How to create the Color Brown?

[Desmond Ford]

I've been playing around with grayscales mixing all sorts of colors but the one that continues to elude me is Brown.

My understanding is that it lies somewhere within orange with a lot of black added. However, I cannot seem to recreate while grading. I come close, but nothing is ever really brown.


Any ideas?

 

[Mike P.]

Try green and red...

 

[Sam Eilertsen]

To my eye at least it's a darkened orange. The only difference between orange and brown is lower value and perhaps slightly lowered saturation. At maximum saturation it looks a little orange even quite darkened, but at 80-90% it look like "ideal" brown.

 

[Mike P.]

What did Google say? You did ask Google, right?

 

[Desmond Ford]

What did Google say? You did ask Google, right?

No, I did not ask google. I'm specifically looking to create brown within DaVinci Resolve 9.0. I already know what makes brown, but I can't recreate it on a greyscale in Resolve like I can with ever other color, except brown!

So my quaestion is how to do it in Resolve? Yes, I understadn taht brown lies between Red and Green, but try making it for yourself on a greyscale and see how difficult it is. I came close, but I couldn't do it.


dezzy

 

[Donald Strubler]

0.1 red 0.05 green, 0 blue (or some blue to desaturate it) on a linear image looking up sRGB

 

[Marc Wielage]

Solid browns are hard colors to reproduce. Gold is (to me, in my experience) the hardest color to reproduce in HD color space.

Red + yellow at a lower luminance setting usually affects brown, but a lot depends on the nature of the material you're trying to correct. Are you attempting to create a "Sepia" look?

Also: what kind of monitor are you using to judge color, and how was it calibrated?

 

[Desmond Ford]

0.1 red 0.05 green, 0 blue (or some blue to desaturate it) on a linear image looking up sRGB

Nice! Thanks, Donald.

Although it's definitely brown, I'm going for a more milk chocolate brown, so I'll play around with the parameters you suggested.

I did everything within the Gain and boosted the Saturation, should I have touched the Lift or Gamma? What about luminance?

Also, I'm confused by what you meant by "on a linear image looing up sRGB." Can you please elaborate?



dezzy

 

[Eric Z]

Not enough Browns? It's all about color gamuts

Not enough Browns? It's all about color gamuts

Desmond,
You have just found out the limitations of color spaces. Browns lie in the middle of the right of the color-space triangle.
Most color-spaces are defined in such a way that their triangle cannot reproduce those brownish hues.
Even if your camera did manage to capture good browns, it might be that your monitor simply cannot display them as it too has a color-space limitation.

As you can see below, ProPhoto RGB and Adobe Wide Gamut RGB can reproduce Browns quite well.
The rest of the color gamuts simply fall short and cannot reach the "good" Browns.



I don't know how RedColor3 behaves, but I sure hope it is close to Adobe Wide Gamut RGB.

 

[Paul E. McCarthy]

roll Back to build 15. you'll get all the brown you want.
thats a joke.

I've been playing around with grayscales mixing all sorts of colors but the one that continues to elude me is Brown.

My understanding is that it lies somewhere within orange with a lot of black added. However, I cannot seem to recreate while grading. I come close, but nothing is ever really brown.


Any ideas?

 

[Marc Wielage]

Browns lie in the middle of the right of the color-space triangle. Most color-spaces are defined in such a way that their triangle cannot reproduce those brownish hues. Even if your camera did manage to capture good browns, it might be that your monitor simply cannot display them as it too has a color-space limitation.

You gotta wonder: what theater or home TV set will be able to reproduce these colors?