When trying to achieve a cinematic look using digital source material, there are countless variables to encounter. Lighting, lenses, dynamic range, and color reproduction all play a huge role in making our footage look more cinematic (or cinematic if you prefer), and these are the main things most of us focus on field. But like many creative tasks, when it comes to the look of a film, the devil is in the details… and going the extra mile is always mandatory.
Many filmmakers pair and combine vintage glass with high dynamic range cameras lookup table and film grain in post-production to achieve a cinematic aesthetic. These steps in production and post-production can make all the difference depending on how the footage is shot, the lighting, and the camera used.
Even if all the usual protocols are followed, there are still often some issues with the footage Feel Digital in nature. It can be a challenge to identify or articulate exactly what it is, but every viewer can clearly relate to it on some level.
Often, this X factor can be reduced to a single detail in the image, thereby leaking it as digital information. While there may be many potential culprits; for example, skin tone, color contrast or darkness, in my experience nine times out of ten the problem involves highlights.
One of the most noticeable features of the negative is the subtle highlight falloff, which seamlessly transitions from well-exposed areas of the frame to overexposed/overexposed hot spots. While some digital film cameras can handle highlights well, the vast majority cannot, and even the best digital cameras still can’t perfectly replicate film in this regard. Digital bursts look grainy and synthetic, as overexposed areas clip directly to white with little to no transition. This contrasts with film, which provides a more pleasing, subtle blooming effect in overexposed areas.
The good news is that even digital footage shot on a low dynamic range camera (with heavily clipped highlights) can be fixed in post with a simple curves adjustment. The basic concept is to lower the white levels/highlights to make any overexposed areas appear softer and more natural.
For example, look at the image below and notice the side light on the talent’s face. While it’s not completely clipped to white, the highlights do look pretty harsh –
To alleviate this problem, we can add a simple Curves adjustment in DaVinci Resolve (or any editing/color correction software), which should be somewhere along these lines –
We’ll then use the Luminance vs. Saturation curve to add some saturation to just the highlights. This will bring back color information that may have been muted after the highlights were reduced –
Finally, we can add a little warmth to the highlights to help them blend better with the rest of the skin tone, and pull the shadows down a bit to add contrast. This is our final image –
The differences are subtle, but as mentioned above – the devil is in the details. Small tweaks like this go a long way in giving digital footage that extra touch needed to fully achieve a cinematic look.
To get a clearer idea of the effect of our adjustments, here’s a side-by-side comparison of the model’s face before and after –
For those running DaVinci Resolve, you can also use the Soft Clip feature in place of curve adjustments. It will effectively give you the same results, but is generally faster and more intuitive to use.
You can use the Soft slider to increase or decrease the effect, and the High slider to adjust the threshold, allowing you to adjust the effect very specifically. The settings are located in the lower right corner of the Curves panel –
No matter which technique you use (curves or soft clipping), be careful not to overdo it. As with any other adjustment, overdoing it can backfire, especially when dealing with breakout areas on someone’s face or skin. It’s nice to reduce the clipping area a bit, but going too far can drain the skin’s highlights and make the actor look dull and lifeless.
So for those of you who are picky about highlights like me, give this technique a try and let me know what you think! Once you try it, be sure to leave a comment below…
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