Dramatic Lighting

Dramatic Lighting

Watch a contemporary feature fi lm objectively for color
and you may be shocked at how rare ordinary day-lit scenes
such as the plane example are. Dramatic media—not just
fi lms but television and theater—use color and light to
create mood, to signify key characters and plot points, and
more. If you’re working with a daring cinematographer, or
even heed the advice in the Foreword, you’ll be happy to
know that this matching technique is even more impressive
with strong lighting.
The composite in  clearly does not work; the
foreground element does not even contain the scene’s
dominant color, and is white-lit. That’s fi ne; it will better
demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique.
It helps that both the foreground and the background
elements have some areas that you can logically assume to
be fl at gray. The bridge has concrete footings for the steel
girders along the edges of the road, while the can has areas
of bare exposed aluminum.


The steps to color match a scene like this are as follows:
1. Apply Levels to the foreground layer.
2. Switch the Comp view to Green (Alt+2/Option+2). Not
only is this the dominant color in this particular scene,
but it is dominant in human vision, so green-matching
is the fi rst step in most scenes, not just this one.
3. Begin as if you are looking at a black-and-white photograph,
and match the element to this dark contrasty scene
using Levels in the RGB channel. If the element needs
more contrast in the shadows and highlights, as this one
does, raise Input Black and lower Input White; if it needs
less, adjust the Output controls instead. Finally, adjust the
gamma; in this scene, should it come down to match the
darkness of the scene or up so the element stands out
more? The end result should look like a monochrome
photo whose elements match believably (Figure 5.30a).
4. Switch the view (Alt+1/Option+1) and the Levels control
to the Red channel and repeat the grayscale matching
process. Clearly, the foreground element is far too
bright for the scene. Specifi cally, the darkest silver areas
of the can are much brighter than the brightest areas of
the concrete in the background. Therefore, adjust the
gamma down (to the right) until it feels more like they
inhabit the same world. Now have a look at the highlights
and shadows; the highlights look a little hot, so
lower Red Output White .
5. Now move over to Blue in the view (Alt+3/Option+3)
and in Levels. In this case, there is almost no match
whatsoever. The can is much brighter and more washed
out than the background. Raise Input Blue and bring
gamma way down. Now the can looks believably like it
belongs there
It’s strange to make all of these changes without ever looking
at the result in full color. So now, go ahead and do that.
Astoundingly, that can is now within range of looking like
it belongs in that scene; the remaining adjustments are
subjective. If you want the can to pick up a little less green
from the surroundings as I did, lower Green Input White.
Back in the RGB channel, adjust Gamma according to how