than Lightroom in my opinion) and is as powerful as Lightroom’s Develop page for most adjustments, although I really missed the latter’s “Clarity” tool. The node-based workflow is powerful, and Resolve makes it easy to apply adjustments to multiple images. When you’re ready to export, it’s done through a special photo-only version of the “Export” page and is also relatively intuitive. However, it remains to be seen whether or not I will cancel my Photoshop/Lightroom subscription.

At the top of the Photo page, Blackmagic Design has also introduced a number of new tools for video and VFX. Among the most interesting are a series of AI tools for facial adjustments. The AI ​​Face Age Transformer tools allow you to analyze a face, enter the subject’s age, and adjust the age offset slider to add things like facial wrinkles and fullness. You can also change the appearance of a subject with the AI ​​Face Reshaper tool which lets you adjust eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows and overall face shape. Plus, you get an AI Blemish Removal feature that reduces the appearance of superficial skin imperfections like acne, discoloration, and enlarged pores, while maintaining the skin’s natural texture.

Another tool that will undoubtedly be popular is AI UltraSharpen, which can upscale video “to make previously unusable footage sharp in higher resolutions,” according to the company. It can also be used to improve slight focusing errors. Meanwhile, AI Motion Deblur fixes slightly blurry images, making it especially useful for slow motion and freeze frames.

Other key new upgrades, to name a few, include the ability to edit Fusion effects from the Cut and Edit pages, the addition of the Krokodove composition tool library, and new immersive VR tools for streaming to platforms like Meta Quest and YouTube VR. Most of the new features are available in the free version of Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve, although a few tools (AI Magic Mask and Film Look Creator) are only available with the paid version of DaVinci Resolve Studio at $295. A full list of new features is here and you can download the free and paid versions here.