How To Create Film Look On Digital Camera

Shooting digitally will never yield the verbal same look as real motion picture show film, but you tin go incredibly close with the right approach in post-production. This article outlines my verbal steps for giving digital footage a realistic, analog await.

Keep in mind that the workflow I'm sharing focuses strictly on post-production. A big part of achieving a filmic look happens in-camera – every matter from shooting 24p to your framing choices volition have an impact on your final aesthetic.

I've touched on the production considerations in a by blog commodity, which y'all tin can read here.

Simply capturing great raw footage is only half the battle. If it'due south not treated right in mail, fifty-fifty the best shot footage on the highest end cinema photographic camera will still look digital.

The expert news is the steps to achieving a realistic picture-expect are quite simple. There are a number of ways you can get there, but the formula I've outlined beneath delivers the nearly consistent results from my feel.

Let'south dive in –

Pace 1: Aspect RATIO CONVERSION

I always like to start the process by converting the source footage to an attribute ratio consistent with 8mm, 16mm, Super 16mm, Super 35mm or 65mm film stock.

This means the footage tin be formatted to whatsoever of the following aspect ratios: 1.33:1, 1.66:ane, 1.85:1, 2.39:1.

Depending on your camera settings, your source footage may originate in one of these aspects. If that is the case, you can skip this step.

Only if you've shot in a video-based aspect ratio similar 16:9, it'due south important to make that aspect ratio adjustment right off the bat for a more than authentic moving picture await. There are a number of ways you can do this –

The easiest method is to set your project/timeline settings in your editing software to the correct resolution setting. For case, instead of using a 1920 x 1080 frame (which you would use for xvi:ix footage), you lot can use 1920 10 817 to achieve the more than filmic 2.39:i widescreen wait.

With your timeline setup, you tin simply drop in your footage and set it to "fill" your sail. Then your image will automatically exist cropped, as per the instance below in DaVinci Resolve –

On the left, y'all can encounter my source footage, and on the right is the cropped image from my 1920 x 817 timeline, delivering a widescreen look.

Keep in mind though, you withal want to cull an aspect ratio that looks realistic when applied your footage. We all love ii.39:one (AKA 2.35) every bit it offers that big-budget feel, but just converting your footage to that aspect won't e'er work. In particular, if you've shot on a pocket-size sensor camera, the depth of field won't really match and tin can give away the issue. That doesn't mean it won't expect proficient in widescreen, but it only won't look like it was really shot on film.

So if you're going for authenticity, make sure your aspect ratio choice is complimentary to the footage.

It's helpful to have a clear vision in mind from the get-go for the exact film-look y'all're after. Are you aiming for a high dissimilarity Super 16mm B & West look? A 35mm blockbuster artful? Making these distinctions early on on volition help inform your conclusion on aspect ratio, among other things.

The examination shots that I'm using throughout this article were all shot in 4:3 (ane.33:1). I decided beforehand that I would aim for a retro/vintage wait, so the square-ish format was a natural fit. This was specially relevant as I was shooting on an iPhone, which can much more hands pass as 8mm/16mm footage than anamorphic 35mm.

Stride 2: Conform Dissimilarity MID-Betoken

Digital images capture contrast in an entirely unlike way than moving picture. Some cameras – namely the Arri Alexa – are quite proficient at mimicking the natural contrast of film, merely most other cameras don't come anywhere close.

With that in mind, the next critical step in our process is to adjust contrast settings to emulate the softer and richer aesthetic of move film film. This can be done very simply in virtually any NLE or color grading software.

It'south important to note that if your footage was shot in Log information technology should exist converted before making these adjustments.

Yous tin can read more about a correct social club of operations when colour grading in this commodity.

No affair which software you may be using, I recommend that you get-go past pulling downwards your midtones far enough that the image begins to look underexposed by a stop or two, like the example below.

Here is our raw iPhone shot –

And the crushed shot, followed by my DaVinci interface –

From here, you want to pull upwards your shadows simply enough to bring back some particular and lift the blacks slightly –

The paradigm above is more often than not what I'thou looking for at this point. More than contrast in the mid/lower-mid tone range, and less in the highlights, with some softened blackness levels throughout.

It's not exactly what nosotros're going for in our final wait, but our image is now well-prepped for the next steps.

STEP 3: HIGHLIGHT ROLLOFF

Ane of the biggest giveaways of digital footage is harsh highlight rolloff. Some cameras are particularly bad in this department, and are known to produce images that cut harshly from exposed to over-exposed areas, which never looks good.

The all-time way to handle this issue in mail service-production is to roll-off (or clip) the highlights yourself. The goal is to bring downwards the overexposed areas of your prototype that are totally void of detail, so that they feel smoother and more than organically tied to the remainder of your image.

There are many different techniques you tin utilize to attain this, and each software platform has its own related tool ready. My personal favorite is the Soft Clip selection in DaVinci Resolve.

I wrote a dedicated piece on achieving optimal highlight rolloff in post, which you can read here.

By adjusting the 2 sliders on the bottom correct of the picture below (High & High Soft), you tin soften up your highlights and then they don't appear as vividly bright –

Below is a side-by-side shot of our image with and without the highlight rolloff applied –

Considering this image doesn't have diddled out highlights, the effect is quite subtle, and mainly brings back colour information in the upper-mid tones and lower highlight areas.

You can of course dial this in to taste, and add contrast back during the next step if you feel your image needs more dial.

STEP four: COLOR BALANCING

Past this point your image should already exist looking more filmic. The levels, dissimilarity, and highlights are all creating a richer palette, and the paradigm is now set up to be color balanced.

But as y'all begin to adjust colors, be careful not to tweak your palette too much or you run the take a chance of over-stylizing your footage.

For the nigh part, motion movie film produces very beautiful and organic colors, unless it hasn't been handled or treated properly. With that in mind, information technology's important to resist to push things too far, or create any sort of colour cast. Doing then may cheapen the look of your footage and make information technology appear like more of a gimmick than an aesthetic choice.

The improve arroyo is to make subtle color adjustments to your shadows, mids, and highlights individually. In that location isn't a one size fits all approach here, so you demand to use your judgement.

That said, based on film stocks that I've commonly shot with, adding just a touch of cerise to your shadows and green/yellow to your mids and highlights can yield great results.

Here's an example of those simple adjustments practical, plus a bear upon of saturation. This is our before shot, with all other current adjustments practical –

And our after image, with the new color residuum –

I accept created a free LUT (color grading filter) that takes care of this color balancing, as well every bit the previous two steps (contrast & highlight adjustments). To speed up your workflow, you can download the LUT from my CINECOLOR website , and apply it to your footage.

Whether you do this process manually or automatically using a LUT, once complete you are getting close to the finish line.

STEP v: SOFTEN & Blur

Almost all digital cameras – particularly those that shoot 4K or in a higher place – create images that are only too sharp. Film stocks are known for capturing incredible item (especially 35mm/65mm), but different digital they don't have the same razor sharp border.

No matter digital what photographic camera your footage may originate on, chances are it needs to be softened up to look more than authentically filmic.

How much y'all soften your image is dependent on your vision for the final product. If you're going for a gritty Super 16mm look, you'll want to soften your image more than you would for a Super 35mm look, every bit an easy example.

I recommend looking at some reference images from real film productions during this stage, and comparison them with your source footage. From there, add together a blur effect in your editing/color software to taste. Personally, I like using the congenital in mistiness in DaVinci Resolve, and oftentimes have it set at .52 (.fifty is the default).

Here'southward our shot with the blur applied. It'due south merely actually noticeable all full resolution/full screen –

With blur now added, you're ready to move on to the final footstep.

Footstep 6: FILM GRAIN

This procedure couldn't be complete with film grain – the #ane most identifiable characteristic of a pic look.

There are a few methods you tin can use for applying grain. 1 pick is to utilise scans of real film grain and overlay them on top of your footage in your timeline. Another choice is to use a congenital-in plugin, such as DaVinci Resolve'southward grain setting.

While I use both methods myself (for different situations), for this example I want to share the DaVinci method. Mainly considering it's accessible to anyone with a free re-create of Resolve, and generates beautiful results.

In the FX panel of Resolve, I only drag and drop a Film Grain issue onto a node at the end of my procedure.

From there, I select the 16mm 250D preset, and customize a couple of settings: The opacity is set to .seven, the grain size is set to .6, and the grain force is fix to .three. This is what the settings panel looks like when all is said and done –

These are just my case settings of course, and I tend to lean toward a dirtier look. You'll want to tweak these settings until you get them looking correct to your eye, and then consider dialing them back 10%. Grain tends to work all-time when information technology's just barely noticeable, so err on the side of using it sparingly.

Here's a split-screen video of our raw footage compared to a final version with the grain applied. Watch in full screen/full resolution to come across the effect of the grain –

It'due south important to notation that this was our terminal step for a reason. Once you employ grain to your footage, you'll demand to render it to play back smoothly – unless you're running a ridiculously fast machine. For this reason alone, you don't want to apply the grain until you need to.

Simply likewise, the grain tends to add a sense of sharpness to your image. So it's all-time to apply it hither, afterwards the image has already been softened. That way, information technology volition bring back a little bit of particular, which you can fine tune to your liking.

And with that, we're done!

Don't forget to download my gratuitous Digital to Motion-picture show LUT from the CINECOLOR website.

This LUT will accomplish steps two, 3 & four, which apply universally to any project seeking a filmic expect. The other adjustments – like aspect ratio conversation, blur and film grain – should exist dialed in manually, based on your preference in film gauge.

Hope this helps some of you lot attain more than natural, organic looking images with your digital source footage. Feel free to share questions or tips of your own in the comments below…

And exist sure forget to follow me on Instagram,Facebook, and Twitter for more than content like this!

Source: https://noamkroll.com/how-to-make-your-digital-footage-look-like-film-in-post-production/

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