- Hey guys, what is going on?
In this video, we're talking about that orange teal look
that you see everywhere,
we're gonna explain what the reason is
behind the orange teal look
and how you can achieve it in your videos.
(upbeat music)
Alright, so the orange teal look is typically what you see
in like big, blockbuster films
it's definitely become more and more popular
and the name comes from its look.
The colors are pushed into the oranges and the teals.
So to understand why this look has become so popular
we have to look at color theory.
If you look on a color wheel
basically the orange teal look
comes from complementary colors, its contrast in a scene.
So instead of being contrast in terms of light versus darks
you're looking at color contrast
and the color contrast comes from the teals and the oranges
because they're on separate sides of a color chart.
So a question that you might have is,
why do we only see the orange teal look
out of this idea of contrast in colors?
And one of the main things you have to think about
is skin tones.
If we were to do use
a different complementary look from the color chart,
a different style of contrast,
you're gonna throw the skin tones way out of whack.
Skin tones naturally fall more in the orange category
so you wanna make sure that your skin tones look good
because that is the first thing
that's gonna make your film look awful
is when the skin tones are pushed
so far in a direction that they turn green, or super red,
it will pull you out of the film
and you'll start thinking that there's something wrong
with what it is that you're watching.
So the first thing you have to think about is
making sure that your skin tones are natural.
So to contrast your skin tones which are in the orange
the rest of the image needs to look more teal
and so that's where we come up with this theory
of the orange teal look.
You have a contrast in colors
they're on separate sides of the color chart
and when you put 'em in a video
the highlights, the skin tones, all that becomes more orange
and the background and all the darks in the image
will become more teal.
And so when you really push this
and you stretch it to the extreme
you get that orange teal look.
Now there's different variances of this look
you don't have to go super over the top
but one film in particular that really stands out to me
was the new Mad Max film,
you could see that they went orange and teal
and that's like the entire film,
they are like a complete definition of the orange teal look.
Most of the images are either orange or teal
and there's no other colors in these frames.
So when you apply this look to one of your own video clips
you'll see that the skin tones will start to pop
and the subject in your video
will start becoming more of a focus
and because this look is being used all the time
in big blockbuster films
it's now being defined as like the cinematic look
so that's why you see YouTubers,
that's why you see Instagrammers,
you see everyone producing content
that has this orange teal look to it.
Even in my office here I've created a background
that has that kind of orange teal look
already built into it.
You can see the image I chose over here
is more blues and teals
and the one up there is more reds and oranges
so you have, naturally,
that orange teal look in the background
even if you guys didn't realize it.
OK, so let's get into how you would achieve this look
in any editing software.
There's a couple ways that you could go about color grading
you can do it natively in your color grading software
if you're in Premiere, if you're in Final Cut,
there's different tools
that allow you to push the colors around.
The other way is to use LUTs
and what a LUT is, is a look up table,
and a lookup table basically is like a mathematical equation
that is applied to your footage
to interpret how the footage is stretched on the color wheel
or in editing terms, your vector scope.
So one of the tools that you have
in all your editing softwares is a vector scope
and essentially what that is is a color wheel
that you could see the layout of all your colors
and it's a great tool to use to be able to understand
how this orange teal look is achieved
and to see how to push your image around
in terms of color.
So let's pull up a screenshot from Mad Max
and I can really show you how the colors are stretched
on the vector scope.
So you can see here that it's a very straight line
from the oranges to the teals,
and there is no other color in this image.
Basically everything is squashed into that line
between those two colors,
and the further you go out from the center on a vector scope
the more saturation you have.
So the orange teal look really pops
when you put a lot of saturation in it
and that's how you can see on this vector scope
how far it's pulled apart.
Now let me show you a screenshot
just straight from my camera.
So this is a shot in Vietnam
and this is just of a street.
You could see how it's more of just a blob
in the center of my vector scope,
just right there in the center that's all the colors.
Now if you're going to edit just natively
in your editing software, use your color wheels,
and you have your highlights, your mids, and your darks,
and you can play with your saturation.
Now as we start pulling these around
you can see how you start manipulating the vector scope
and start pulling your colors more into the teals
and the oranges.
Now the issue when you're doing this
in your editing software
is that as you start pulling these colors around
you're gonna start creating these color casts on your image
and it doesn't have that same
orange teal look that you typically see
in a lot of these blockbuster films or these big YouTubers
and I know it can get frustrating
when you're editing in this style.
Because you know what you're looking for,
you're trying to pull the colors into that orange and teal,
you're gonna pull 'em further and further
and you're gonna boost your saturation
but all you're gonna do is create this
crazy kind of color cast on your image,
it doesn't look like what you're trying to achieve.
So that's where a lookup table comes in
and I'm gonna show you
just in a software call 3D LUT Creator
this is what I use to create all my LUTs.
When you pull an image into your 3D LUT Creator
you basically can manipulate the vector scope
so that your colors only work in a certain defined area.
So I'm showing you 3D LUT Creator
just to show you what a LUT typically does.
You don't need to understand 3D LUT Creator
to be able to use LUTs.
There are so many LUTs available out there
you can just buy a set of LUTs or find a free set of LUTs
and you can use them for your footage.
So what you do is find a LUT that you want to use
that has the orange teal look
and what you do is you can drop that on your footage
and it automatically does the set of instructions
so that your colors push into the orange and teal.
And then from here, as with any LUT,
you need to do a little tweaking
because no LUT is perfect for the footage that you have.
LUTs in general are a set of instructions
that give you a predefined look, but from there,
what you need to do is go through,
play with your contrast,
play with the colors a little bit more
to get it to where you want.
But you wouldn't be doing these huge sweeping movements
that you are trying to do
when you were color grading the original footage
so, you still have that really defined orange teal look
created from the LUT
but then you can manipulate it a little bit
to make it work for your footage.
So here is a little sequence that I put together
from my footage in Vietnam,
I'm gonna show you both sides, unedited and edited,
using an orange teal LUT that I created
and I'm really gonna push this into the extremes
so you could see the color contrast
and how much it makes a difference
to have that orange teal look.
(ambient music)
- [Woman] I just wanna go back.
- Alright guys, if you have any other questions
about using LUTs, color gradient,
or just the orange teal look in general,
please let me know in the comments below.
If you're curious on how to apply LUTs
in your specific software,
every software has different tools to allow you to add LUTs.
In Final Cut there is a preset called custom LUT
and all you have to do is drop that on your footage,
go into your settings, find the LUT on your desktop
or wherever it is on your computer
and it will auto apply that LUT to the footage
and from there, you do a little color grading.
In other editing softwares
there's gonna be something very similar,
so just do a quick Google search, look for how to add LUT
in whatever software that you're using
and there's so much information on the internet
that there will be a set of instructions
on how to apply a LUT in your specific software.
Alright guys, that is it,
I hope this explained what the orange teal look is
and why you're seeing this look kinda everywhere on the web,
Instagram, YouTube,
but why everyone's just using this color look in general.
But guys, if you're new to this channel,
make sure you hit that subscribe button,
there's a lot of awesome filmmaking tutorials,
I've got a lot of just awesome stuff on this channel
and I've got some pretty cool stuff coming up this summer,
I'm working on some pretty big things.
Also make sure you come find me on Instagram @jevendovey
shoot me a message if you have any questions,
I'm happy to help you out with any of your filmmaking needs.
Alright guys, that is it, I will see you on the next one.