Tone Curve Types

[Daniel Rheaume]

Hello,

 I'm wondering if anyone has come across a  good resource that shows various types of common tone curves side by side?

I have been using a basic s-curve in most of my grades, but would love to see examples of other types of curves that work well, for example, in Kevin's masterclass where he lifts the black point and drops the white point to their nearest default anchors for a film print look.

Thanks  for your input!

[Stefano Zordan]

I think the best way it to always play with curves yourself.

With curves,  there aren' really different types or settings to follow. You will always get different results with different plates.

If you want to replicate a look from another movie,  try to match your plate with a screenshot of the movie (or take a look at 'framegrab') playing with the curves,  with the lift gamma gain dials or also alltogether.

[Daniel Rheaume]

On 9/3/2020 at 8:08 AM, Stefano Zordan said:

I think the best way it to always play with curves yourself.

With curves,  there aren' really different types or settings to follow. You will always get different results with different plates.

If you want to replicate a look from another movie,  try to match your plate with a screenshot of the movie (or take a look at 'framegrab') playing with the curves,  with the lift gamma gain dials or also alltogether.

Thank you, Stefano!

 That does make sense that the curve will be very much driven by the source material.

I guess I just was curious if anyone had any specific curves that achieve a particular effect - for instance, the raised black point, but crushed shadow look that is a very popular curve with photographers! haha!

In any case, matching reference material does always seem to yield the best results for me, so thanks for that reminder and tip!