Locked on Stabilization: Horizontal to Vertical in Davinci Resolve -

In DaVinci Resolve, if you’re using Locked On Stabilization and you’re encountering unwanted shifts from horizontal to vertical movement (or vice versa), here’s a breakdown of how to manage and refine that:

🔒 What is “Locked On” Stabilization?

“Locked On” stabilization tries to lock the frame to a specific point, making the camera appear stationary — great for shots where you want to eliminate all motion (like a static drone shot).

🚨 Problem: Unwanted Axis Drift (Horizontal ↔ Vertical)

When this mode locks too aggressively, it can sometimes:

Introduce vertical shifts in a shot you wanted to remain level.
Overcorrect horizontal pans, making the image jitter or shift.

✅ How to Fix or Control It:

1. Switch to Perspective or Similar Mode

Go to the Color Page or Edit Page > Inspector > Stabilization.
Change Mode from Locked to Perspective (or Similarity if you still want less warping).
These allow more flexibility and are less aggressive about locking all movement.

2. Use Custom Cropping to Limit Axis

Sometimes, Resolve stabilizes along both axes equally. You can:
- Manually crop the image to reduce visible movement.
- Use the Transform controls in the Inspector to limit horizontal/vertical correction.

3. Re-analyze Stabilization with Manual Adjustments

Disable “Zoom” temporarily to see what movement is being introduced.
Check or uncheck “Cropping Ratio” or tweak it to balance how much image is used to stabilize.

4. Manually Keyframe to Compensate

If the stabilization still causes a visible “tilt” or jump:

Go to the Edit page.
Open Transform.
Add keyframes for Position (X/Y) and Rotation to counteract what stabilization did.

🔧 Pro Tip:

If you’re stabilizing vertical video or mobile footage, always ensure your project settings and clip orientation match. Resolve might interpret orientation shifts as motion if the metadata is mismatched.

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