‘Smearing Shadows’ For More Pleasing High-Contrast Looks

Using Luma keys and Lift/Gamma corrections to soften high-contrast looks

We’ve all got our favorite techniques for fine-tuning the dark areas of our image, but oftentimes I find there’s a certain filmic shape I struggle to get in my shadows. Today are exploring a technique for sculpting rich and soft shadows.

Using film print looks as inspiration

One of the signature traits of a film print is the combination of strong contrast through the midtones with a “roll” in the highlights and shadows, creating a bold yet detail-rich image. This aesthetic can be achieved in many ways, but today we’re going to explore a highly effective technique I borrowed from Company 3 Senior Colorist Tom Poole. For lack of a better term, we’ll call it “shadow smearing” – a name I promise will make more sense after today’s Insight!

Key takeaways from this Insight

By the end of this Insight, you should understand how to:

Create a soft shadow qualifier and “smear” the high and low values closer together
Visualize a qualified lift/gain adjustment as a curve

Related Mixing Light Insights

Better Keying Using DaVinci Resolve’s 3D Keyer – Are you pulling a key for color grading, and Resolve’s HSL keyer isn’t doing it? This dive into the 3D Keyer may get better results faster.
Build Your Own Qualifier In HSL Color Space Using Curves – Learn an alternate method for creating masks limiting adjustments to particular luminance regions, using Curves and Splitter/Combiner nodes.

Questions or Comments? Leave a comment!

Is this Insight useful to you? Let us know! Mixing Light is all about community discussions, and we’re curious if you found this helpful, if you have something to add, or if you need more questions answered?

– Cullen

Member Content

Sorry... the rest of this content is for members only. You'll need to login or Join Now to continue (we hope you do!).

Need more information about our memberships? Click to learn more.

Membership options

Member Login

Are you using our app? For the best experience, please login using the app's launch screen

Comments

Creator

Discussion
April 14, 2023 at 4:25 pm #50979

Cullen Kelly
Participant

This is the discussion thread for the Insight: ‘Smearing Shadows’ For More Pleasing High-Contrast Looks
Creator

Discussion

Jim Robinson
Member

April 14, 2023 at 5:17 pm
Cullen, I know that you aren’t a big fan of the HDR tool, but this kind of manipulation of a dedicated zone area, is what I would use it for.
The difference seems to be subjective, but I think even though the luma part of qualification is probably the best option in the qualifier as to not having a negative affect, in my opinion it can still create chatter, as the light hits certain levels.
So it can work as you show here for that purpose. But using a qualifier has me pixel peeping my way through every frame looking for the qualification where it is showing failure. I am a bit paranoid, because I have been burned by a client in the past. Bit embarrassing when they asked me what that noise is in the corner of the frame. I knew at that point that telling that person that it was a bad qualification, would not sound very professional. So I just thanked him for pointing it out, and took responsibility for the error.
The HDR tool you can finetune just for this exact purpose, and nail the point where it gets applied, do the edit, then use the roll off part of the wheel to smoothly roll off the edit, and blend back into the grade ( smearing the shadows ).
But that’s one of the reasons I love Resolve, there always seems to be several ways to get from point A to B. And it’s a great learning experience finding all the different methods of getting there.
- This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Jim Robinson.
- Tony Salgado
  Member
  
  May 20, 2023 at 12:24 pm
  Jim,
  
  Good points. When grading using a 24″ reference monitor it is easy to overlook qualifier chatter only to discover it later when viewed on a larger 55″ LG CX monitor. Using qualifiers may require additional QC work prior to rendering the deliverables.
  - This reply was modified 1 week, 4 days ago by Tony Salgado.
- R Neil Haugen
  Member
  
  May 20, 2023 at 3:04 pm
  
  Jim, thanks for the alternate method to get the same thing done. Always the alternative, isn’t there? But some are better than others for certain things. I like this one.
charles w rodriguez
Member

April 15, 2023 at 10:32 am

hmmmm…I judge that a lot has changed in the last few years regarding what constitutes a pleasing image. For sure, there’s a lot to be said for the quality that is really a legacy of the days of celluloid.

For my taste, and maybe that’s just FYI and not educational, I dislike the raising of black levels, to my eye, which appears milky. I like a definite “blackness” that is indicative of a slight amount of crushing to the image.

No doubt, this is a very aesthetic choice. I just suggest that those folks that were born into the digital age, unfamiliar with film aesthetic, would prefer the rich blackness. Again, just my opinion.
Jamie Neale
Member

April 19, 2023 at 9:38 am

I use something similar to create volume in the shadows and highlights. The other thing I do regularly is use a very subtle blur to create more textural contrast between the mids and everything else.
Patrick Smith
Member

April 19, 2023 at 6:29 pm

Thanks Cullen. How would one achieve this without using the LGG wheels, if in ACES log for example? After targeting the zone then perhaps use the hdr palette dark / shadows controls? Anyway, thanks for this insight.👍
Jamie Dickinson
Member

May 21, 2023 at 7:32 am

This technique reminded me of a related demo I saw on Lowepost to ‘gather’ the shadows which, although not quite the same, would avoid using the qualifier. Basically lifting the shadows with a toe in the curves, then dropping them a bit in the next node. Wondered what people think of this method –

L03 for those with a subscription…

https://lowepost.com/courses/color-grading/the-art-of-color-grading/professional-color-grading-techniques-in-davinci-resolve-r34/

(sorry to plug the competition website here!)
Author

Replies