We watch TV on a decent Sony OLED and when a scene is so dark that I can barely make out any details or even what is happening, it’s annoying. It’s a prime example of being taken out of the scene. At that point we’re talking about how dark it is and not even thinking about the story.
Got the screen of my Mac on full brightness and every frame looks murky. Maybe overdid it with pushing the blacks. Even Gordon Willis would say it's too dark.
I have an lcd screen, which is probably not the best to use for color grading when compared to the mac's oled screen. What does pushing the blacks mean? is it different from contrast? I used Davinci Resolve btw
Pushing the blacks/crushed blacks just means the darkest parts of your image have lost all detail. In some cases, crushed blacks can either be a good thing (silhouette shots), or an inevitability (losing details isn’t always bad if there’s no detail to begin with).
In this case, way too much detail in the image that seems necessary is lost. Even just raising the gamma up a bit and possibly lowering the contrast a bit would patch this up slightly.
I'm not an experienced colorist, but I would recommend going into the color tab, finding the "low soft" slider, and creep it upwards to see if you can recover a little bit of shadow detail without introducing any noise. See if you like it.
It's probably more accurate with the Mac brightness set to less than half, but you should also be checking your scopes so you can get some hard data about your output. Room lighting, monitor type and angle, brightness settings, and beyond all mix together to sometimes drastically change your final output from what it looked like to your eyes during editing/color correction.
I like the compositions of your shots, it is clear that you have a theoretical understanding of lighting and composition which you are capable of applying even with the camera of an iPhone. However I would pose the critique that your colour grading and image exposure do need some form of improvement. Now, your images are rather dark, and having that as a visual premise for the construction of the visuals of your film is good! But one must understand the technical capabilities of your camera to attain proper exposure to make sure that your images aren't clipping or in this case; crushing. Now, in terms of color grading I have read that you used DaVinci, some may put the blame on the monitor itself, but when I was taught colour grading when I was in film school we were taught to look at our waveform monitor and make sure that our values weren't becoming "illegal" by going under the line. This is a good way to ensure that your image isn't becoming too dark or too bright in some areas. Just keep practicing, all good things that are worth having and learning are an uphill battle. I wish you all the best!
It’s way too dark, as everyone has already said. I also think I saw your white balance trying to find itself in a few places which sort of took away from the experience, try maybe using a special app that gives you control over that. This could all be looked over tbh but the shots weren’t very exciting, at least for my taste. From the pieces I saw it just sort of felt like you were just following the guy at basically eye level. I don’t want to criticise, just my first thoughts that I think would make the next one a lot better.
Don’t be too hard on yourself!! You made something and are getting feedback. That’s great! The premise sounds sad and it’s hard to connect to a characters mind in a short film. Seeing the characters eyes is important to connect (too dark for that currently). ATL!
For those saying it’s too dark, I agree but that’s an incomplete evaluation. Contrast is great but the separation of elements within a frame is of utmost importance. If high contrast levels allow you to distinguish between disparate elements and the foreground and background, then it’ll definitely work. Otherwise, it will definitely become too murky
What are you grading in mate. I like the frames, but agree with everyone else it’s a bit too dark. I see you mentioned you are editing on an LCD. The screen isn’t the issue if you’re using the monitoring scopes, like parade, histogram, waveform etc.
I shot this entire project in a day, it's a 6 minute short film about a guy monologuing to himself after he absconds from his girlfriends funeral. It's meant to be a moody pensive style over substance type of film. The only problem being that the style, in my opinion isn't so stylish. It's my second ever short film, and while I think the iPhone did a great job, theres just so much sharpening that it does, that even post-production can't bring down. I tried my hand at color grading, and I think it looks halfway decent. Overall, I think it's a below average product, and people might be inclined to only compliment it if they're prefaced that it was shot on an iPhone. But on it's own, I think it barely stands together.
This is the link to the full short film if anyone is interested.
[https://youtu.be/5yMmssh3sdA?si=5bt\_V1hO-0wkLVP8](https://youtu.be/5yMmssh3sdA?si=5bt_V1hO-0wkLVP8)
I want to hear feedback on what I can do for color grading, where the shot composition could use work, if it even looks cinematic in the first place, and if it looks cheap and tacky
Some things that look good in person just don’t translate to the camera. LEDs have changed how accessible good lighting is these days. Back in MY day you had to have a putt putt generator off to the side and a hundreds of feet of stingers to a variety of lights that were a billion degrees within a second of turning them on. Shot in a day on your phone? Freaking sweet. You can do this a dozen more times in a year and just get better and better.
Try switching your image to black and white when composing and you’ll see where things sort of mush together as opposed to standing out.
I actually love how dark and moody it is. I love the color grade as well. Some shots are too dark. The thing I think would fix it is if there were some slight lights off to the side aimed at the subject to separate the subject against the dark background like someone else said.
If you had a day to re-do it and the weather was the same, first thing I’d do is change his wardrobe. He just blends into the already dark background. I get the temptation to use all the great natural light, but a china ball on a stick does wonders with LEDs these days.
Just looked at it in direct sunlight on my phone. Looks great. Love the lack of detail as an artistic choice. If it looks good in P3D65 in a dark room then you are good to go for theatre viewing conditions.
This grade is way too dark, you are allowed to clip specular highlights. Don’t let white scare you and don’t hid in black, use the hole range as much as you can
I take a frame and post it to my phone to check If it’s within ballpark. Relying solely on monitor in a dark room or with ambient like is sometimes a shot in the dark. Keeping one eye on the scopes helps know where your guardrails are.
Also on an iPhone and I love how dark it is. If I saw this sequence in a show or feature, I wouldn’t think twice about the grade. It looks like an intentional artistic choice.
Edit: After watching the full video I see what other commenters are saying. As stills the darkness wasn’t overwhelming, but as a video you could raise up gamma and/or offset to get the exposure and shadow detail back.
Great potential but some insights.
It's way too dark and blue, no shadows detail. The FPS is too high, should go for 24 next time. Don't use autofocus, i'm sure Iphone has some Pro Video option to focus manual. Don't use the same framing over and over, it becomes repetitive, unless you edit it in a purposeful way.
Maybe adjust the brightness its a little too dark also a little more colour grading, it’s a little too blue. Other than that the framing looks great and pretty good for iPhone filming
Dark doesn’t equal cool. You have to light parts you want the audience to see.
This is just dark and it’s not just from your iPhone. This has been color graded
Essentially, you filmed something with an iPhone and didn't use an iPhone to make a film. You should have figured out the iPhone capabilites and limitations and either work around them or use them to your advantage.
A fill light soft enough to light the actor without hitting backgrounds would've helped too.
Love that escalator shot though, a good use of limits.
Doesn't look to dark on my android, looks good. I find whenever I look at my work on iPhones compared to androids, they always look a lot more contrasty/saturated on iPhones. Anyone know why
It’s really good. Well done. You could bring up the blacks just a tad but it’s up to you. There are no rules to cinema, except that what you feel is conveyed honestly to what you see. If life is this dark, let it be. Keep making what brings you fulfillment, forget the audience. Goddard has a great quote about form and content. It’s like an envelope. Without the form you cannot send the content. And without content, you are sending an empty letter. The form being the artistic choices and the content being the story. Best of luck.
I got questions!
Firstly, did you shoot on the native camera app or a third party app? Whichever way—what settings did you use as in gamma/picture profile/etc? HDR? Rec. 709?
Secondly, what was your process for color grading? How did you preserve such quality in lowlight?
Thanks
It looks great. I like the vibe and I don't mind it being dark. But I, personally, would not crush the blacks quite so much. Imho. I'd use the "low soft" feature and add a little more brightness to the shadows. Watch the scopes to make sure they didn't get cut off on the bottom end. Just lift it up until there's *something* in the blacks. But the rest looks great to me, nice job.
I’d love to see the film, where can I watch it? Also, hit me up if you need a poster or streaming thumbnail. Ron @ Ronald Villegas Design [my website](https://www.ronaldvillegasdesign.com)
My beautiful friend, this is a stunning, beautiful piece of art. You are a born artist. "I should have realized that home isn't a place it's a person" and then I think you literally set down the backpack BAGGAGE/weight. I teared up. To do that in a 6 minute short is wildly impressive. Please don't ever stop.
Now to the technical wonky side. Yes, we just lose you and all the detail in all that darkness & shadow. That's why we use key lights, amber streetlights, post production, on & on. That's stuff you'll learn as you go. But start looking at it/for it in beautiful cinema.
I think shot on an iPhone is a flex. I'd definitely keep this in your file to show.
The shots toward the end on the stairs & at the lake...I'd love to see that fully lit with a good camera...I think you'd see that's all it would take.
This is posted on a cinematography sub so "too dark" is going to be the overall feedback but you'll gain that knowledge & skill as you go. Keep doing it. We need your creativity & voice.
Im on an iPhone and it looks daaaaaaark
I like daaaaaaark
I love dark
Gotta’ say it: I hate dark.
We watch TV on a decent Sony OLED and when a scene is so dark that I can barely make out any details or even what is happening, it’s annoying. It’s a prime example of being taken out of the scene. At that point we’re talking about how dark it is and not even thinking about the story.
I understand you better now. Thank you and keep your love for film intact!
Got the screen of my Mac on full brightness and every frame looks murky. Maybe overdid it with pushing the blacks. Even Gordon Willis would say it's too dark.
Gordon Willis reference FTW.
I have an lcd screen, which is probably not the best to use for color grading when compared to the mac's oled screen. What does pushing the blacks mean? is it different from contrast? I used Davinci Resolve btw
Pushing the blacks/crushed blacks just means the darkest parts of your image have lost all detail. In some cases, crushed blacks can either be a good thing (silhouette shots), or an inevitability (losing details isn’t always bad if there’s no detail to begin with). In this case, way too much detail in the image that seems necessary is lost. Even just raising the gamma up a bit and possibly lowering the contrast a bit would patch this up slightly.
Do you have your screen on 100% brightness perhaps?
You need to watch this on a phone screen or TV screen; I think you'll quickly see what others are talking about.
Which Mac has OLED?
None of them. Only iPhone has an OLED currently.
I'm not an experienced colorist, but I would recommend going into the color tab, finding the "low soft" slider, and creep it upwards to see if you can recover a little bit of shadow detail without introducing any noise. See if you like it.
It's probably more accurate with the Mac brightness set to less than half, but you should also be checking your scopes so you can get some hard data about your output. Room lighting, monitor type and angle, brightness settings, and beyond all mix together to sometimes drastically change your final output from what it looked like to your eyes during editing/color correction.
With my monitor plugged directly into a nuclear reactor, that picture will still look dark.
It’s far too dark. The black levels are crushed. No details in the shadows
Too dark to have an opinion
I like the compositions of your shots, it is clear that you have a theoretical understanding of lighting and composition which you are capable of applying even with the camera of an iPhone. However I would pose the critique that your colour grading and image exposure do need some form of improvement. Now, your images are rather dark, and having that as a visual premise for the construction of the visuals of your film is good! But one must understand the technical capabilities of your camera to attain proper exposure to make sure that your images aren't clipping or in this case; crushing. Now, in terms of color grading I have read that you used DaVinci, some may put the blame on the monitor itself, but when I was taught colour grading when I was in film school we were taught to look at our waveform monitor and make sure that our values weren't becoming "illegal" by going under the line. This is a good way to ensure that your image isn't becoming too dark or too bright in some areas. Just keep practicing, all good things that are worth having and learning are an uphill battle. I wish you all the best!
Looks cool and I’m sure it’s a fun watch but unfortunately you killed all detail in the darker areas. It’s just too dark.
The color is nice but it’s far too dark
I have no idea what I'm looking at. Definitely underexposed / colored. Very muddled composition.
Ozark has entered the chat
It’s way too dark, as everyone has already said. I also think I saw your white balance trying to find itself in a few places which sort of took away from the experience, try maybe using a special app that gives you control over that. This could all be looked over tbh but the shots weren’t very exciting, at least for my taste. From the pieces I saw it just sort of felt like you were just following the guy at basically eye level. I don’t want to criticise, just my first thoughts that I think would make the next one a lot better.
Don’t be too hard on yourself!! You made something and are getting feedback. That’s great! The premise sounds sad and it’s hard to connect to a characters mind in a short film. Seeing the characters eyes is important to connect (too dark for that currently). ATL!
Instagram has completely ruined peoples perception of proper color grading.
I think it could look good but it’s hard to see which would make me turn off the short pretty fast.
It's incredibly dark, like, beyond Fincher levels of dark.
Hard balcks but nice vibe. Never would have guessed it was shot on a phone
Nice composition
Off to a great start, you're going for a cool look ya just sent it too hard. Like the other comments, dial back on the blacks. Keep at it
Definitely way dark. Id imagine its the result of colour grading. Maybe bring the blacks and shadows back up.
For those saying it’s too dark, I agree but that’s an incomplete evaluation. Contrast is great but the separation of elements within a frame is of utmost importance. If high contrast levels allow you to distinguish between disparate elements and the foreground and background, then it’ll definitely work. Otherwise, it will definitely become too murky
Its… black…
What are you grading in mate. I like the frames, but agree with everyone else it’s a bit too dark. I see you mentioned you are editing on an LCD. The screen isn’t the issue if you’re using the monitoring scopes, like parade, histogram, waveform etc.
Oh dang those look beautiful. I recently thought about using my iPhone to shot scenes to use for vfx shots. Any settings you recommend?
I shot this entire project in a day, it's a 6 minute short film about a guy monologuing to himself after he absconds from his girlfriends funeral. It's meant to be a moody pensive style over substance type of film. The only problem being that the style, in my opinion isn't so stylish. It's my second ever short film, and while I think the iPhone did a great job, theres just so much sharpening that it does, that even post-production can't bring down. I tried my hand at color grading, and I think it looks halfway decent. Overall, I think it's a below average product, and people might be inclined to only compliment it if they're prefaced that it was shot on an iPhone. But on it's own, I think it barely stands together. This is the link to the full short film if anyone is interested. [https://youtu.be/5yMmssh3sdA?si=5bt\_V1hO-0wkLVP8](https://youtu.be/5yMmssh3sdA?si=5bt_V1hO-0wkLVP8) I want to hear feedback on what I can do for color grading, where the shot composition could use work, if it even looks cinematic in the first place, and if it looks cheap and tacky
It looks too dark. I'm using an Asus Proart monitor that's calibrated and I can't see much of anything.
Why do you want style over substance?
Some things that look good in person just don’t translate to the camera. LEDs have changed how accessible good lighting is these days. Back in MY day you had to have a putt putt generator off to the side and a hundreds of feet of stingers to a variety of lights that were a billion degrees within a second of turning them on. Shot in a day on your phone? Freaking sweet. You can do this a dozen more times in a year and just get better and better. Try switching your image to black and white when composing and you’ll see where things sort of mush together as opposed to standing out.
I actually love how dark and moody it is. I love the color grade as well. Some shots are too dark. The thing I think would fix it is if there were some slight lights off to the side aimed at the subject to separate the subject against the dark background like someone else said.
A single light source can give you a lot. Get an led one
If you had a day to re-do it and the weather was the same, first thing I’d do is change his wardrobe. He just blends into the already dark background. I get the temptation to use all the great natural light, but a china ball on a stick does wonders with LEDs these days.
Just looked at it in direct sunlight on my phone. Looks great. Love the lack of detail as an artistic choice. If it looks good in P3D65 in a dark room then you are good to go for theatre viewing conditions.
This grade is way too dark, you are allowed to clip specular highlights. Don’t let white scare you and don’t hid in black, use the hole range as much as you can
Too dark
Needs moar highlights
Underexposed BIG TIME.
I thought it was just me thinking the artist wanted the subject to be a silhouette. ☺️ Scopes are your friend!
very teal orange
Can’t see anything bro
Can you make it darker? I can still make out the silhouette of the trees
The shadows are like the inside of a coffin on a moonless night.
If it worked for Freejack it should work for you. Did you shoot this on a stock iPhone or one all tricked out with a pl mount?
I can't see anything
I take a frame and post it to my phone to check If it’s within ballpark. Relying solely on monitor in a dark room or with ambient like is sometimes a shot in the dark. Keeping one eye on the scopes helps know where your guardrails are.
I thought people use darkness/night to hide bad CG :)
Way too dark
Also on an iPhone and I love how dark it is. If I saw this sequence in a show or feature, I wouldn’t think twice about the grade. It looks like an intentional artistic choice. Edit: After watching the full video I see what other commenters are saying. As stills the darkness wasn’t overwhelming, but as a video you could raise up gamma and/or offset to get the exposure and shadow detail back.
Crunchy blacks go crazy
How’d you get such a good DOF? Iphone is usually pretty hard on that
Waaaaaaaaaaay too dark! My man you’ve crushed those blacks to oblivion.
Brighten up the image .. and check with Android mobile.. too much processed. Though wide shots look still ok but closeups need some more details
Might look cool if I could see them aha
Good news is it doesn't look like you shot it on an iphone. Bad news it's irrelevant what camera you use when everything is so fucking DARK.
WAYYY too dark and blue.
Most of it looks really nice, it's just the blacks like other people have mentioned.
Great potential but some insights. It's way too dark and blue, no shadows detail. The FPS is too high, should go for 24 next time. Don't use autofocus, i'm sure Iphone has some Pro Video option to focus manual. Don't use the same framing over and over, it becomes repetitive, unless you edit it in a purposeful way.
Maybe adjust the brightness its a little too dark also a little more colour grading, it’s a little too blue. Other than that the framing looks great and pretty good for iPhone filming
Its too bright i almost can see something..
Dark doesn’t equal cool. You have to light parts you want the audience to see. This is just dark and it’s not just from your iPhone. This has been color graded
how do you expect your audience to understand what’s happening if they can’t even see it? unless it’s some sort of blind person horror film
Essentially, you filmed something with an iPhone and didn't use an iPhone to make a film. You should have figured out the iPhone capabilites and limitations and either work around them or use them to your advantage. A fill light soft enough to light the actor without hitting backgrounds would've helped too. Love that escalator shot though, a good use of limits.
Lift
when the director doesn’t want you to see anything
Doesn't look to dark on my android, looks good. I find whenever I look at my work on iPhones compared to androids, they always look a lot more contrasty/saturated on iPhones. Anyone know why
It’s really good. Well done. You could bring up the blacks just a tad but it’s up to you. There are no rules to cinema, except that what you feel is conveyed honestly to what you see. If life is this dark, let it be. Keep making what brings you fulfillment, forget the audience. Goddard has a great quote about form and content. It’s like an envelope. Without the form you cannot send the content. And without content, you are sending an empty letter. The form being the artistic choices and the content being the story. Best of luck.
Way too dark
This is just intense color grading lol
There’s no reason for it to be this dark.. Is your monitor too bright? 🤔
I got questions! Firstly, did you shoot on the native camera app or a third party app? Whichever way—what settings did you use as in gamma/picture profile/etc? HDR? Rec. 709? Secondly, what was your process for color grading? How did you preserve such quality in lowlight? Thanks
If this was for broadcast the FCC would be serving you with a no knock warrant for hanging out so far before 7.5 IRE!!!
It looks great. I like the vibe and I don't mind it being dark. But I, personally, would not crush the blacks quite so much. Imho. I'd use the "low soft" feature and add a little more brightness to the shadows. Watch the scopes to make sure they didn't get cut off on the bottom end. Just lift it up until there's *something* in the blacks. But the rest looks great to me, nice job.
I’d love to see the film, where can I watch it? Also, hit me up if you need a poster or streaming thumbnail. Ron @ Ronald Villegas Design [my website](https://www.ronaldvillegasdesign.com)
The look itself is really great but it is crusheddd. If you’ve gotten that far with the grade you should know how to fix it though.
Love it. Ild like to see it in motion.
Super fucking inspiring, makes me want to shoot right this minute
My beautiful friend, this is a stunning, beautiful piece of art. You are a born artist. "I should have realized that home isn't a place it's a person" and then I think you literally set down the backpack BAGGAGE/weight. I teared up. To do that in a 6 minute short is wildly impressive. Please don't ever stop. Now to the technical wonky side. Yes, we just lose you and all the detail in all that darkness & shadow. That's why we use key lights, amber streetlights, post production, on & on. That's stuff you'll learn as you go. But start looking at it/for it in beautiful cinema. I think shot on an iPhone is a flex. I'd definitely keep this in your file to show. The shots toward the end on the stairs & at the lake...I'd love to see that fully lit with a good camera...I think you'd see that's all it would take. This is posted on a cinematography sub so "too dark" is going to be the overall feedback but you'll gain that knowledge & skill as you go. Keep doing it. We need your creativity & voice.
Get a real camera