How can I create a neon-lit night street look with deep blacks and controlled highlights?
Asked 1/8/2017
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2 answers
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I'm new to photography and shoot with a Canon 70D. I'd like to understand how to create a night city-street image similar to Liam Wong's neon style: saturated neon colors, very dark blacks, readable sign detail, and highlights that don't look completely blown out.
What should I focus on when shooting versus editing? In particular:
- How do you preserve deep blacks while making neon colors pop?
- How do you avoid losing all detail in bright signs and lights?
- Is this mainly about exposure and scene choice, or mostly post-processing?
- What kinds of edits in Lightroom or Photoshop would be a good place to start for a beginner?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
4
It's post-production. From an interview on the Lost at E Minor website:
A lot of our readers are curious as to how you achieved this neon effect. Mind sharing to us your secret?
“It’s simple. I try to shoot neutral, whilst featuring lights and darks. This gives me more control for when I play with the contrast and colors, for which I use Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop. With the exception of one photograph (you’ll have to guess which), I don’t actually manipulate them, I only tweak the color information that is there to find the contrast that I want.”
It's probably more the fact that he's, y'know, a graphic design director for Ubisoft. That is not your average Photoshop/digital image manipulation skillz level. :)
In Lightroom, I'd probably start with manipulating the contrast and saturation (either via the sliders or through Curves manipulation), and then start tackling the colors individually with the HSL panel sliders, while firmly keeping in mind the final look I wanted to get.
He says that he had just gotten a copy of Syd Mead's Kronolog and that was what was in his head when he was working on these photos.
Originally by user27440. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user27440
9y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Based on the community answers, this look is achieved mostly in post-processing, starting from a fairly neutral capture. Wong has said he shoots neutral scenes with both lights and darks, then adjusts contrast and color in Lightroom/Photoshop rather than heavily compositing or replacing content.
A good starting approach:
- Shoot scenes with strong contrast already present: bright neon signs against dark streets/backgrounds.
- Expose carefully to protect highlight detail in the signs and lights.
- In editing, increase contrast selectively and refine color so the neon hues stand out while shadows stay deep.
- Lightroom and Photoshop are both suitable; Lightroom is a practical place to begin for contrast, saturation, and color tuning.
The “neon” feel is helped by the scene itself: hard-edged lit signs against dark surroundings. Christmas lights usually won’t produce the same effect because they lack that graphic separation.
Some answers also suggested experimenting with stylized effects such as glow or poster-edge-type filters, but these are more creative shortcuts than a requirement. The key idea is: neutral capture, preserve highlights, then push contrast and color in post.
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