I’m a huge fan of natural light and am always looking for the best way to capture and process my footage to ensure the best results. Those who follow me on Instagram I knew I loved capturing beautiful skies, so I learned some valuable tips along the way.
Whether I’m photographing a scene between two actors acting out against the sunset, a portrait of a character against a backlit sky, or a landscape shot, I almost always rely on the same color processing techniques to ensure that the colors remain intact.
In this article, I’ll detail some very simple yet effective color grading techniques that I highly recommend for preserving highlights in high-contrast photos. While the focus of this article is primarily on preserving sky detail, the exact same principles I outline here can be applied to almost any other high-contrast shooting scenario.
Before we get started, I want to briefly point out that these techniques will be most effective when you apply them to footage shot with color processing in mind. In other words, by understanding your camera’s dynamic range capabilities and how to best expose your images to maximize DR, you’ll give yourself the best starting point for your work. For the purpose of this article, I won’t go into detail about exposure techniques or anything else camera related, as my advice in this area will vary depending on which camera you’re using…but just make sure you do Good homework and understanding how to get the most out of whatever camera you’re shooting with from a dynamic range perspective.
So, assuming you’ve done your best to capture as much DR as possible on set (and avoid clipping highlights of course), here’s how to retain as much sky detail as possible in your color grade –
Color grading of sky details
I recently shot a music video using the Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6K, part of which was shot on the beach in Malibu. Mostly we shot the artist in front of the water, which was a challenge with exposure because we had bright sky behind her, creating a relatively high-contrast scene.
This is a very typical situation, which is why I decided to use a shot from this shoot as the main example for this article.
This is something that looks light straight from the card –
As you can probably see, the detail in the sky isn’t clipped at all, and the image is exposed to the right – meaning it was deliberately overexposed to give crisper shadow results later in the grade.
By the way, I didn’t apply the Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6K LUT to this image as it would have added more contrast than I needed. This is my starting point with the 4.6K LUT –
If this were just a landscape photo (no talent in the frame), grading would be much easier because I could lower the exposure if I wanted, add some contrast, enhance the color balance, and call it a day.
But since there are people in the frame, if I just lower the overall exposure a few stops, this is what happens –
While the sky details will become more apparent (I can even bring up the highlights to increase contrast with the sky), our talent falls almost entirely into silhouettes. If I continue down this path, I can’t help but lift up the shadows and bring back some of the now-crushed detail.
But then I would get something like this –
This image is essentially the one we started with, but slightly less exposed overall.
It obviously doesn’t look that good, and a similar poor result can be achieved by removing only the highlights and keeping the mids and shadows –
Technically, it is possible to continue processing any of these images in DaVinci Resolve and add more nodes and make additional corrections to raise the highlights and lower the shadows bit by bit until you find a relatively usable result. . ….
But I really don’t like this kind of work. I prefer to use only one or two nodes and make as few corrections as possible, and always try to get the most out of each operation. This is especially true in this case, as the footage was recorded at 120 fps and is therefore highly compressed. I’m not dealing with a raw file that I can push and pull like crazy. If the image takes too many hits, it will start to fall apart.
So my approach is to utilize a technique that I find works almost every time – start with a mid-tone.
Although it’s tempting to lower the overall contrast or eliminate shadows on an image like this, I always find that working on the mids first is the best place to start. By pulling them down a stop or two until I see some detail coming in, and then working on the highlights and shadows, I find that I have to do a lot less work… and the image is being pushed around a lot less in the process. Much less.
Below is a shot with some minor adjustments to the mids, highlights and shadows –
Now, we’re making progress. While this may not be the final image yet, the contrast and brightness levels are in a better place and I’m ready to refine it further. At this point, all I really want to do is add some saturation and adjust the color balance to push some nice warm/golden hour tones into the sky.
This is what my more stylized adjustments look like –
This is probably my final image, just to illustrate how much color adjustment is actually required, see my “Resolve” viewport below.
Note that I’m only using a single node and making slight adjustments to the color wheel –
For this particular piece, I wanted to go with a slightly bolder look.
So, even though the image above may be the final version, I’ll be applying a Cinematic LUT from the Art House pack.
This is the result of the LUT –
The subtle differences in color contrast, tonality and overall balance created by the LUT seem to give the image more life, while also further enhancing the cloud/sky detail…so now we’re done color grading! All it takes is one node and one LUT.
Before we wrap up, I have one last note to leave you –
When tinting these types of shots it’s always easy to use a lot of motorized windows. I could easily set a window around the talent and simply lower the background while keeping her exposure the same. While this is a viable option (and necessary in some cases), I generally recommend against doing it unless you have absolutely no other options. In more dramatic photos with higher contrast, the power window can start to look very noticeable, and it can add some unnecessary features to the image that often do more harm than good.
So if you really need to, be sure to use some windows and masks to keep yourself out of trouble – I know I myself need to resort to these from time to time. But if you do, and when you do, be very careful about how you implement them, how much softness you use, and how differently the inside and outside of the window are treated. If you can exercise some restraint, you should be fine!
That’s it for now…
I hope you guys enjoyed this short color tutorial and be sure to check out my cinematic LUT here!
For more content like this, be sure to follow me Instagram, Facebook, and twitter!
