That Cyan Color Shift!

[Ben Brahem Ziryab]

Looking at many films today, I've noticed that many of the darker, more moody one's has a cyan shift to their color palette.

This is especially true to films shot on film. I've always felt it added to richness to the whole piece in that it manages to elicit another layer of texture.

 

Here's an example:

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Notice the cyan color shift to the left and on Tommy Lee Jones' hat.

 

The film "Biutiful" is a good example of the cyan shift in combination with green. As well as the movie Blade Runner:

 

I know much of this effect is a done in the D.I process, but what can one do in lighting to get the effect in-camera? Is it simply Kino's with Cool Whites with a green spike to them or perhaps HMI's with 1/2 CTB...5600K with-3 green ?

[Tadeusz Kieniewicz]

I'm not sure if it is the best way to do this in camera. I would suggest doing white balance in camera using color gels. Just put oposite color gel in front of lens and do WB calibration on white paper. ie. If you put red color gel in front of a lens and do calibration camera will try to add as much oposite color to sensor to neutralize the look, when you take of the filter you image is covered with shift of oposite color of your gel. It takes time to achieve a desire look but works nice!

PS. Putting effect gel on ie. Kino flo or HMI will give you an effect only on areas hitted by the fixture, shadows will be "neutral" and that looks odd sometimes.

 

Cheers. Ted.

[Albert Smith]

Yea....just thrown on some color, the cool whites do different things depending on your camera though so do tests..... I shot a bunch of test's for a film last year filling with green and blue testing a bunch of effects gels and stuff and we liked 1/4G 1/4B the best..at the end of the day the whole thing is just about color contrast orange/Cyan contrast is always nice looking and become very popular.....but regardless of your color palette choice, where it makes sense, adding some color contrast between your key and fill will always make for a good look.

 

 

surprisingly good article from hurlbut on lighting a scene, he speaks about color contrast in his fill, although fairly subtle in this scene.

http://www.hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/2011/07/08/lighting-basics-series-i-where-to-place-your-key-light/

 

 

not to deter you.

http://theabyssgazes.blogspot.com/2010/03/teal-and-orange-hollywood-please-stop.html

Edited March 3, 2012 by Jake Zalutsky

[Ben Brahem Ziryab]

Thank you Jake and Tadeusz. This is what I was looking for.

 

And yes, orange and cyan color contrast is the new trend in Hollywood.