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The Caught Stealing look – more than just a LUT?
How would you go about achieving this look?
https://youtu.be/6mIvD-GN-p4?si=6QRX0WaZOi_RQo0Q
I’ve spent most of the last decade (off and on) experimenting with different workflows. I’ve achieved some good results, but I haven’t yet managed to reproduce a look like this.
Having enough stops of dynamic range in your footage and following a proper CST workflow will take you a long way. Keeping your curve low, especially in the midtones, produces a pleasing underexposed aesthetic, while using gamut mapping helps place the highlights where they need to be. These techniques, along with countless others, will produce a well-balanced, good looking image… but there is one step I’ve always felt is missing.
There is a final process that gives the image a slightly “sketch‑like” quality, as if the shadows were drawn with pencil and contour lines become more pronounced. The luma channel feels somewhat desaturated, like an unsharp mask was added, even if one wasn’t actually used. It’s difficult to describe precisely, but I’m certain it’s more than a finishing LUT or simply adding grain. Plugins like Dehancer can be fun and useful for exploring color science, but they alone won’t get you all the way there.
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2 Replies
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The look starts with set design, lighting, camera/ lens/filter choice, costume and finally look development in post. They probably worked on creating a LUT for monitoring on set too. Without all departments working towards this look, you can only get so far with contrast, selective desaturation/ saturation and colour density.
I would be leaning into a DCTL that gave me good control over saturation, density and hue. I’m a fan of Mononodes but there are choices out there to give you better control than the slice tool.
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Michael on the nose here 🙂
If it was a button push, we would all be doing it LOL!
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