Neon Practicals

A neon sign is a coloured source sitting in the shot, so the face takes a saturated cast that has a visible reason behind it. The colour lands as part of the world rather than as a grade laid over it.

Neon also builds a city out of very little. One sign, one wet pavement and a bit of haze gives a street more depth than a fully dressed set under white light.

Neon emits over a narrow band, so it is genuinely saturated rather than tinted. Skin under magenta neon goes magenta, and there is no white point that will correct it back.

Two signs in different colours do the most work, with one on each side of a face. Warm one side and cool the other and the head gains shape without a conventional key.

Wet surfaces double the sign. Rain, a puddle or a polished floor take the colour and spread it, which is why so much neon work happens after the street has been hosed down.

Use it for night exteriors, bars, arcades and anywhere the city is supposed to feel lit by commerce.

Skip it for daylight or for any scene that needs neutral skin. Saturated colour on a face is a commitment you cannot pull back in the grade.

Practical lighting is the general case, with lamps in frame doing the work. Neon practicals are the coloured version, and the colour is the whole reason for choosing them.

So every neon practical is a practical. A tungsten lamp in a room is a practical and is not neon, because it lands warm rather than saturated.

Jordan Cronenweth lights Blade Runner (1982) with signs, screens and searchlights inside the frame, so the street supplies its own colour. The film is the usual reference point for this look.

The colour arrives with no visible source, which reads as a grade rather than as light. Put the sign in frame and say the spill comes from it.

The second failure is a pale tint instead of real colour. Name the colour and ask for it saturated on the face, and ban white light and daylight.