Practical Task: Colour Isolation 2

I attempted the colour isolation technique again, despite my previous failure. This time I used a much simpler piece of footage, taken from our film noir opening. I decided I wanted the light from the tape recorder to remain green whilst the rest of the clip was in black and white.

At first it seemed to work very well after some adjustment to the "similarity" setting. The clip was in black and white and the entirety of the green light was in colour.

 

However, when I looked at this part of the clip, I noticed it had caused issues due to the similar colour values of the yellow curtains and the green light. I resolved this by using the blade tool to cut the clip and only apply the filter to the shots of the tape recorder. Here is the finished product.

Overall I think this was a helpful exercise, as I discovered that the color pass filter works in certain shots. With this knowledge I could use it sparingly in our finished piece. Typically, light coloured objects on dark backgrounds or vice versa work best.

Practical Task - Colour Splash

Colour Splash Practical

Inspiration

Colour splash, also known as colour isolation, is where one colour is shown while the rest of an image is in black and white. It draws attention to the coloured object and makes it the focus of the image which can often convey a message, for example a red dress being highlighted on a femme fatale character can indicate passion and sexuality, and draws attention to the fact these are her main features. An example of this technique is Sin City, which uses several different isolated colours throughout the film to draw attention to different things. 

Photoshop

If we were to use colour splash in our film opening, it's most likely we'd use the colour red as red for femme fatale is a common convention of film noir, so I've decided to isolate the red on these two images. Red dresses and red lipstick are common themes as they are indications of a woman being a seductress. 

Firstly, I made the images black and white using a black and white adjustment layer. I used an adjustment layer rather than desaturating the original image so I could easily bring back the original colour of the image. On this layer, I then used the eraser tool to remove the black and white where the colour should be showing through. 

However, I felt the contrast between the lips and the black and white was too great and wanted something more subtle. In this picture, I desaturated the whole image and then painted over the lips in a suitable colour in a new layer using the Multiply blending mode. 

Although I feel the colour contrast is better in this image, the edges are a little bit off. 

I then used the first method on the dress picture. As the dress was a less shocking red than the lips I felt as though the contrast looked more natural. 

Overall, I am pleased with the outcome of the pictures however I'm not sure this would be usable in our own film as, to the extent of my ability, the methods used could not be replicated in video editing software and editing this frame by frame would not be practical.