As I mentioned earlier, creating a shadow isn’t necessarily about creating a mask and lowering the shadow settings in fact, that would look horrible. The only adjustment we are going to make is to lower the midtones very slightly. This will slightly increase the brightness of the background to make our shadows stand out a little more.Ĭreate a second node, and here you want to create another mask based on the shape you want your shadow to take. We’re going to lower the overall exposure later, so it doesn’t need to be too drastic - just a few increments.
Here, you want to increase the midtones slightly. It would be best to implement the shadows before grading.įirst, create a new node, mask around your subject and hit the invert mask option. In Resolve, import your footage, and head to the color page. It was a creative choice not to replicate the exact lighting setup, but, for the sake of the tutorial, let’s say that the director now wants those window shutter shadows back in to add some interest to the background (not that it’s a stretch to consider such a request from a director). This still below takes place in the same location but at a later time in the story. With the light divided by the flag, it gives the background contrast, which adds an exciting dynamic to the composition. Leaving the scene with no illumination at all was dull, and simply lighting the background with the 650w was too excessive - diffused or not. In the example below, I had a 650w Fresnel diffused through a 3/4 stop diffusion sheet, which I then cut with a 10″x12″ scrim/flag to divide the light on the background - as if the half-open window shutters were obstructing the sunlight. When we see a shadow spread across a wall, it’s because there is an object between it and a light source. When we think about an area of the room that is darker, it’s because there’s less light, or no light, reaching that area. And while, to some extent, that is what we are going to do, it wouldn’t be correct to say that’s it. There’s a common misconception about recreating shadows, and it’s that you simply make the area darker. So let’s take a look at creating a cast shadow inside of DaVinci Resolve. But, we don’t live in a perfect world, and mistakes happen. We’re about to discuss creating something digitally that we should have just captured with the camera. Find out how you can add (realistic) shadows to a composition using DaVinci Resolve. Even the most organized lighting setups can need tweaking in post.