This column, “The Art of Colour Grading: Shadows”, written by Angela Cerasi of Peachy Keen Colour, was originally featured in the Australian Cinematographer Society’s “AC Magazine“.

In the language of visuals, shadows bring a sense of mystery, depth, and drama. They have the power to build tension, hint at future events, or expose underlying fears.  Shadows aren’t just empty dark spaces though — they are full of subtle details and gradation. Depending on your story subtext, DPs and colourists can execute deadly shadows. Read on!

Once you have created, sculpted, shaped or cast a shadow, it is forever burnt into the neg (or exploded some 1’s and blown them to 0’s.)  Attempting to undo a shadow in the colour grade is pretty much a “no can do” scenario. Light on the other hand, can easily be squashed down to a shadow. The moral of this story is if you’re creating shadows, make sure you don’t want them brighter later, or you could end up burnt.

So what can we do with your shadows in the grade? My favourite thing to do is to deepen them, making them rich and black. My least favourite thing to do is crush them (pay me though and I will oblige!) Crushing the blacks is compressing all low light levels down to black so shadow detail is lost. We see this in horror and thrillers where it serves the story purpose of putting us in the dark and amplifying the shock when something does appear from the shadows.

When it serves the story, crushing the blacks into an inky pool can be very impactful. In the colour grade, sitting your black level on 0% on the electronic waveform is a good place to start. From there we can soften, crush, lift, feather or dirty them, and even spruce shadows up with some colour.

In modern day film and TV, shadowy images are increasingly common. We have better TVs and devices which can handle them. In the cinema our environment is dark so our eyes easily handle shadowy imagery. The trend for premium film and TV to be ‘cinematic’ means TV is always moving more towards shadow. It’s good to remember though, that a shadow can be more effective when accompanied by a pop of highlight in the frame. There is nothing more annoying than watching a dark scene full a shadow where you don’t know what’s going on! We need at least some rim light to help outline action or a light to catch the character’s eye.

The Game of Thrones episode, ‘The Long Night’ got crucified when it aired, due to it’s relentless darkness. I thought is was a creative and bold choice because the endless shadows made us feel uneasy and tense. This mirrored the tension felt by the inhabitants of Winterfell as they nervously waited for the arrival of the Night King. When thousands of Dothraki soldiers have their flaming swords extinguished into darkness one by one, the use of shadow is immensely powerful.

The size, colour, direction and distance of the light source from the subject all affect the type of shadow created. Soft shadows can produce a calm and soothing atmosphere, making it feel safe. Hard shadows, created with high-contrast lighting can create sharp contradiction, intensifying emotions and adding conflict in a scene. By backlighting your subject, you can create the striking image of a silhouette, which often creates mystery.

Casting shadows on to a plain surface can add tremendous depth to shots. All hail the gobo! To add extra finesse, colourists will often add shadows to different parts of the frame to give it more perspective and draw the eye to the important part of the mise en scène.

In painting, shadows are often represented as blue. We would use this similar colour theory in grading. Light and sun is warm, and in the absence of the light we have shadows and coolness. Keep in mind though, if you put a colour cast in your shadows in the grade, the brighter the shadows become. After putting colour in the blacks, I often swap to the Resolve’s Log wheels (or Baselight’s Film Grade) and lower my black level, to keep the shadows dark.

Image from Bikesales “Free” commercial, DOP Matt Davies, Colourist Angela Cerasi.