Using Baselight’s New Look Development Tool: Chromogen

January 22, 2025

Colorist Luke Ross explains how to use Baselight's new Chromogen look development tool to quickly craft custom film emulation looks.


Explore the Creative Possibilities of Baselight’s New Chromogen Look Development Tool

Version 6 of Filmlight’s Baselight shipped with a new look development tool called Chromogen. It’s not a grading tool per se but rather a replacement for film emulation LUT tools.

In this Insight, I’ll guide you through the user interface controls, explore each of the presets and “stages” (look operators) that Chromogen ships, and deliver a mini demo of some of the stages in action.

This Insight is designed for Baselight colorists who are unfamiliar with Chromogen but want to gain more control and a deeper understanding of the look development tools they have available.

If you are working with the more limited Baselight LOOK version of the software, you won’t have access to the full functionality of the tool.

Key takeaways from this Insight

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

  • Navigate the Chromogen UI
  • Apply and modify Chromogen presets
  • Build custom-look development stacks using stages

Chromogen: Scene-Referred with a Perceptual Color Space

Chromogen is a scene-referred look development tool in Baselight that ships with 12 modifiable presets and 10 operators or “stages.”

Delve into the tool to add your own stages to the stage list to create a look that works for you. Chromogen operates in its own perceptual color space, EAB.

  • E stands for exposure
  • A and B are the color opponent axes
  • A encodes the green/red axis
  • B encodes the blue/yellow axis

For a deep dive into perceptual color spaces, see the free Filmlight PDF book Color: Sense & Measurement and Daniele Siragusano’s seminar, which I’ve linked to at the bottom of this Insight.


Chromogen’s Presets Explained

Preset NameDescription
C-001 AlterniaBasic look with a subtle saturation boost in the shadows and prominent skin tone bleaching
C-102 KultheaInfluenced by the C-102 Japanese look
C-104 VineaInfluenced by the C-104 Bipack look
C-105 OpeteraInfluenced by the C-105 Vision look
C-401 EterniaA novel version of a teal and orange look
C-402 VortisA strong, filmic, and muted look with a minimal amount of complexity
C-403 IretaAn intense look with distinct color stylization
C-404 HydrosA colder cinematic look with intense skin tone bleaching
C-405 SkaroAn alternative approach to a basic cinematic look
C-406 LithiaA look with strong color skews
C-407 MotaviaA modern approach to a sepia look
C-408 BotanyA strong dystopian look

Stage Descriptions

The fundamental stages are foundational in look-building operations, while the advanced stages are only used for specific operations. Sector stages operate on only half of the color volume, centered at the sector with a roll-off.

Here is a brief description of what each stage does:

Stage Name

Type

Description

Color Saturation

Fundamental

This tool allows the saturation along the two-color opponent axis to be modified independently. It is influenced by the theory of color contrast adaptation.

Color Crosstalk

Fundamental

Introduces crosstalk between the red-green and blue-yellow color opponent channels. The tool is motivated by crosstalk effects in the visual cortex, like lateral inhibition.

Highlight Bleach

Fundamental

Applies a bleaching effect to the highlights. Most looks desaturate the highlights to give a non-uniform saturation tracking. The four ‘sides’ of the color space can be bleached independently of each other.

Contrast Boost

Fundamental

Used to apply contrast around mid-grey tones but slightly reduces the brightness of very bright colors. This gives a unique contrast boost found in many popular looks.

Brilliance Reduction

Advanced

This tool allows a reduction of exposure of colors that are too bright for their saturations, according to reflected colors. See the CamerImage link below for more information on this topic.

Neutral Tint

Advanced

This tool allows you to tint the neutral axis. Many popular looks have a colored neutral axis, such as blue in the shadows and orange in the highlights.

Sector Brightness

Sector

Modifies the brightness of the selected sector.

Sector Saturation

Sector

Modifies the saturation of colors in the selected sector.

Sector Skew

Sector

Skews or distorts the colors of the selected sector with the effect of moving them towards another color.

Sector Squash

Sector

Squashing the sector reduces the range of colors around the central color. For example, a range of red colors would be compressed towards a single shade of red. This tool can also stretch or increase the range of colors within a sector.

Mentioned in this Insight

Questions or comments? Leave a comment!

I’m sure it’s so incredibly obvious…but if you know how to navigate back to the presets menu from the main Chromogen screen, do let me know! I hope you enjoyed it, and as always, I’m looking forward to reading your comments below.

— Luke


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