"Cinematic" colors/hues and edits

[N.O.R.E.]

Is anyone here into the "cinematic" style of street photos? Typically a 2.5 to 1 format and usually green/purple/blue hue made to look like it's from a movie. If so what are you doing edit wise in Lightroom/Photoshop?

I have been increasing contrast by overlaying a B/W image at about 30% opacity and then a blue/green and yellow gradient also overlayed at about 10% opacity.

Samples of some edits I did:











Not excatly super "cinematic" but it's a start. What's your technique?

[Eric Xu]

It's certainly interesting, but for the Cinescope shots you should go a little wider.

Since I'm a filmmaker, very early on in photography I experimented with framing my shots like I would when DPing a film shoot, and the emotions were certainly very different. I would recommend adjusting your framing a bit, and using the color correction methods films often use, which is a teal push in the shadows, warming the highlights, and making sure the skin tones are a comfortable hue. The contrast looks very nice in your shots.

[stsva]

Very interesting look. Eric Xu sounds like he knows what he's talking about to tweak the look.

[N.O.R.E.]

Originally Posted by Eric Xu

It's certainly interesting, but for the Cinescope shots you should go a little wider.

Since I'm a filmmaker, very early on in photography I experimented with framing my shots like I would when DPing a film shoot, and the emotions were certainly very different. I would recommend adjusting your framing a bit, and using the color correction methods films often use, which is a teal push in the shadows, warming the highlights, and making sure the skin tones are a comfortable hue. The contrast looks very nice in your shots.

awesome information. thanks! is there correct ratio 2.5 to 1 then? the examples i posted were 16x9 and 16x6 (not counting the black borders).

[mikewinburn]

Cinemascope is usually 2.55:1 or something like that... most widescreen (anamorphic - so called) presentations are 2.35:1 (there about). 16x9 is really just for your TV 1.85:1 is just about filling a 16x9 display.

#1 and #3 look close to correct to my (untrained) eye.

very lovely work.

Eric, I'd love to see some of your work.

[Eric Xu]

Either 2.39:1 or 2.35:1 is considered CinemaScope, which is my favorite aspect ratio.

I can show you guys my first film, which is a little rough and not my best work, but it shows what I'm talking about regarding framing and color correction. It's called iRelationship. You have a lot less room to grade with HDV, which is what that was shot on (Canon XH A1). Raw files have so much more flexibility, plus stills are compressed much better than H.264. So the result is photographs will be much crisper and look nicer!

Quick example from a random shot on the Great Wall:

[tonylong]

Psst! You'll need to size that a bit smaller, 1024 pixels at the widest!

[Eric Xu]

That's odd, I thought I set it at 1024 in Photoshop. I'll export again, thanks!

[tonylong]

Cool, now the mods won't jump all over you!

[kiss-o-matic]

I have been increasing contrast by overlaying a B/W image at about 30% opacity and then a blue/green and yellow gradient also overlayed at about 10% opacity.

Gradient, or gradient map? The shots look very nice.

[N.O.R.E.]

Originally Posted by kiss-o-matic

Gradient, or gradient map? The shots look very nice.

i meant gradient map.

[Jaynez]

Just made one for fun, i do like this effect =)

IMG_1861 by JaynezL., on Flickr

[ProwlingTiger]

So if I understand this properly, it's layered as such: Blue, green, & yellow gradient map (10%, overlay mode), black and white version (30% overlay, mode), and then the image?

[N.O.R.E.]

Originally Posted by ProwlingTiger

So if I understand this properly, it's layered as such: Blue, green, & yellow gradient map (10%, overlay mode), black and white version (30% overlay, mode), and then the image?

more or less. I just play around with the opacity until I start to like the look. I also do some dodging/burning depending on image. What I would like to find out is how you get this type of edit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4582958...s-9359643@N04/

Does anyone know?

[Eric Xu]

I see high local contrast, a fine grain structure, understated flesh tones and the same teal push in the shadows and warm highlights I talked about before.

It's not just processing, but has a lot to do with lighting the scene. The film look is in a large part created on set.