Noir is readable shadow, not crushed blacks with floating eyes
Noir reads from directional light, controlled falloff, and shadow detail—not a curve bottom pinned to pure black. `noir-film-look` suits covers, still regrades, and social headers: verify iris versus sclera separation, hair and collar edges, and that aggressive contrast does not halo JPEG edges or band former color steps. Neon rain scenes with heavy chroma noise can turn into dirty sand once desaturated. News and archival use should keep an untreated master and label the look as creative, not documentary truth. One LUT on every daylight frame reads as fake night; bucket by lighting before locking parameters. Commercial use also means signage, plates, and bystander silhouettes may stay identifiable even in monochrome—plan privacy review. Keep a reversible grade so legal can dial back contrast and grain. If you mix video stills, mismatched denoise and sharpen across frames makes matching grabs look jumpy—normalize the pipeline on the timeline before exporting stills.
Noir-style processing steps
- On `noir-film-look`, decide whether the hero is a person or city night, then set shadow retention.
- Check catchlights, nose bridge lines, and window highlights for smooth rolloff.
- Export high quality before heavy recompression so grain and shadows are not smeared twice.