From One-Light To Final Grade:
Colourist Terms and Workflows
Page 2
by Kevin Shaw

Tech lights: grade and record

Actually, what most clients want when they ask for a one-light is a tech light. In a tech light the material is carefully balanced with blacks lifted about 5% and whites around 5% below clip. This grade avoids clipping out any important negative detail, and provides a good base for tape or disk grading later on. It can be pretty quick; a colorist will often search through multiple takes at high speed, checking and grading each new scene as necessary, then rewinding, and recording the material. No decision on the final look is made and it is common to only use the basic setup controls.

Nevertheless, the process has its limitations. It does not take into account deliberate in camera effects; it does not guarantee any sort of consistency, and in some cases of high dynamic range might be just as impossible as the one-light. Ideally, tech lights from any telecine or facility should match. This can be achieved up to a point, but is rarely attempted.

Gray scales, Macbeth charts, and Gamma and Density charts all add accuracy and control to a tech light. They do work well when used correctly, which is not as often as we might wish or expect.

Best Lights: record and grade

To grade both tech lights and primitive forms of best lights in a short time, the colorist can simply set a grade and record until it needs changing. This technique is great for large quantities of rushes, which contain many takes of the same scene. However, changing a decision later on is complicated, and the possibility of in-context grading is minimal.

A best light is a full grade of all the material. It is very common for music videos, and is still the preferred method for commercials in Japan. It is also making a come back among feature film directors and DPs because it ensures that the material is always seen as it was intended and because the offline edit then shows both the edit and the grade. In today’s global economy it is also popular for international campaigns. All the material is graded once and then distributed to other countries for local versions. The edit and language changes but the look remains consistent from country to country.

There are disadvantages though. Clearly more grading is necessary and even though the grade for a selected take can often be applied to several minutes of unused takes, the transfer time is much longer. Moreover, best light transfers are often done before there is an offline edit, so there is no opportunity to grade in context, and a lot of time can be spent on out-takes.

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