Why do still photos often use stronger contrast and saturation than video or cinematic looks?
Asked 3/23/2020
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I often notice that edited still photos—especially on social media—use stronger contrast and more saturated color, while video and so-called cinematic looks tend to be lower in contrast and saturation. Is this mainly a style trend, or are there technical, psychological, or perceptual reasons why video is often graded more softly than a single photo?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
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In short, everything about color has a psychological meaning or response: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28612080
Oversaturated images tend to grab our attention and there is both a trend for them and backlash as far as art is concerned (Why are vibrant, saturated photos considered 'not as good'?).
But, Social Media is not art, it is all about getting attention. Your average instagramer tends to bump both color and saturation because, to them, that pop makes the image "look better." And, for most images, they're not wrong. A little pop can go a long way to hide poor composition or to use that psychological trick to grab attention. But, at some point, it's putting lipstick on a pig.
For your artistic photography, color and the saturation of it should be used to help evoke an emotion or set a tone for your image. There are times when over saturation helps you to do that, up to and including such saturation that you end up getting colors that are unnatural (https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/the-disturbing-beauty-of-oversaturated-pictures/). And that is fine! All of the elements within your images should affect the story and emotion, including the color, contrast, and saturation.
With movies, the color palette is used for that same reason: to set a mood or theme. There's a good overview here: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-use-color-in-film-50-examples-of-movie-color-palettes/
Another interesting example of high contrast and color saturation (although applied in selective color) is Sin City (https://www.tboake.com/443_sincity_f07.html)
Think of a movie as just a series of connected photographs. What story are you telling? What emotion are you trying to evoke? The use of colors will help tell that story. As far as color saturation is concerned, there is no rule that cine has to be less saturated and, indeed, there are many examples of highly saturated colors in movies.
Originally by user67377. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user67377
6y ago
0
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Both style and viewing conditions play a role.
For still photos, especially on social media, stronger contrast and saturation are often used because they grab attention quickly. More “pop” can make an image feel more striking at a glance, which suits feeds where images compete for attention.
For video and traditional motion pictures, lower contrast and saturation can be preferable for both aesthetic and technical reasons. Historically, projected film images could appear higher in contrast because projection systems themselves increased apparent contrast (including the Callier effect in condenser projection). That meant the source image did not need to be as aggressively contrasty as a print.
There’s also a practical viewing difference: a photo print is reflective and has a more limited contrast range than a projected image. Motion pictures are also experienced over time rather than as a single frozen frame, so the demand for extreme sharpness and contrast can be lower.
Psychologically, color and contrast affect emotion and attention, so creators choose them to support the intended response. High saturation isn’t inherently “better”; it’s one tool. In social media it’s often used for impact, while cinematic grading often uses more restrained contrast and color to create mood and avoid a harsh or overly artificial look.
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