Jamie Neale June 18, 2021 Share June 18, 2021 Hey, I've been asked to create a mercury like look for a black and white car promo I'm grading. Started with a red filter style BW grade then played with luma only adjustments to add silver but I wonder if there's something I'm missing. Does anyone have any tips or techniques to share for creating more of a mercury liquid like look? Any help would be much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites
Nicolas Hanson June 18, 2021 Share June 18, 2021 What is a Mercury look? Is that a movie reference? Link to comment Share on other sites
Jamie Neale June 18, 2021 Author Share June 18, 2021 19 minutes ago, Nicolas Hanson said: What is a Mercury look? Is that a movie reference? Mercury the chemical element e..g no pigment/shiny/reflective and liquid like. Link to comment Share on other sites
Nicolas Hanson June 18, 2021 Share June 18, 2021 Any chance you can post references? Sounds like you are looking for ways to compress highlights but your post is a bit cryptic and I'm not up for guess games right now. Link to comment Share on other sites
Jamie Neale June 19, 2021 Author Share June 19, 2021 9 hours ago, Nicolas Hanson said: Any chance you can post references? Sounds like you are looking for ways to compress highlights but your post is a bit cryptic and I'm not up for guess games right now. Totally understand. Not trying to be cryptic but can't post references from the actual job . Trying to think of ways to make a black and white image look a little more like mercury (pic below). I'm thinking it's about combining softening and edge sharpening, maybe luma only sharpening and lots of selective blur. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites
Nicolas Hanson June 19, 2021 Share June 19, 2021 Would need to see how the lighting is on the shots you are working on to determine which techniques to use to get there. Need to know what's already taken care of and what challenges you face. Link to comment Share on other sites
Jamie Neale June 19, 2021 Author Share June 19, 2021 Shots are similar to this, no challenges really. I'm just interested to see if there's a way to create more of a silver effect like the example above. Link to comment Share on other sites
Nicolas Hanson June 19, 2021 Share June 19, 2021 I think they are quite similar really when it comes to silver. You could try to de-connect the RGB channels and draw a luma curve. It will increase the silver. You could also use the top part of the curve to compress the highlights or flatten them out. And, play with the midtone details slider to reduce sharpness. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites
Jamie Neale June 20, 2021 Author Share June 20, 2021 13 hours ago, Nicolas Hanson said: I think they are quite similar really when it comes to silver. You could try to de-connect the RGB channels and draw a luma curve. It will increase the silver. You could also use the top part of the curve to compress the highlights or flatten them out. And, play with the midtone details slider to reduce sharpness. Thanks Nicolas, I'll give those a try. Thanks for taking the time to check out my post. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites
