Rediscover The Basics – Color Temperature

How Color Temperature Sets Mood and Tone

Next up in my series on rediscovering the basics is to take a look at color temperature.

Color temperature is often over looked in the world of creating stunning looking grades but in fact its probably one of the most important areas.

Color temperature can set the mood by such simple changes as warming or cooling the image.

By mixing shadows, midtone and highlight temperatures we can create image separation which gives us depth and in my opinion the best skin tones possible.

My Thoughts

It was quite a lot of fun just focusing on what I could get from this image without combining crazy saturation or contrast changes and has left me with two important thoughts.

Accurate color temperature is important. Getting a clean image can make a huge difference and when you dial in a perfect white point your image can sing.

BUT

Secondly, I realized how color temperature really is fair game. I always recommend getting a good temperature dialed in to get things in good shape but after that it’s up to us as colorists to create interesting times of day, magical moods or daring action by adjusting the color temperature and feeling of the scene.

Check out my insight below to see more and happy grading!

– Dan