Getting that "BLUE" look

Z

zeroblank

Well-known member
Quick question....

I'm shoot a film and the director is looking to get that blue look similar to 30 days of night. What would the best way to go about this be?

1. lighting it blue?

2. Tricking the white balance?

or 3. leaving it for the editor to do in post?

I know all methods would work but what have some of you guys done to create this look?
 
i would highly recommend doing it in post. It is hard to undo in camera stuff but easy to do stuff in post. Are you talking about an effect like in traffic?
 
lairhair said:
i would highly recommend doing it in post. It is hard to undo in camera stuff but easy to do stuff in post. Are you talking about an effect like in traffic?
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Yeah thanks you bring up a valid point. If I shoot it blue you cant undo that later.

It's been a long time since I watched traffic so I'm not really sure but if you watch the trailer to 30 days of night that's what I was "instructed" to recreate. But I think the best bet would be to just shoot it nicely and if he wants the color to it he can add that later.

Here's the trailer..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Q3PdT6GFQ
 
zeroblank said:
Yeah thanks you bring up a valid point. If I shoot it blue you cant undo that later.

It's been a long time since I watched traffic so I'm not really sure but if you watch the trailer to 30 days of night that's what I was "instructed" to recreate. But I think the best bet would be to just shoot it nicely and if he wants the color to it he can add that later.

Here's the trailer..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Q3PdT6GFQ
Click to expand...
I know on the XH-A1 I could custom adjust the color temperature using white balance.
Either making it a orange/reddish hot color, or a bluish type color like that trailer. Haven't tried it in a darker situation but in mid day the bluish tone looked great. I will upload a video to show you what I mean if your interested.
 
grimrebes said:
Also consider your set design, wardrobe, and make up in the process.
Click to expand...

This should be your first consideration, not camera settings.

The problem with a broad spectrum change such as cheating your WB, or trying to tint it in post is your flesh tones. In the trailer posted, (for the most part) the skin tones are pretty neutral where as everything else is blue. This is from production design and wardrobe. Notice how every wall in the sheriff's office is painted a shade of blue? When you have that set, there isn't much you will need to do in post, it will already be right.

Here is an example. Blue car, seats, shirt, pants, etc. so the overall image is blue, but the skin tones stay "true." Of course nothing stops you from tinting your skin tones along with the image, it just depends on the look you want.

1242590175.jpg
 
William_Robinette said:
...
The problem with a broad spectrum change such as cheating your WB, or trying to tint it in post is your flesh tones.
Click to expand...
And lighting. You'll see in Potter & Underworld all the time where the walls are kissed with blue light and the fill on the actors is gold.

For the blue look you usually see in films, all three conspire together for maximum impact - art direction, lighting, post. Also in post you can do selective grading.

Here's my stab at it from my film BONE HAND.
Basically I restricted the palette to blue ad gray as much as possible. Then I used the selective color tool in FCP's Color Corrector to select skin tones and exclude them from the blue tint.
I then used another FCP Color Corrector to again select the skin tones and tweak them without tweaking the blue.
Wood and Red will also be selected unless you use masks and layers to exclude them, as you will see below.
ficarra2.jpg


ficarra.jpg


ficarraqui.jpg


qui.jpg


quiclose.jpg


qui3.jpg


stick.jpg
 
First of all, I'm more a photographer than a cinematographer.

Second of all, I'm not sure that it matters if the props are blue. I'm also not sure if they use a different colour temperature for the background and another one for the actors.

What I think, based on my analysis is that they do all the heavy work in post when color grading. My question is.. what method do they use?

At first I though they tint everything in the colour spectrum except the yellows and reds, to maintain skin tone. Then I read about power windows (called like that due to the da Vinci systems - nice website btw.. "Index 3" as a title...). And now I think they use both systems.. somehow.

How advanced and complex the power windows are.. I don't know. For example, in Apple Color you can create custom shapes and mask faces and stuff, then track the mask or use keyframes to redefine the mask when the subject moves (but to do it right it will take some time)...

Here are some screenshots from The International:


Sample1:

sample1.jpg


- notice the guy on the other side of the road has normal skin tones. But can you notice that the background is tinted green except for the break lights of the cars? The yellow-ish and green-ish grass and the coat seems normal as well..


Sample2:

sample2i.jpg


- notice the break light at the top of the car in the background? and the sign on the left... colours are normal because they are used in the skin tones as well?

Sample3:

sample3t.jpg


- now this one is perfect... there are no object in the frame that have the same colours as skin.. so everything is green except the skin..and hair. Do they use masks and stuff? If so... how do they do it.. it takes forever to craete a custom shape and then to use keyframes to move it around and to change it's shape based on the movements of the actor

Sample4:

sample4s.jpg


- this is slightly green tinted but again the objects that have similar color to skin remain natural (roofs for example...)

I am really interested in the method they use.

Also as a last notice, the background sometimes seems to be colorized and not just tinted (background transformed into b/w and then a blue shade is added...). Or it's colorized but it is also placed on top of the original footage and has a small transparency applied to it. If you just tint (shadows/midtones and highlights as well) you don't get the same effect.
 
research gamma, gain, hue, saturation. It's more simple than you think and it's more than just a blue wash and a few power masks.
 
Actually I'm sorry I guess my above comment is about post and i realize that you are trying to achieve something in the shoot, however I would recommend you do it in post. I would keep whites white. Most things in the world are grey, green or blue anyway (but then again i am colour blind) so skin tones often can be brought up pretty well with a yellow saturation if you hue out the rest blue (post again).
 
pveal said:
research gamma, gain, hue, saturation. It's more simple than you think and it's more than just a blue wash and a few power masks.
Click to expand...

Hi there,

Can you please explain more? I do know about gamma, gain, hue, saturation, scopes and all that... but I find it hard to isolate the skin tones. What do you mean by more than a blue wash and a few power masks?

Thanks for your time.

Edited:

pveal said:
so skin tones often can be brought up pretty well with a yellow saturation if you hue out the rest blue (post again).
Click to expand...

I am not sure "pretty well" is the right term... while yes, you can change the hue for part of the color spectrum and keep the yellows and reds to maintain skin tone.. it won't yield a perfect result. There must be more than that...

What you are saying is pretty much what it was said here: http://prolost.com/blog/2008/3/23/save-our-skins.html, however the pro colorists do more than that...
 
Last edited:
egzplicit said:
Hi there,



What you are saying is pretty much what it was said here: http://prolost.com/blog/2008/3/23/save-our-skins.html, however the pro colorists do more than that...
Click to expand...

Wonderful article link!

For those who are curious about doing this in camera, it can be done, although with increasing difficulty the wider the shot. I've shot films where I know the colors were going to go warmer in post production, to attain a certain look to the characters world. These were exteriors where I couldn't light the face balanced and the background warm... so we had to warm it in post.

Knowing the skin tones would go with the slide toward warm, I cooled down the light on the actors faces. (the only element I could control.)

In post we saved power windows and colorist time, because we shot daylight balanced, with the background reading correctly balanced, but the light on the actors was extra cool. When we slid the overall look to warm, the background turned warm while the cool faces balanced to correct balance or slightly warmer depending on how much we cranked it.
 
Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
Wonderful article link!

For those who are curious about doing this in camera, it can be done, although with increasing difficulty the wider the shot. I've shot films where I know the colors were going to go warmer in post production, to attain a certain look to the characters world. These were exteriors where I couldn't light the face balanced and the background warm... so we had to warm it in post.

Knowing the skin tones would go with the slide toward warm, I cooled down the light on the actors faces. (the only element I could control.)

In post we saved power windows and colorist time, because we shot daylight balanced, with the background reading correctly balanced, but the light on the actors was extra cool. When we slid the overall look to warm, the background turned warm while the cool faces balanced to correct balance or slightly warmer depending on how much we cranked it.
Click to expand...

That is so cool, I'm totally trying this out this weekend. I can't believe i didn't think of this before.
 
Agreed Max ... I've been interested in this topic recently as I'm planning the "look" for my upcoming project. This answers questions I had, as well as questions I didn't know I had. :)

Gives me a lot to think about, but at least gives me tools to find the appropriate answers
 
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