[Tig] Shiny cars tips

[Bob Festa]

Bojan,

Welcome to the sheet metal club.

For starters, what the hell are you clients doing a car commercial on  
HD source anyway? Trust me on this, youre going to need all of the  
dynamic range, headroom, and grayscale steps that only film or  
arguably data acquisition can bring you. Highlights on a silver car  
are everything, and HD is just not going to cut it.

Beyond that, silver is the truth test. This is where we separate the  
men from the boys. Spend 90% of your time on the primary balance. Dont  
be afraid to put a grey matte around the image so you can truly tell  
yourself that you have a nice balanced grey/silver before you start to  
slather a look over it. Everything upstream has to be balanced and  
mallleable before you spin a world of secondaries on it. Then, pray to  
God that it's not a exterior Russian/Ultimate arm shot that is going  
to spin 360 degrees around your light source, ending in a cascade of  
nested color dissolves for 5000 feet. Ouch.

Rob, the stage light is generally a Fisher soft box.

Best,

Bob
_______________________________
Bob Festa
Director of Commercial Imaging
R!OT Santa Monica
www.bobfesta.com
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On Feb 27, 2008, at 5:51 AM, Rob Lingelbach wrote:

> TIGNABFS08 - NAB for 2008
> http://colorist.org/wiki3/index.php/TIGNABFS08
> ====
>
>
>
> On Feb 27, 2008, at 1:45 PM, Bojan Mastilovic wrote:
>
>> somebody else, and the cars are realy shiny and beautiful regarding a
>> original picture they shoot with the HDCAM f900.
>> Can you share some tips how to make chrome parts be so siver and the
>> reflections in a car look so nice?
>
> that's a really good question, because _silver_ is more than a color,
> it includes a kind of brilliance and reflectance that has a lot to do
> with how it's illuminated.  Colorists who have done a lot of car
> commercials, where a lot of time is spent making the shots look
> perfect, know that with a silver car, almost everything depends on the
> photography.  On a stage, often a huge, very soft light source is
> above the car.  (someone will remind me of the name of this light.)
>
> There can also be a texture to silver, if it's a metallic paint.
>
> --
> Rob Lingelbach
> rob at chimney.com.ua   http://www.colorist.org/robhome.html
>
>
>
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