Some movies like Saving Private Ryan for example, have the white sunlight look, which I would like to expirement with. But how do I change just the sunlight to white? I watched some tutorials, and have Premiere Pro, and After Effects, but if I try what they do, a lot more than just the sunlight ends up turning white. How do I do sunlight only, if that's possible? Thanks.
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How do I change the color of sunlight?
- Thread starter harmonica44
- Start date
Do you have a still for an example? Give us a before (original footage) and after (look you want to achieve from what ever movie).
I haven't figured out how to upload a still to youtube, but here's some video examples. One is something I shot, the other is Saving Private Ryan.
http://youtu.be/rZvtkAgrQ3M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMS9aeAqk_o&feature=related
Mine is the way sunlight more normally looks which is yellow-ish. How do I alter it's color to white or perhaps even more blue-ish, without changing the color of the actor's skins who are not hit by the sunlight so much?
http://youtu.be/rZvtkAgrQ3M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMS9aeAqk_o&feature=related
Mine is the way sunlight more normally looks which is yellow-ish. How do I alter it's color to white or perhaps even more blue-ish, without changing the color of the actor's skins who are not hit by the sunlight so much?
Sunlight is naturally white -- that's why you "white balance" your camera. Your scene was shot in a room with yellow walls, so it looks yellow. Paint the walls white and you'll go a long way toward achieving your desired look. The SPR clip was also desaturated in post.
Okay thanks. I thought about changing the color of the walls, but it's also reflections off of the actors skin, and off all the furniture as well. I want to make the sunlight white without desaturating though. SPR is not the best example but I can't think of other movies that do that.
I repeat: if you white balance your camera with sunlight as your light source, it will be white. That's literally why you're doing it. If your light is appearing yellowish, you are not balancing correctly, or you may be mixing tungsten sources into your sunlight.
Also, a big part of the look to Saving Private Ryan is not just the color correction they did, but the shutter speed as well. They used a very fast shutter speed and opened the aperture up, which when combined with the color muting in post production, produces the results you're talking about.
Oh yeah, I don't want the shutterspeed, just the whiteness. How do I alter it in post though, without colorizing other things?
In that mid shot... what I see is there's a window camera left and lighting of some sort camera right. Here's the approach I have taken in the past in these situations.
Since you have no actual control over the color of the sunlight (unless you gel the window), we assume that we want to know that there's a window to the left.
Sunlight is blue (end of statement). To suggest window left, set your white balance on your camera to the indoor preset.
Indoor lights (incandescent) are orange. To suggest lights to the right, you'll have to gel your lights. The light coming out of them will read as perfectly white because of the WB we've set the camera to. Alter the lights to read a little orange (with a CTO gel 1/2 to full).
If this makes the wall too yellow/warm, you can WB to the outdoor preset (which will make the wall whiter and the window read as white). You will then not have to gel the indoor lights (unless they're too orange, then you could add a little blue to bring it closer to white)... but the window won't read as blue, so you may want to add a little blue light to the window side of your subject... it doesn't need to be alot of blue, but without it, it'll look a little artificial.
Our brain expects to shift back and forth between blue and orange as we concentrate on specific parts of a view. If the audience doesn't get the chance to do this, they perceive that there's something artificial about it. Giving a little bit of blue and orange (doesn't have to be alot), gives enough information for the audience to place the shot into the environment more easily, which makes it easier to accept the reality you're trying to paint for them.
Now... since you've already shot it and have the footage locked:
In after effects, rotoscope your subject (this will take a bit) to separate them from the background... then color correct the background which will leave your subject untouched and allow you to shift the colors of that wall where ever you want to.
To roto with the least amount of effort, use separate shapes for each of the parts of the body that can't change shape dramatically: foot, Lower leg, upper leg, torso, upper arm, lower arm, hand, head. You can even pickwhip/parent the ends of on to the ends of the other to act a bit like an armature so when you move the hand, the arms will come with it a bit... but that takes a bit of rigging that you may not want to go through at this point.
Then with your subject, you can use the chrominance (color) of your subject to selectively shift colors around... I often light on set to make this easier in post by using colors just far enough apart that I know I'll be able to single out later... I do the same with the luminance levels targeting my color correction wheels to make that job easier as well.
Lows--------------Mids--------------Hilights
0----------|--------50----------|---------100
Keep your lighting within the dashes and away from the transitions form one segment to the next and you'll have an easier time correcting them in post.
With the colors as well:
Blue(sun)----------------White----------------Orange(lamp)
Your lighting sources will generally fall along this line somewhere. If it's exactly on white, it'll look/feel like video. The real world is more complex in it's lighting. The 25% mark and the 75% mark are really great places to put the color of your lighting... as they will still read as white, but allow easier chroma separation later, and even if not touched, will allow the audience to have the afore-mentioned psychological effect on their perception of the shot.
As a lighting person, it's our job to understand the physics of light and the audiences perception thereof.
Hopefully this will help.
Since you have no actual control over the color of the sunlight (unless you gel the window), we assume that we want to know that there's a window to the left.
Sunlight is blue (end of statement). To suggest window left, set your white balance on your camera to the indoor preset.
Indoor lights (incandescent) are orange. To suggest lights to the right, you'll have to gel your lights. The light coming out of them will read as perfectly white because of the WB we've set the camera to. Alter the lights to read a little orange (with a CTO gel 1/2 to full).
If this makes the wall too yellow/warm, you can WB to the outdoor preset (which will make the wall whiter and the window read as white). You will then not have to gel the indoor lights (unless they're too orange, then you could add a little blue to bring it closer to white)... but the window won't read as blue, so you may want to add a little blue light to the window side of your subject... it doesn't need to be alot of blue, but without it, it'll look a little artificial.
Our brain expects to shift back and forth between blue and orange as we concentrate on specific parts of a view. If the audience doesn't get the chance to do this, they perceive that there's something artificial about it. Giving a little bit of blue and orange (doesn't have to be alot), gives enough information for the audience to place the shot into the environment more easily, which makes it easier to accept the reality you're trying to paint for them.
Now... since you've already shot it and have the footage locked:
In after effects, rotoscope your subject (this will take a bit) to separate them from the background... then color correct the background which will leave your subject untouched and allow you to shift the colors of that wall where ever you want to.
To roto with the least amount of effort, use separate shapes for each of the parts of the body that can't change shape dramatically: foot, Lower leg, upper leg, torso, upper arm, lower arm, hand, head. You can even pickwhip/parent the ends of on to the ends of the other to act a bit like an armature so when you move the hand, the arms will come with it a bit... but that takes a bit of rigging that you may not want to go through at this point.
Then with your subject, you can use the chrominance (color) of your subject to selectively shift colors around... I often light on set to make this easier in post by using colors just far enough apart that I know I'll be able to single out later... I do the same with the luminance levels targeting my color correction wheels to make that job easier as well.
Lows--------------Mids--------------Hilights
0----------|--------50----------|---------100
Keep your lighting within the dashes and away from the transitions form one segment to the next and you'll have an easier time correcting them in post.
With the colors as well:
Blue(sun)----------------White----------------Orange(lamp)
Your lighting sources will generally fall along this line somewhere. If it's exactly on white, it'll look/feel like video. The real world is more complex in it's lighting. The 25% mark and the 75% mark are really great places to put the color of your lighting... as they will still read as white, but allow easier chroma separation later, and even if not touched, will allow the audience to have the afore-mentioned psychological effect on their perception of the shot.
As a lighting person, it's our job to understand the physics of light and the audiences perception thereof.
Hopefully this will help.
Okay thanks, that helps a lot! Thanks people. What about outdoors? Obviously I cannot put blue gel over the whole sun.
Okay thanks. I tried that already, but then everything is blue and not just the sunlight.
If the outdoors are blue, you're set to the "indoor" or "incandescent" setting on your camera... switch to "outdoor" or "sunlight"... you can always get screw on camera filters that can change the color of the entire sun. It'll change the whole frame though, so plan accordingly.
I would recommend using Apple Color or any other color correction program such as the Magic Bullet plugin. Much of what everyone is talking about here is much about white balancing, but the bottom line is, you're not going to get the look that Saving Private Ryan or any other professional film achieves with simple in-camera white balance settings. I usually use a gray card to set the white balance, but after that, I always achieve my polished look through on set lighting techniques (as a beginner, look up three-point lighting) and color correction in post with Apple Color round-tripped from Final Cut Pro.
Basic things to consider when lighting:
Outside lighting/sunlight = Blue
Indoor/incandescent = orange
Low key or High Key
Play with gels to correct with your lights on set, and use filters to correct for your lens.
Here's a good example of what you can accomplish and an example how you can fix on set mistakes with post-production color correction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMDQaNuCO1o
Basic things to consider when lighting:
Outside lighting/sunlight = Blue
Indoor/incandescent = orange
Low key or High Key
Play with gels to correct with your lights on set, and use filters to correct for your lens.
Here's a good example of what you can accomplish and an example how you can fix on set mistakes with post-production color correction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMDQaNuCO1o