Day 3 of 20 Post Production Lighting

   Here's something you may not know about the movie making industry.  Almost every shot that you see in a movie has been re-lit in post production.  When I'm working as a colorist (One of the many hats I wear) Almost always re-lighting a shot is the second thing I do.  The first being to balance the colors. Re-lighting consists of primarily 3 different forms.
   The first is simple exposure and lighting balance.  Taking each clip and adjusting the blacks, whites and mid-tones to their right levels.  The second form is adding power windows or masks.  These are typically areas of the scene that I want to direct the audiences attention to.  For instance someone's face.  So I add a window around that persons face so that I can lighten just the face making it ever so slightly stand out from everything else.  This is done in such a small way that it takes a very keen eye to spot the difference.  And yet subconsciously everyone notices.  The last type of correction I will use is the vignette.

The tried and true method for focusing ones eye on the area of the screen you want them to.  A vignette is basically like a frame with a soft gradient edge. Like the one to the left.
When placed over an image with a lower opacity the vignette is hardly visible but manipulates the image so that your eye is drawn to the focal point.

This shot combines both the primary re-lighting as well as the vignette.