How to accomplish this type of look?

[Lammy]

Hey guys, just watched a F3 test/short film, and throughout, I thought it looked amazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH9GNBon2mo

-Throughout the day shots, the light illuminated the faces perfectly; just the right amount of rim light along the cheekbones and contours, a little bit of red and color, the right amount of depth and realism.

-Throughout the night shots, the faces weren't absolutely eye-watering, but they looked acceptable and realistic none-the-less.

-The overall color and contrast in many shots is superb, and this video tends to show everything from a bit of contrasty styles to superflat looks; my favorite being the spoon scene, and the wide-angle ferris wheel shot at 1:42.

-A lot of natural light seems to be used in this piece; half of the shots have shot the two subjects from far away, where the faces still look superb; maybe there's a technical light far in the distance off-cam, maybe it's just the sun.

-The night shots are very obviously not technically lit and they very obviously only use the street and sign lights as any sort of illuminence.

How do I achieve this using a Canon DSLR? To be completely honest, I don't care what anyone says, half the shots in this piece, if not all of them, are shot natural and seems to rely on the camera picking up just the right amount of contrast and color to make an outdoor face look realistic. I wouldn't go as far as to say the DP cared much for actor placement; just a few of the day scenes look well blocked.

A big point of this is this is the F3; it virtually seems to see in the dark. With Canon, it's either you have a super high contrast and saturation and thus a realistic face, or you dial down the contrast and saturation and then your subjects look like zombies no matter how well you try to set up the shots. I've yet to find a great little mid-point with my camera; I've yet to find the look of the video above.

Here's another example where the same aesthetic is achieved:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBh6x0U1o9A

I mean, if this type of look just can't be done with the Canon series (it seems that city night tests prove how different in contrast the Canon is vs. the F3) then I think I may just have to shoot on the F3 from now on. I mean, wether it's the faces or the surroundings, these two videos are almost IDENTICAL in aesthetic, level, and tone to the look I need to one of my projects. It just doesn't seem to be a complex look, yet I've not once come close to this with my DSLR no matter how many picture styles or lighting experiments I try.

I think what you're refering to is the default Sony colorimetry. That brown tint to the skin tones. I notice Canon's default colors on the skin look abit more pink, Nikon's is abit more orange, Red camera abit more golden/desaturated. Am I crazy or bulls**tting?

They can all be colour corrected however. Look up a good secondary colour correction tutorial ala:

http://vimeo.com/777939

[don't worry, you don't need Apple Color to do this, any NLE has the basic three-colour wheel plus secondary CC and mask previews]

 

[johne]

Interesting post. I do believe that equipement matters resolution wise, depending on the final output of your product. Something shot on an iphone might not look great projected on a giant screen. But when viewed on said iphone
one would be challenged to tell the difference between iphone footage and something shot on a red. Assuming of course that production values are the same for both iphone and red and that we dont do the shallow dof trick lol.

The point i'm trying to make is that if you have an interesting and compelling story to tell, people will listen to you. They will forgive your stuttering, the yellow teeth, your dandruff and the fact that you are not the hottest thing
on the planet. But only if you have something to say. Something meaningful to add to the, in essence meaningless pool of information the world is drowning in.

When you tell a story you should know when to pause, when to speak faster, when to add drama and when to back off. Your talent is what draws people in not the brand of microphone you are speaking into.

The camera TAKES the picture but the cameraman/womans MAKES the picture.

Just for fun here's a link to a short piece shot on an iphone which i'm sure many have seen

http://vimeo.com/12819723?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+argoroots+%28Argo%29

 

[draven4]

Snapper. Contact the filmmakers of that piece. You can assume all you want about things like they shot as is in natural light but realistically ask them what their exact methods were. I applaud your quest to emulate what you see though. That's how you learn.

In all honestly there are many roads to get to one path (image). We can tell you how we would do it but if you want to know how it was really done contact them.

In my opinion you can get the same or very close to the same look with your DSLR if done right. But keep in mind each camera and lens has its own look.