How bright should things be?
Meanwhile, I made a video on that topic which goes into greater detail
and tackles this question from another angle.
Brightness is a b*tch
Hey everyone!
I'm super sorry for the huge delay. This newsletter was supposed to go out last week, but other things came up. Thank you for your patience. Now, let's finally answer how bright things should be.
Though we have a powerful tool that lets us measure brightness (the Luma Waveform), there is another element to this.
So, let me ask you this simple question: which of the grey squares is brighter?
Well, believe it or not, they are both equal. I made a gif but it's very blocky since I have to fit it inside this email (but you get the idea).
Nice - what now?
The point I want to bring across is that everything depends on the context. Either within the scene or within the entire edit.
Just as a song gets quieter or thinner before the chorus hits to make it feel more impactful, be aware of the context in your scene and edit.
Example: You grade a short film and the actors go outside and are blinded by the light. To get that across, you should grade this scene rather bright, of course, but you can only push it so far before things look weird.
To make the brightness more impactful, deliberately grade the scene before a little bit darker. This creates contrast in your storytelling.
Contrast is not just a slider but a concept which you can apply to space (within a scene) or time (within an edit).
Some guidelines
I can hear you. Sometimes, you just need to go for a "neutral" look or you are a beginner at colour grading and you want to figure out where things should go.
My previous point is still valid, though. These numbers are rough guides from my experience and are not at all meant to be used as a rule!
For Rec. 709 delivery (SDR), I aim for:
Specular Highlights: >85 IRE
Bright things: 60-80 IRE
Skin Tones: 40-70 IRE (Depends! I'm a white guy, so I tend to set my skin tones around 50-60 IRE) 70 IRE is already quite hot but if you are in a contrasty environment, that generally works out
Dark things but still visible >30/35 IRE
Things that don't matter (there are more of them than you think in your scene) <30 IRE
Lastly, don't be afraid to push it. If something doesn't contribute to the story or aesthetic quality of your scene, stop caring about it.
Many beginners think "I have a nice camera with 14 stops of dynamic range, I have to use that dynamic range" ... No. Just no.
If I told you about the day I wen't to the lake, I wouldn't start with, "Well, to get out of bed, I used my right leg, and then my left leg..." This information just doesn't matter. And most of the information our cameras can capture doesn't matter, too.
I view dynamic range as a tool to make decisions during colour grading but I'm happy to discard any information I don't need.
So, that's that. I hope this was helpful.
Have a fantastic weekend and I'll be in your inbox with something interesting again next week. :)
Eric
