A colour grade
Film print
by Takehound
The softness of a film print: blacks a little lifted, highlights kept off white, quieter colour and a touch of warmth, with your skin as it was shot.
Aims for this colour
One frame of a real talk, as shot and graded toward Film print by the editor. Slide to compare. Worked out from frames across the whole recording, the grade came to:
- Light on the face
- +0.85 of a stop, the highlights held
- Blacks
- Pushed under by 4% of white
- Colour strength
- 0.85 times as shot (the least it allows)
When to use it
Use it on a talk that should feel calm and considered rather than bright: an essay, a reflection, a slower story told to the camera. It is the one grade here that never adds contrast and never adds colour, so whatever the room was, the picture comes out no harder than it was shot and always a little quieter. It aims for blacks a little above black and highlights kept off pure white, and it lifts blacks only a touch: a phone recording whose blacks are already milky is brought down toward that, not further up.
Who it suits
It suits a creator whose channel is about ideas more than energy: the writer, the teacher, the founder looking back. On the frame above, a phone recording in a warm room, it took the colour down by its most, 15 percent, set the blacks a touch lower, brought light up on the face as every grade here does, and left contrast and warmth as shot. Skin is kept out of the colour change, so the face stays as it was shot while the room around it quiets.
What it changes
Where Film print takes the picture and how far the editor may move it to get there, beside Natural, the grade a talk gets when nobody names one. Levels run from 0, black, to 255, white. What is not listed is as in Natural.
| What | Film print | Natural |
|---|---|---|
| Blacks, toward | 40 of 255 | 30 of 255 |
| Middle tones, toward | 138 of 255 | 150 of 255 |
| Highlights, toward | 218 of 255 | 240 of 255 |
| Colour strength, toward | 0.12 | 0.17 |
| Whites and greys | Red over blue by 10 | Red over blue by 6 |
| Taken toward that | 60% of the way | 50% of the way |
| Contrast | 0.85 to 1 | 0.9 to 1.15 |
| Blacks pushed under, at most | 4% of white | 12% of white |
| Cooler, at most | A quarter of the dial | Three quarters of the dial |
| Warmer, at most | Half the dial | Three quarters of the dial |
| Green or magenta | Left as shot | Up to 0.06 either way |
| Colour strength, range | 0.85 to 0.95 times as shot | 0.9 to 1.1 times as shot |
The middle tones go half of the way to their aim and highlights are only ever opened. Your face is exposed first, and skin keeps the colour it was shot in.
How it works
- Sign in with GoogleYour first video is free, a recording of up to 30 minutes.
- Open the editor on this gradeAdd your talk and your own footage. The editor opens on this template.
- Watch Hound workStop him at any point. Every change he makes can be undone.
