A colour grade
Soft evening
by Takehound
The glow of an evening talk: golden whites, soft contrast and gentle blacks, with your skin as it was shot.
Aims for this colour
One frame of a real talk, as shot and graded toward Soft evening 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
- Contrast
- 1.08 (the most it allows)
- Blacks
- Pushed under by 3.8% of white
- Temperature
- Warmer by the whole dial (as warm as it allows)
- Colour strength
- 0.85 times as shot (the least it allows)
When to use it
Use it on a talk that should feel like a conversation at the end of the day: a story, a look back at a hard year in the business, a video recorded under lamps after work. The whites come out golden, the contrast is held soft and the blacks may stay lifted, so nothing in the picture looks hard. It can warm a room by the whole of its range but cool it by only a quarter, so a cool daylight room is pulled toward evening; on a bright daytime set, Soft warm or Bright window will look more natural.
Who it suits
It suits a creator whose channel is personal: the founder telling how it really went, the coach whose clients buy because they trust the person. On the frame above, shot in a room that was already warm, it still warmed the picture by the whole of its range, so on a warm set expect a golden result rather than a subtle one.
What it changes
Where Soft evening 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 | Soft evening | Natural |
|---|---|---|
| Blacks, toward | 36 of 255 | 30 of 255 |
| Middle tones, toward | 140 of 255 | 150 of 255 |
| Highlights, toward | 225 of 255 | 240 of 255 |
| Colour strength, toward | 0.16 | 0.17 |
| Whites and greys | Red over blue by 28 | Red over blue by 6 |
| Taken toward that | 80% of the way | 50% of the way |
| Contrast | 0.9 to 1.08 | 0.9 to 1.15 |
| Blacks pushed under, at most | 6% of white | 12% of white |
| Cooler, at most | A quarter of the dial | Three quarters of the dial |
| Warmer, at most | The whole dial | Three quarters of the dial |
| Green or magenta | Left as shot | Up to 0.06 either way |
| Colour strength, range | 0.85 to 1 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
- Get free accessThe editor is opening from a waitlist, and access is free.
- Open the editor on this gradeAdd your talk and your own footage. The editor opens on this template.
- Watch it workStop it at any point. Every change it makes can be undone.
