How Do I Make My Videos Look Like This

[Robert Marshall]

Well this is my first post so i hope im doing this right.

 

There is a Guy on YouTube that makes videos that are really good and i particularly like the way they look.

He uses a Canon 7D camera. Basically he says that its down to the lenses he uses and the lighting.

Can anyone tell me what he does to make it look the way it does (lighting - What Lighting, What he does if any color editing, and lenses) i have tried to find out how he makes his videos look like this but i cant find it anywhere please can someone help

 

One of the Guys Videos

Thanks For Your Time

[Brian Drysdale]

There are a number of books on film lighting, some of which are listed here: http://astore.amazon.com/cinematographyco?_encoding=UTF8&node=1.

 

You can see the shadows created by the lighting in the video, so you can begin to break down the location and type of lights being used. You can use lighting gels to create and control colour.

 

Lighting is a hands on process to learn, but it's central to all camera work. Even using natural lighting to it's full potential, you still need to understand it.

[Aaron Solomon]

I don't know much but to me that video looks extremely desaturated, so I'd say he went into a grading program and pulled down the saturation a lot. Anyone else get that impression?

[Oliver Christoph Kochs]

Magic Bullet Looks. Bleach bypass preset.

;-P

[Robert Marshall]

There are a number of books on film lighting, some of which are listed here: http://astore.amazon.com/cinematographyco?_encoding=UTF8&node=1.

 

You can see the shadows created by the lighting in the video, so you can begin to break down the location and type of lights being used. You can use lighting gels to create and control colour.

 

Lighting is a hands on process to learn, but it's central to all camera work. Even using natural lighting to it's full potential, you still need to understand it.

 

yea im currently doing a film course at college hoping to learn more on the lighting side soon XD thankyou

[Robert Marshall]

I don't know much but to me that video looks extremely desaturated, so I'd say he went into a grading program and pulled down the saturation a lot. Anyone else get that impression?

 

yea that what i always thought as well i tried experimenting but just couldn't get the same look XD thankyou

 

Magic Bullet Looks. Bleach bypass preset.

;-P

 

Cool thankyou i will have a look at that XD thankyou very much

[Phil Soheili]

You might select a specific shot in order to get a more specific answer.

Once you have s shot, take a screenshot of it put it in Photoshop, let PS do "set auto levels" (contrast etc..) I think the shortcut is

"apple-shift-L" or on a PC "Ctrl-Shift-L". That will give you probably the best picture to evaluate the lighting.

Don't know if you follow, give it a try and see what happens. To see the scene as it was "on the set" is very often "revealing the secrets".

 

Cheers,

PhS

[Robert Marshall]

You might select a specific shot in order to get a more specific answer.

Once you have s shot, take a screenshot of it put it in Photoshop, let PS do "set auto levels" (contrast etc..) I think the shortcut is

"apple-shift-L" or on a PC "Ctrl-Shift-L". That will give you probably the best picture to evaluate the lighting.

Don't know if you follow, give it a try and see what happens. To see the scene as it was "on the set" is very often "revealing the secrets".

 

Cheers,

PhS

 

Thankyou that work really well great idea XD i atached a screen shot that i changed doing it like you said. im guessing he used some gels to get the edges a blue tint? and the rest was color correction?

[David McDonald]

I did some tests on some footage to get a similar look as this using Final Cut's 3 Way Color Corrector, and basically all I did was raise the levels on everything, particularly the blacks (so there's very little contrast) and then messed around with changing the colors slightly, I'm pretty sure the blacks are changed in most shots, like the shots with the army men look quite green in the darker areas. It's possible he's using presets like Magic Bullet, but I wouldn't say it looks like a bleach bypass or desaturated look. It's mostly low-contrast with color tweaked in the blacks (except for the shots with the girlfriend, dad, friends etc. which look like normal contrast).

 

I've seen some behind the scenes on his videos and he never really does anything crazy with lighting....I think he has a few fresnel lights, probably 1Ks, 2Ks and some smaller ones like 300s or 500s, and he usually has blue gel or diffusion on them, and sometimes just bounces them off the ceiling or puts one behind or to the side for some back/edge light. I think he has a few nice lenses (for a DSLR I'm assuming), probably a decent wide one like a 21mm or 24mm, and in some of his videos it looks like he's got a nice long lens like a 70-200 or maybe 50mm or 85mm.