The effect used in older movies like The Godfather or Bonnie and Clyde, where the sunlight is more orange or yellow. This is a tough one. Normally I am told by DPs to just put gel over the light if you want a certain cover, but of course, I cannot gel the whole sun. Thanks for the replies!
How do I get the yellow-orange sunlight effect?
- Thread starter ironpony
- Start date
David G. Smith
Steak Knife Member
Cinematographers shooting film are known for using filters to shape the colors of their films. The cinematographer on "The Godfather", Gordon Willis ASC http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0932336/ is known for his extensive use of filters to control the contrast and color of his images. A lot of this can now a days be done in post production in color grading.
Okay thanks, I thought of color balance and filters, but doing either of those, would not only change the sunlight, but change the color of everything. I thought it was just the sunlight that was yellow in the The Godfather, but I guess the picture is a little yellow, but it's so subtle that I didn't notice?
In high end stuff, you're using raw or Log colour space, and generally using DaVinci, Baselight or perhaps Lustre or similar to colour grade and you can pretty much do just about anything you want - I was chatting to the colourist on my last short who had just done a major local feature. He said they spent about 2 hours with the Director and the DP trying to get the colour of a character's tie right.
Egg Born Son
Veteran
The quickest way to do it in camera is to white balance through a blue or purple filter and then remove the filter. Unlike shooting through an orange or yellow filter you can use really cheap ones for this.
Or use a blue card to white balance, rather than a white card.
That will, however make the entire image more orange, rather than just certain areas. Though you could do some tests running the opposite way you are now - ie, instead of shooting neutral and trying to colour the parts orange, shoot it orange and then try and colour the non-orange parts back to normal
cpc
Well-known member
Unless you are shooting film, you can simply increase the color temperature in your white balance settings for a warmer look. Gelling lights or filtering the lens accomplishes the same with film, because film is balanced for a certain color temperature and this is not a variable you can tweak.
j1clark@ucsd.edu
Veteran
From my experience on balancing in camera, the 'white balance' is a subtle thing... a 'blush white sheet of paper or similar'... gives a 'yellowish' cast... a 'yellowish sheet of paper gives a bluish cast', etc...
If you are going for 'really whacked' color shifts, probably post-production, but then with a DLSR there's only so much wackness one can do, before the image looks like ****...
In the case of gelling lights, the usual need is to 1) match existing light that can't be adjusted... such as sun streaming into a room with tungsten practicals and movie lights, 2) creative effects that could not realistically be done in post, for example, warm facial colors on humans, bluish background for 'night' feeling, or the like. (Yeah with windowing and selective manipulation someone can do something... but I think this is were 'in camera' would just be simpler... and not requiring rotoscoping windows to track long people/things in motion...)
cpc
Well-known member
Well, balancing from a bluish (cold) card/paper gives a higher Kelvin setting, balancing from a yellowish (warm) card gives a lower Kelvin setting. You can do this manually by simply dialing in a color temperature setting. You can warm daylight exteriors if you shoot at 6500-7500K even though the sun is actually 5500-6000K. Or you can warm a tungsten lit interior by shooting at 3400K even though the lights are 3200K halogen, etc.
And remember that color temperature is not proportional to perception. Small Kelvin changes are more noticeable at low color temperatures.
And remember that color temperature is not proportional to perception. Small Kelvin changes are more noticeable at low color temperatures.
colebennett
Active member
I'm a photographer by trade, and have very limited knowledge in post production for video.
I'd go with what cpc suggested, and tweak the white balance in camera every so slightly to warm up the temperature of the sun.
If you white balance off a blue card, or you gel it and white balance, you're not going to have the same control as physically adjusting the degrees kelvin in camera.
I'd go with what cpc suggested, and tweak the white balance in camera every so slightly to warm up the temperature of the sun.
If you white balance off a blue card, or you gel it and white balance, you're not going to have the same control as physically adjusting the degrees kelvin in camera.