What is Two-Tone Lighting? | Cinematography Techniques

Stay tuned to the end for a chance to win a prize!
In this episode, DP/Host Kevin Reyes shows us how he builds two-tone lighting, using a cool and warm tone to saturate the frame with visual interest. Not only does he play with a traditional color combination for our interior night club scene, but he changes the color scheme of the lights in place to show you how it affects the mood of the scene. On top of that, he delves into steadicam movement, soft light, and why production design matters so much when it comes to cinematography.
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0:00 - Intro
0:27 - Story/Concept
1:21 - Camera
2:10 - Steadicam
2:57 - DMX Lighting
3:35 - Lighting
6:38 - Production Design
7:19 - Color Tones
9:02 - Setup #2
11:00 - Breaking the Rules
11:29 - Second Color Scheme
12:27 - Final Result
13:02 - Outro
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Summary:
Aputure's KZbin channel provides free high quality cinematography, lighting, and filmmaking educational content to help you take your film projects to the next level.

[@tameszful]

I find rich orange, almost goldlike colour mixed with darker tones of green/blue, as one of my favourite to paint an image. Thank you for the amazing video!💫

[@aputurelighting]

😍

[@bbrunorocha]

Kevin has such a great energy, I love his participations !!

[@cwfilmproduksjon5345]

My favourite is green and heavy orange. Not the "hollywood Mexico skintone orange", but deep orange. Works sooo well on darker skintones too!

[@305unleashedgraphix3]

"And make it easier for your editors. "Yes someone understands the pain

[@aputurelighting]

😂

[@ivrsn_1569]

13:38 i really like the blue and red hues! Its gives this two sides of the character which red means Rused to denote passion, danger or power while Blue symbolizes isolation, passivity and calmness. Which coexist with each other and represents whats the side of a person or character.

[@stilekropfilms6610]

love red and blue / pink and cyan, absolutely beautiful hues

[@AlexLopez-iy4by]

Thanks for the great breakdown. The lighting and camera movement made the scenes dynamic and created a sexy mood.

[@denis_santos]

I love the purple/yellow, but remembered the Gaspar Noé's "Climax" with this club scene. There was a lot of two tone and good use of color!

[@DannyPytell]

I just recently filmed a series of artist interviews for a client and, in one of the interviews, I used a light purple light and dark blue light in the background as accent lights. The subject had a deep purple color in her hair, so the lighter purple as an accent light on her that spilled onto her artwork displayed behind her gave it a very nice contrast. I think put the dark blue light further in the background to give some separation and it looked great. When looking at the frame, it looks like it's how her art studio is naturally lit (using these colors) rather than the normal light bulbs she originally had. The client and the artist absolutely loved the work and I had fun painting the background with colors! :)

[@BrentHagyVideography]

I find myself always enjoying the rich yellow/magenta and baby blue/pink color schemes. Loved how you showed that being consistent with the exact hue doesn't always mean you will gain the desired continuity between actors and it is okay to adjust in camera to fit. Another great video! 👌

[@aputurelighting]

Thank you!

[@kelvinkurniawan07]

My favorite color hues are teal and oranye. This color is very attractive to the eye because it is a complementary color. This type of lighting is suitable for a scene that shows a firm impression.

[@thaliagardin]

i just have to say that i'm totally in love with this zack guy nice video btw lol

[@rodrigoassakawa]

Great stuff as usual! Red and blue are great for a stylized look. Red and green for a more neo horror are awesome

[@in.spire_agency]

Nice one guys 🔥 I really like novas, you can create color mood so fast and easy ❤️

[@alexmoon4638]

The classic teal and orange is always a go to Green and purple are fun to work with too

[@jgurtz]

I love me some orange and purple!

[@veesoho93]

Amazing very nice work❤️

[@johnrossi8862]

I think the best way to use color is by identifying a certain color to an individual or emotion. And the best way to utilize that is by using a color that will help the character have growth in their arc. If "Red" is danger and "green" is safe, by putting the main character who fears change but in this arc she has to overcome that by going through danger, light her in a green from the front, and when she goes into danger have her backlight be in red. I hope that makes sense! Thanks I hope thats good enough to win!

[@mbyrd67]

Liked the second look. Color wise I like the idea of even two different color temps in a scene 3300/5600

[@johnmut9484]

The stylish lighting is so 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@aputurelighting]

Thank you!

[@KhadirFreeney]

The two colors I like to work with is Orange and Green. These are cool colors that look good for outdoor night scenes

[@zsoltdirectorofphotography9598]

Cool :) the look two was the best :)

[@DTalley7]

Love Aputure tutorials! Very informative. I’m curious to know what was the camera temperature set too along with ISO? I see in some aputure videos, camera settings are shown and some videos are not. Would be cool to always include how the camera was setup to achieve these great looks. Thanks!

[@jena7930]

Great video and totally inspiring! I adored the pink/cyan combo! One of my faves! Searching for availability of the Accent bulb here in Australia!

[@marshallme9382]

Awesome job

[@OmegaNetInc]

It depends on the situation of course, but I tend to like green and gold for natural looks.

[@aputurelighting]

Always think of the content of the scene first!

[@potatoface4698]

Gorgeous 😍 (The lighting i mean) And the people too 😂

[@anniebreeze_]

Cyan! It's really versatile in my opinion depending on what you pair it with!

[@ElBoyoElectronico]

Such a cool video! I am always impressed how much effort and thought goes into those shots. Thanks for all the information. Btw.: My favorite combo is the classic orange & teal look.

[@aputurelighting]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@BRGriffin]

I love the fire and ice look. Either orange and blue, or red and blue.

[@unbridledproductions2503]

My favorite color hues to work with are probably blues/purple. I think those colors look fantastic on darker skin and really give it a vibrant pop that can also still look relatively natural

[@aputurelighting]

Couldn't agree more!

[@lazarkumaar9935]

Thanks very very much....it's very usefull....

[@aputurelighting]

You are most welcome!

[@oo-nj7kg]

thank you for your video

[@jezersek_production]

My favorite color is cyan and orange, because they are soo natural

[@aputurelighting]

Definitely one of the most popular combinations, do you think it's overused?

[@vogtech7898]

Blade Runner colors love it

[@stevenkralovec]

I really like two tones of cyan & orange, and also cyan & magenta, as far as a stylized look.

[@PaulyReact]

I love the warm version mY STYLE

[@gordieborg]

Depends on the tone of the scene. I love a good magenta with some teal to make it pop!

[@CineMilledUSA]

great episode, I liked look 2 the best

[@hippopictures]

Hi, what is the effect called @10:08? My favorite color hues are red-orange and blue-green. Thank you Aputure for another great tutorial!

[@otoshithekid2957]

12:33 when you get squeezed by your DP, lol. Your anamorphic lens made a LONG BOI!

[@OrangeALEX]

Awesome video! I really like the pink and green combination of colors, it reminds me of sci-fi/cyberpunk things like Blade Runner!

[@aputurelighting]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@MarkArnett]

Love to two tone. Would also like to see a monochromatic blue tone shoot.

[@MrTerryRay1]

This is a great question because the answer gives us ideas of what colors to use. I'm just starting but I've had success with pink and greenish teal. This doesn't make sense but the look isn't too bad or maybe I'll find out later I've made a mistake. Anyway, I'm still learning. I'll check out other color combinations in the comments.

[@aputurelighting]

Keep up the great work!

[@Visethelegend]

Definitely the green and the pink are my favorite colors to play with. I’ve always wondered if there is a way for the green to look right if we simulate bouncing from a heavy plant based environment. If anyone has seen the Garden of words will know what I mean. They do that and it looks beautiful, but the thing is it’s animated so it blends better in that world. For the pink, I love using it for a dystopian future, I did this for my Light this location challenge a couple of years, and still think it looks great.

[@Visethelegend]

#IreallyreallywantaB7c 🥺

[@karlisbergs306]

There's more one two-tones? I always do blue and red. The second look was incredible! Great work!

[@aputurelighting]

Thank you!

[@YuVisualss]

My favorite colors to work with are teal and orangish red. In my opinion the scene looks more refreshing and energetic yet calm if used right. But of course it depends on the scene.

[@aputurelighting]

Great color choice!

[@owenmhart]

I like to mess with hues of turquoise and magenta they look really good with brown skin and help accentuate the skin tones that I most often work with

[@renatozanardo9648]

Interesting, cheers. A question to steady OP: what if combine two device such as steady arms and gimbal?

[@bosicerik3111]

arri trinity

[@ErisedMediaCo]

What do those anamorphic lenses go for..?

[@alangreginez9192]

Que hermosos videos

[@aputurelighting]

¡Gracias!

[@Ranger7Studios]

I'm preferable to neon colors , for that Blade Runner look. Add that, a bit of CGI kit bashing for background and some old school model work, and you got yourself a Sci-Fi movie. Yea... I do a lot of VFX in my work. :) Great job with the episode!

[@aputurelighting]

Neon noir! Maybe a future episode...

[@leahsroom]

Where is this location? In LA?

[@ILLATIT]

I like all hues lol. You just have to experiment and paint the scene like it’s your canvas. However you’re feeling or the mood of the scene

[@aputurelighting]

Every frame is a painting!

[@ILLATIT]

@@aputurelighting indeed!

[@humphreylenarodriguez7617]

Deus Ex Machina Tokyo! I always went there for lunch and motorcycle chat with the staff.

[@naziflatheef1066]

Each video give an updation to me.

[@jeffreywoodson5071]

I Love Aputure lighting tutorials. They are seriously an amazingly useful tool and I can't count how many times I've gone back to these videos before projects. BUT..... PLEASE please PLEASE MONITOR THE AUDIO! I've really looked forward to the last few video but the Dialogue track is clipping so bad in the last few videos that it makes these videos almost unwatchable. PLEASE help us out as fans of the channel. I want to continue to love watching these! Keep up the amazing work and please fix the audio.

[@PJSCENTER]

Is there a rule of thumb or objective standard when using 2 tones of color? Like is there a sheet to look at? Is it always blue/red, yellow green, cyan/pink?

[@aputurelighting]

Contrasting and Complimentary Colors!

[@PJSCENTER]

@@aputurelighting Sorry I'm new to this. I don't know what colors compliment each other and what colors contrast except for red and blue.

[@helokamal4011]

🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@534daro534]

I thought that you will smoothly change from A to B the light colour on the DMX while he gets more interest in her

[@Direct19681]

Great video as usual guys! But in the scene, I did not get the feeling that she was looking at him at any point. Something just wasn’t right with the eye line.

[@wasislos]

Guys, 1080p in 2021 looks bad. Why not upload in 4k? KZbin compresses 1080p too much, its all pixely and not crispy. Great tutorial though. Thanks!

[@ninthandcompany184]

hahahah i just shot there!!!

[@popoffcity1989]

do a video on lighting a beach scene at night

[@wilfredojuloya6677]

Look 2 appears to be a scene from john wick

[@deviprasad4335]

pink hue

[@helokamal4011]

LIKE 🔥

[@lachlanstamp4203]

adding the teen to four minute film school (:

[@calasonido]

I like the videos but de sound FX are very disctracting and bother

[@enzoro8205]

Love your guys content, but you need to fix your audio in these videos.

[@anthonynajera7716]

Yeah, the entire video is basically clipping.

[@IndyVisuals]

You guys are too good with lighting but too bad on sound.

[@MediaBuster]

Why are you STILL wearing those stupid masks? And you take pictures with masks on and then 3 seconds later you are not wearing them?

[@CHALADEITALIA]

Has to be the magenta and green for now-- It's the classic 80s camp horror color hues and something that I loved from the slashers. The Argento and Italian horror cinema had these hues down to a science and it's still beautiful to see!

[@AlexDerrick_DP]

Check out my new reel, I have some Argento style shots in there. Let me know what you think. kzbin.info/www/bejne/b169aKyap51sd7c