Flatlight filming help!
- Thread starter B1kessk1s
- Start date
Sorry but I would never ever recommend this unless the lens is slow and only goes to f4.
The ideal aperture is around f/5.6. For skiing, I like it lower, around f/11 or so, but that's just me.
As for scene file, shoot semi-flat, but not too flat. Stop down until the image is bright as possible while still having snow detail.
In post, drop the mids, and bump the highs to compensate. Raise the black pedestal if necessary, because crushed blacks in flat light looks even more awful than it does in good light.
The ideal aperture is around f/5.6. For skiing, I like it lower, around f/11 or so, but that's just me.
As for scene file, shoot semi-flat, but not too flat. Stop down until the image is bright as possible while still having snow detail.
In post, drop the mids, and bump the highs to compensate. Raise the black pedestal if necessary, because crushed blacks in flat light looks even more awful than it does in good light.
Never max out your sharpness on DSLRs. It only creates more moiré and artifacting. I shoot with the sharpness turned all the way down to compensate.
I never was very fond of Neutral mode either; to me it makes unnatural skin tones. I used to shoot everything in Landscape mode, but now Cinestyle works wonders for flat light.
The following was shot in Landscape mode:
sharpness: 0
contrast: -3
Saturation: 0
hue: 0
I normally use curves in Color but I figure this will do...
First I exposed so that the whites weren't clipping (losing detail due to overexposure)
I started by raising the blacks because I found them too dark in the original file. Unlike normal footage, getting contrast in snow is the product of balancing mids/highs rather than mids/lows. So I dropped the mids to get more snow shadow, then raised the highs to compensate. I also gave the blacks a little more blue because in my mind's eye, I perceive flat light to be colder than sunlight.
Here's how it looked after:
I never was very fond of Neutral mode either; to me it makes unnatural skin tones. I used to shoot everything in Landscape mode, but now Cinestyle works wonders for flat light.
The following was shot in Landscape mode:
sharpness: 0
contrast: -3
Saturation: 0
hue: 0
I normally use curves in Color but I figure this will do...
First I exposed so that the whites weren't clipping (losing detail due to overexposure)
I started by raising the blacks because I found them too dark in the original file. Unlike normal footage, getting contrast in snow is the product of balancing mids/highs rather than mids/lows. So I dropped the mids to get more snow shadow, then raised the highs to compensate. I also gave the blacks a little more blue because in my mind's eye, I perceive flat light to be colder than sunlight.
Here's how it looked after:
Color correction ≠ grading. Color correction is generally a very clear-cut process; the colorist neutralizes all the colors and tones, and does so consistently from shot-to-shot before the grading process begins. Grading is indeed very subjective, however.
My main point is that if he wants to get more detail in flat light, he needs to be careful not to clip the darks and highlights, and to balance the mids/highs in post to achieve snow detail. The toning was completely optional; I just love blue. Of course my demonstration was extremely rudimentary since OP clearly is new to this...
OP, another essential piece of advice I forgot: get a polarizer. It will bring out much more snow detail and make your colors pop.
My main point is that if he wants to get more detail in flat light, he needs to be careful not to clip the darks and highlights, and to balance the mids/highs in post to achieve snow detail. The toning was completely optional; I just love blue. Of course my demonstration was extremely rudimentary since OP clearly is new to this...
OP, another essential piece of advice I forgot: get a polarizer. It will bring out much more snow detail and make your colors pop.
Tones looked fine to me...maybe add a little more contrast in the cloud timelapse if you like...
As for colors, they looked good. If you want to escape the neutral look, grading is a much more technical process that requires knowledge of basic color theory at the very least.
As for colors, they looked good. If you want to escape the neutral look, grading is a much more technical process that requires knowledge of basic color theory at the very least.
WillStart
Active member
"I never was very fond of Neutral mode either; to me it makes unnatural skin tones."
kinda felt like that, along with the rest of that post, implied we were talking about how to get accurate colors and levels in flat light.
i know you said that you like blue tones, but i just thought this thread was more about correction, not grading
kinda felt like that, along with the rest of that post, implied we were talking about how to get accurate colors and levels in flat light.
i know you said that you like blue tones, but i just thought this thread was more about correction, not grading
I like to start with a "natural" base image. And like I said, my advice was very rudimentary and simplified because I didn't feel like taking the time to explain scopes, histograms, rooms, and the massive topic of color theory. Just a simple way to make the colors look nicer.