Portable Dual Screen Setup

My latest twist on being mobile is neither novel, nor unexpected.
People who know me, know that I, years ago, bought an iPad mini. The proclaimed integration of iOS to OS-X "Mavericks" was the trigger. And guess what, I was totally disappointed! The iPad hence ended up being a YouTube watching device only.

Some months ago, I learned about the software Duet Display. Today, finally, I gave myself a push and purchased the iOS app.

Why could my post be any interesting to any photographer?
Lightroom can be set to show a live display on a second screen. Nothing new here either. That second screen could be an iPad, when using Duet Display.
And here comes the interesting bit. Assuming your main computer's screen is color calibrated and the iPad is not, the iPad could provide an impression how a photograph will look when viewed (online) with regular equipment, while the main screen will provide color of the image being printed.

My present dual screen setup is pretty portable: 11in MacBook Air + iPad mini. Probably the smallest available kit for the functionality.

High Contrast Cityscapes

When photographing in a city, often the photos looks somewhat dull. Often the culprit is a blueish haze. Such haze also lowers the contrast of a scene.

So, here are a few Lightroom settings, which can turn dull photographs into a picture having a little more punch. Please note that this settings (as a preset) are only a starting point. Depending in the photo, one will have to alter one or the other parameter.

Basic:

• Exposure +0,45
• Contrast +37
• Highlights +46
• Shadows +35
• Whites 0
• Blacks -59
• Clarity +36
• Vibrance 0
• Saturation -54

HSL (saturation):

• Red +59
• Orange +78
• Yellow +18
• Green -54
• Aqua -74
• Blue -74
• Purple -46
• Magenta 0

Color Photos

The following photo was shot with the Samsung NX mini (ISO800, f/8, 1s/125, 27mm).

original (RAW) exposure

above settings applied

B&W Photos

original RAW converted into B&W

settings applied before converted to B&W

Fingers crossed that blogger does not "correct" the differences away...

Cinematic Photography (night)

Cinematic Photography is an expression that I came across lately. Another name for the same genre seems to be "Hollywood Look".

There is a difference in tone rendering between photography and cinematography, no doubt. However, a certain flavour of street photography, in particular during night time, adopted the Hollywood cinematography look.
To my surprise, it is very effective, and very simple to do.

Before learning about the "Hollywood Look", I just enjoyed watching Hollywood movies once in a a while. Now that I am aware what the effective colour composition used for the Hollywood look is, I am surprised to find it all over the place, e.g. in commercials.

Now, what is so particular about that "look"?

The basic concept seems to be to create a background in complementary colours of the foreground. The foreground will therefore be dominant over the background.

Movies usually tell stories about humans. Those typically have an orange skin tone. So, in order to put an emphasis on the "subject", i.e. the actor, one would tone the actor in the scene in an orange like hue. To make the actor pop, the background would now be toned in the complementary colour, i.e. turquoise.

With that knowledge, watch a Hollywood movie! You will notice, there is a strong preference to orange tones, accompanied by blueish and/or greenish backgrounds.

The Hollywood Look follows a really basic compositional principle that warm colours attract, while cold colours repel (fore- and background).

Let's have a look on a simple photography

Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto

The very same photography, with a Hollywood look applied

Cinematic look

So, what did I do to achieve this look?
First of all, this applies to nighttime images. Nothing I will tell you here will look good in daytime pics!

To achieve the look, I used 3 steps, which only concerned colour temperature.

1. Graduated filter from the top, decreased colour temperature (getting some blue)
2. Graduated filter from the bottom, adjusted tint to green
3. Broad radial filter, warm up colour temperature

The above filters can be stored as presets.

I advice to store the radial filter within the above mentioned presets. 

Now, having applied a preset, the radial (orange) filter can be used as a spotlight, to determine the area to be highlighted.

Concluding, it seems that a rather blue upper portion, a greenish lower portion and a foreground mid-portion having orange tint, define the look of movies.

Very often, the blue is ignored and replaced by turquoise produced by the original process.