Saturday 19 November 2022

The Cinematic Look aka Color Grading

I'm aesthetically attracted to the "cinematic" color grading which Japanese photographer (in particular) seem to be very fond of, and post-processing with most of the current photo editing software, color grading is a cinch.

I use ON1 Raw 23, and it offers an endless array of controls and presets (or LUTs) which include one that lends itself very well to the color grade I favor, which is Cool Ocean. This preset comes in different tonalities and shades, but I normally choose CO11...a couple of adjustments, perhaps add a touch of HDR, and I'm done.

I found this type of "cinematic" color grading works with specific portrait/scenes, not all...those with street or room backgrounds, and have some red in them are the best. The color graded stills would work exceptionally well when featured in audio slideshow, especially if horizontal black bands are added to their top/bottom. 




It also works quite well with architectural scenes like this (using the Fuji X-T5 and the ON1Raw 2023 Cinematic LUT #7). The presence of the red neon sign is key:


And here's an example by Japanese photographer @furoboshi (Twitter):

Photo by @furoboshi (Twitter)

REI | De Las Flores

REI by Tewfic El-Sawy on on Exposure