Home >> Podcasts >> Arpan Banerjee on Capturing BTS Moments in Films
Show Notes

We’re back with another fantastic episode of Photosynthesis!

In today’s episode, we sat with a seasoned photographer, Arpan Banerjee. He primarily has been doing some remarkable works within the vibrant Bengali movie industry. He specializes in behind-the-scenes (BTS) videography and photography. He is also into film poster photography and capturing the still and candid cinematic shots. But that’s not all – outside of movies, he also enjoys snapping fashion pictures as a hobby.

The conversation started on why winter is a busy season for the Bengali film industry due to the more favourable shooting conditions. He takes us through the intricate process of BTS photography, discussing his role as a silent observer capturing the raw essence of film sets.

Arpan reveals how BTS photography is important in documenting the entire production process, capturing the raw emotions of actors and crew members between shots. He emphasizes the pivotal role it plays in future reference, promotional material, and preserving the essence of filmmaking.

Arpan even explains how the scale of production influences the BTS unit’s scope. Larger productions may require multiple photographers covering various locations. And don’t overlook continuity photography – a crucial aspect in behind-the-scenes photography of a film.

Finally, he describes the impact of colour science in film and photography. He elaborates on how the manipulation of colours contributes to creating diverse moods and aesthetics in both film and photography.

A huge thank you to Arpan Banerjee for sharing his insights. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review. Until then, keep capturing those moments that tell a thousand stories.

Listen to the full Podcast on Spotify

Check out Arpan Banerjee’s stunning work on Instagram – Arpan Banerjee

References mentioned in the podcast –
Indievisual’s Podcast(Photosynthesis) with Meghan Katti

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Transcript

Vineet  

Hello and welcome back to Photosynthesis individuals podcast where we talk to some of the best creators across India on the art and the business of videography and photography in India. Today we have with us someone who’s been so prolific across so many different sub-genres of videography of filmmaking that I actually had to spend time with him today before this started to discuss how to give an intro, which parts should be focused on 

because he’s been into film photography, he’s been into the behind the scenes process, there’s a lot of… Okay, Arpan, Arpan Banerjee from West Bengal Film Industry, welcome! Very very happy to have you here, I know we’ve been trying to schedule this for a while but so thrilled to have you on board. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Hi. Hi, Vinny. How are you doing? 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah sure, sorry I couldn’t get back to you earlier because I was like busy with my projects. In winter, we shoot a lot. 

Vineet  

Winter actually, why does it happen? I know the wedding industry is much busier in winter Why is the film industry busier in winter? 

Arpan Banerjee  

Because the main reason here in Kolkata is it’s too humid, it’s too hot throughout the year and sweat and film shoot doesn’t really go hand in hand, it’s like really disturbing So in winter people try to shoot as much as they can 

Vineet  

That is an interesting one. I never thought of it. I was like, yes, wedding photographers of course are much busier in the winter. In fact, if I try to buy a lens, or if I try to sell a lens on OLX, immediately the wedding photographers are like, yes, I want it. Right. And in March, and you can tell it, cycles, in March everything is being sold cheaply. Because wedding season is over. Right. But yes, I didn’t think the same applies for film photography because of humidity reasons, but it makes sense. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Ha ha ha. 

Arpan Banerjee  

It’s not like we don’t have to shoot in the summer We do shoot in the summer but It’s very painful It’s very hot here 

Vineet  

Good. 

Vineet  

But where do we begin? Like, so you are specializing these days in behind the scenes. I mean film photography. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah, so basically what I do is I do the behind the scenes cinematography and also the poster photography and the behind the scene photography and also the following edits. 

Vineet  

Hmm 

Arpan Banerjee  

Um. 

Vineet  

Thanks for watching! 

Arpan Banerjee  

So I feel like I am like a silent observer. I have my camera and I have the entire set. I have the entire production process as my film. So the process of filmmaking is my film. I guess it’s more about weaving a narrative through different sorts of visuals. 

which are like, say suppose a film which has some brilliant shots or some brilliant arts a lot of the people, audience doesn’t really realize the amount of work or the amount of conversation or discussions or meetings that take place in order to choose even a particular color of the wall. 

from a particular color of the wall to the color of the dress to what makeup or what setting, even the weather outside also the light. Everything has to, you know, like synergize well with each other in order to create a visual. So for me, I feel really proud to, you know, like capture this artistic process while it’s in its inception stage. 

Vineet  

I have so many questions, I have so many questions. Where do I begin? Ekto, so you are in a way not interacting with the film crew. You are a silent observer. Wow. 

Arpan Banerjee  

I am but yeah so basically there are like two types of approach how I shoot so there are like people who gets really you know aware that there’s this camera which is following him or her and there are people who are like okay let it be I’ll just be what I am. Okay let me do my work. So I actually try to encourage people to like do not you know react to me 

Yeah, just do your work then only I feel the visuals are authentic and not forced upon. 

Vineet  

Yes, because I would say, you might want to wait for one celebratory type video where everyone is like hi everyone But otherwise, yes if I am watching the BTS stuff from a, you know, it used to be in DVDs, so that doesn’t happen either I want it to look authentic, I want it to look like the film is going on rather than people talking to the 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I- I 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah, but there’s to approach to it. So some promotional behind the scenes photos. So right now reels are trending, like everyone is using reels. So a lot of my BTS work I’ve seen in the past two, three years that people are requesting me to stay at some shots where people are saying, hi, and hi, I’m doing this and that. So. 

Vineet  

Hmm. 

Vineet  

Hmm. 

Arpan Banerjee  

It’s a bit staged but I guess it serves some promotional purpose for them so for that so it has its place too I guess. I personally like to shoot it as authentic as I can. 

Vineet  

What approach do you take to not really interact, to be silent, to be as silent as possible? Like how does it work? Do you have like, do you make sure you’re carrying this one simple, small, unobtrusive camera? Do you wear sneakers that day? 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah, so it, um, so basically the size of the camera, it actually helps. I have seen the size of the camera actually helps. So suppose you’re carrying one big as camera with a big lens and you’re moving. It will draw a lot more attention, which might harm the authenticity of the frame. It might not look that real. A small camera on the other hand. 

Vineet  

Yeah. 

Arpan Banerjee 

is very sneaky, it can get inside anything and no one will pay much attention to it. So but there’s a thing, a small camera in general, right now the technology has like moved leaps and bounds so it’s not an issue anymore. Right now I use a Fujifilm camera which is like fits in the palm of my hand and it delivers brilliant quality, like brilliant quality imagery. 

Six, seven years ago, this was still kind of a myth. I used to use a small Sony camera, but its quality was not as far as the higher end full frame cameras, of course. But right now, the quality margins are like decreasing day by day and technology is like advancing. 

Vineet  

In fact, I was seeing this Anthony Bourdain interview where he had said that one of the biggest leaps for him in storytelling was when the iPhone became so good because he said the difference between carrying a rig and carrying an iPhone into a small restaurant run by a family is people become so much more open and so much more natural. They feel like it’s their natural environment versus if you have a big camera pointed at their face. 

they become very conscious. So he is like I don’t care about quality as much, for me that authenticity really comes out with the iPhone. 

Arpan Banerjee 

Hmm. And I want to say technology is only going to take this forward. The quality is only going to go up. So like, I can’t even imagine like five to six years from now, the form factor it will come down to for delivering that huge amount of quality at the same time. Amazing. And just make our work easier. I think it’s just going to make our 

Vineet  

So now, next question. It is, I think even that Insta360 level is going to become so good. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I have shot some 360 footages in some of my projects. And it works really good because the 360 perspective, that fish eye perspective is very intriguing in nature. And you can see almost everything that is happening all around you in one squeeze into one single frame. 

Yeah. 

Vineet 

Amazing. The next question I have, which again stems from what you initially said. Now, earlier there used to be DVD box sets. They were priced, right? Like my Lord of the Rings box set, extended edition with the, you know, BTS DVDs is a very priced position of mine. DVDs are dead. So has the relevance of BTS gone down or does it all go on YouTube and just make a couple of reels? 

Arpan Banerjee 

Hmm 

Vineet 

but we don’t want the really in-depth stuff. Also because there’s more green screen now, right? Like LOTR was in prosthetics, there was real shoots happening. Now it’s mostly green screen, so people might not even want to show that much. What do you think? 

Arpan Banerjee  

Done. 

Arpan Banerjee Umm… I guess… The requirement of BTS will stay. It will stay and it will just change from… Like it will shift from one media to the next. Before, like you say, it was in DVDs. Right now, it’s mostly in YouTubes. And BTS are basically right now mostly used as film promotion purposes. So suppose there’s like a big film coming. 

Vineet Yep. 

Arpan Banerjee So there will be reels of the behind the scenes actions, some key moments without revealing the plot So in order to create a hype, in order to create a buzz And people in general, audience in India are really intrigued by the filmmaking process Because most of them don’t really know the technicalities of it And I think people Because of not knowing how it is being shot 

they tend to take it for granted. For me, what I particularly think is BTS can invoke interest in audience, even in case where the film hasn’t done well. Because suppose there’s this film, which didn’t do well in the box office, or you could say it’s a flop, but there’s like so many different aspects to filmmaking. It has cinematography, it has art. 

It has costume, it has makeup and not a lot of people find intrigue in this fields, they basically just stick to my favorite actors acting has to be good. The story has to be good. There should be some like few dance items and that’s it. A few dance numbers and that’s it. I am happy. And if this thing fails, I’m not going to watch this film, but I particularly 

every scene because of the lights. So Gaffer is the person who designs the light for the cinematographer in the set. So I have a deep interest in how lights create a space. So whenever I’m watching a film, I’m watching a scene, I usually see a film multiple times because of this reason. The first time I am usually so blown away by the visual aspect of it. The story doesn’t really register inside me. 

Vineet Hmm. 

Arpan Banerjee  

So I have to watch it again for the story purpose. For me, I absolutely love the camera movements, the lights, also the costumes and the arts in general, because I personally realize how immense amount of work, blood, sweat and tears goes behind it. And for me as a BTS guy, I get to document all of that in order for the audience to see it in the later time. 

So I actually feel really blessed. 

Vineet  

Hmm. 

So that’s actually amazing. So I had interviewed this concert videographer, Megan Katti. Amazing, I actually met him at a concert. Both of us. Haan, because I can tell, like you were mentioning earlier, you’re into metal music, like very, very passionate about it, including your sweatshirt right now. So he was also, so I met him at Magnetic Fields. Both of us very, very hungover at breakfast the next day. 

Arpan Banerjee  

I started my work as a concept photographer man. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah. 

Vineet  

I saw his camera and I asked him if he was a videographer and he said yes. So he was also saying the same thing that he feels blessed to be doing what he is doing because he was always into music, he was always into videography and he managed a way to combine that passion. You know I am saying that same thread in you that when you say that you are feeling very happy. So a lot of people actually say that don’t make your hobby a profession. Right. 

What is your view on that? Like what do you feel about that? Do you feel that this is amazing? Like when you’re on set, actually doing the archival work, right? You’re archiving film, in a way you’re documenting film history. In a way you are, see beyond just the promotion, promotion is there, but you’re doing more than that. Like what is your feeling about this? Do you, what do you feel like when you go to shoot on a, on an interesting film one day, like how do you feel? 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yes. 

Arpan Banerjee  

See for me whenever I am in a set while working it’s quite difficult to you know assess the fact that this film is gonna go big or not I’ve worked in a lot of hit films and I have also worked in a lot of bad films So for me my particular work process doesn’t really change according to the content For me every film has cinematography, every film has art 

Vineet  

Hmm. 

Arpan Banerjee 

every film has makeup, every film has actors. So all these fields are associated with different people. They are persons, they are living human beings, so they have emotions, so it will create a story behind the scene, no matter what. And BTS in this way, I think it is special because without us, there’s no way of knowing. 

what goes on behind the scene. There’s no way of knowing what happened. Suppose there’s this film where this one scene got really hit in the public and public really liked it. Their immediate, most of them would really want to see what happened behind the scene. And for that, we are like the only outlet which can deliver. 

Vineet  

So how do you then… So two questions. One is… So every producer, every director when they are making a film wanted to grow really big. Nobody… Right, even if the movie eventually flops, they are pouring their heart and soul into that. So how does a producer plan… Like something like we were talking about Gangs of Vasipur before this discussion began. That movie became so big. It became a cultural phenomenon that everyone wants to now see the BTS. But when you are making that film… 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah 

Arpan Banerjee  

Of course, of course man. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah, yeah, it’s a cult classic, it’s a cult classic man. 

Vineet 

It’s a cult classic, right? When you’re making a film, you don’t know it will become a cult classic. So how do you, how does a producer figure out how much effort to put into the archival? Or has there been cases where the movie became a cult classic and suddenly there’s not enough BTS? And then people feel that I wish we’d put more effort then. 

Arpan Banerjee  

and 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yep. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Of course, of course, of course, it happens, it happens. And right now, for say, for the past six, seven years, it has come into practice that every film should have a BTS unit or a BTS photographer guy. Before that, yeah, it was an issue because there are like so many films. Say, I’m not really sure… 

Vineet 

Oh. 

Arpan Banerjee  

So my favorite film, one of my favorite film is Dil Chahta Hai Like my all time favorite film And I really wanted to see because that film It came probably in 2001 I guess I’m not really sure During that period only and The cultural paradigm shift that happened Because of that film I was always very eager To see what happened behind the scene and I have searched 

Vineet  

I think so. 

Arpan Banerjee  

all over the internet but I couldn’t get anything 

Vineet  

I read one article, I think 52.10. They came out with this really long article where they went back, I think this was two years ago they came out with it. They went back and interviewed everyone associated with the film. I think that is the only archival piece that I have to say. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is the only way you could know. Like still then it’s like a print media. You don’t have like a visual medium to, you know, actually see, actually experience what happens. So whenever someone reads something from a report, they automatically, when you start reading something, you start to play a mind movie, you start to map locations, you’ll place characters in your mind frame, and then you experience it. That itself has its beauty. 

Vineet  

Hmm. 

Arpan Banerjee  

I agree, but for me, I would actually like to see what actually happened. 

Vineet 

I know, I know. I would absolutely love to see any kind of visuals from the BTS of that movie. If someone tells me, okay there is BTS available of Satya Pe Satta or Mr. India, I would be like, yes man, I want. Really, really would love to see that. And the second question is, so BTS unit, what is the BTS unit? Like just you being as silent as possible. 

Arpan Banerjee  

I would love to. Mr. India, yeah, of course, would love to. 

Vineet  

Or do you also have people helping you out, working with you? 

Arpan Banerjee  

It works either way man. Some films hire just one BTS guy and he is responsible for the entire process. Some films where the scale is large, suppose there’s like multiple units shooting at two locations at the same time. For that kind of setup, I feel you need more than one people to cover both the scenarios. 

Vineet  

Hmm. 

Vineet 

Hmm. 

Vineet  

interesting. 

Arpan Banerjee 

I kind of feel, you know, I wanted to say this. I feel there’s this certain level of intimacy in what I do because I freeze moments behind the scene, which the audience might never ever get to witness otherwise. 

There’s a lot of laughter between the shoots. There’s a lot of conversations in between the shoots, jokes cracking everywhere, emotions flying high. And, you know, like, even the intense focus etched on our actor’s face just before he’s coming on the set to give the shot, these sort of scenarios are what makes my… 

BTS will very special because otherwise there’s no other way of, you know, like documenting this process in general. 

Vineet  

And you’re basically, so film in itself is elevated, right? Like it’s not regular life. There’s this drama, there’s emotion. Film is elevated. You are. 

Arpan Banerjee 

Yeah, these are not just pixels on the screen. They’re like… 

Vineet 

Yes, exactly. And you are basically making it more accessible. Like these are real people. Like even the stars, they are not like super humans. They are just real people. Here is a regular look at how they are. How like a day in the life of these regular folks doing a job well basically. Yeah, yeah. Can you get something today or… 

Arpan Banerjee  

True, true, true. Yeah, yeah. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Of course, of course. 

Arpan Banerjee  

No. 

Arpan Banerjee  

And you have to like, you know, adaptability is a very, very major constraint for us because you have to. 

 and it’s organically in synergy with… 

each and every aspect of it throughout. 

Vineet 

Nice and is there any one play? So, okay, very different question again, but is there any industry body or something that actually collects these things or is it just YouTube that’s one of those billions of videos on YouTube? 

Arpan Banerjee  

Mostly all the BTS imagery that we take are copyrighted, owned by the production house only. And it’s up to them how they want to approach it. Because I know there are a lot of films that I have walked on, I haven’t seen the BTS myself. Because they didn’t think, let’s just keep it. 

Vineet  

Yeah. 

Arpan Banerjee  

It’s just for future archival purposes I’ll just keep it and if I need it someday I’ll use it. It mostly happens when a film doesn’t do very well. 

So there’s this new film which came Karak Singh, it’s on Zee5. So I did the entire BTS for that film last year. Right now they are still working on the BTS as far as I know. So it hasn’t come out yet. But I think within the next 2-3 months there will be enough intrigue. 

among the audience to know what happened behind the scene. And then they’ll probably release it somewhere. On their promotional website, their social media handles, or YouTube, Dailymotion, so many different platforms. 

Vineet  

And have you ever felt that, no I should do something, I should bring all these disparate, not just the ones you’ve shot, but like from an industry perspective, let’s bring them together in one place. Have you ever thought of that? 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah, I have, I have to be honest, I have, but the thing is, for every film, I tend to overshoot. That’s my style. I tend to overshoot every time I am on the set. So I have like a huge amount of data that gets piled up after every shoot, say like almost more than one TB of data, one terabyte of data, consisting videos, photos and everything. 

Vineet  

as every photographer and every photographer. 

Arpan Banerjee  

So to store that huge amount of data, I do have a whole lot of hard drives, but I’ll be honest, I don’t have like all my work stored with me, but I know where they are and I have like good connection with the production and all. If I need to use it for my promotion later on in my life, I’ll be able to acquire. 

Vineet  

And now I’m just going to move on because otherwise we keep going on BTS. Film photography, film photography. This is a very interesting term in itself because I don’t bring these two. Like filmmaking is one, which is video. But you work on film photography, posters and stuff, right? Like 

So BTS photography has two parts. One is the behind the scene photography and one is the promotional poster photography. Actually, no, I’m a bit wrong in saying this. Also the BTS photography has the promotional aspects as well, but mostly the poster photography is at the… 

main photos that the people see. 

Arpan Banerjee  

still photographer  there’s a misconception that 

Film photographers only take photos of the actors. It’s not the case. They take photographs of each and every individual behind the scene. Everyone who is some way or the other related artistically or creatively with the project. 

Arpan Banerjee  

I think for me my lens becomes like a bridge between the audience and whatever is going behind the scene. I’m not like only taking pictures, I’m freezing raw emotions as to say. 

as to and all these photos might really not, you know, might not work as film promotions, but it creates memories. It creates a very special value for that particular person I’ve shot. And it creates a memory for them, which in turn elevates their emotional state, elevates their well-being. They feel happy about it. Everyone likes to get clicked. 

Vineet  

I think this is a philosophical point that every photographer is going through these days like we are living in a world of video. What value does the photo actually hold and I think that keeps changing every few years. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Hmm 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah, I just gave you my emotional and spiritual side to it because of why I do it. And as my roles, there are so many things. So, documentation is the first role. I have to capture candid moments, all the behind the scenes actions, all the promotional events during the production. And it also preserves the essence of filmmaking as a whole. 

And then it comes to promotions. We take promotional shots of the actors, the scenes. Then there comes the continuity scenes. Continuity photography is where it’s very important. So continuity photography is… 

It happens immediately after a scene has been done and all the actors are freezed in their last frames and I take a photo and it serves a lot of purposes. Suppose the set, it gets moved around a lot because the lights get moved around and it’s very, very important for the art director to know which object was placed. 

at which angle and where exactly. Because if there’s a scene happening right after it, which is showing that exact space and the objects in that space have been moved around due to production issues, it is very important for the art director to come to the photographer and see the photos himself in order to place all the objects how they were. And it could come from just an ashtray or… 

how much a cigarette has been lit. It comes down to details like that. And also wrinkles on the shirt matters so much. I have seen so many scenes that the first scene there’s this sharp wrinkle there and then they have gone around and shoot some different scene. And on the film narrative, the scene immediately after doesn’t have any wrinkle. So that visual jerk really affects me. 

Vineet  

Yeah. 

Arpan Banerjee  

and it only goes to show that the continuity photographer doesn’t hasn’t worked really well 

Vineet  

And there are channels like CinemaSense which then keep going deep into the site. Not a fan of… Not a fan of these people. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Of course, of course, of course, of course, like every film award, I think this is a huge criteria in case of like Oscars or the Cannes or any film festival, they actually look into these details because this is this actually in turn reflects the amount of passion that is shown towards the film. 

Vineet  

And also like it might pull the viewer out of the scene if they notice. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah, of course, of course, of course, of course, man. See the technical expertise after two, three films, it almost like sinks in your muscle memory so you don’t have to like actively think about it almost happens automatically. But the flexibility is where you know that when you have to adapt, like at a go. So for the set, all the lights that are being done. 

Vineet  

Hmm. 

Arpan Banerjee  

are mainly because mainly for the cinematographer or the main camera of the film. It is the light is not according to the BTS photographer. So there’s a certain difference to it. So I have to adjust accordingly. So suppose like I’m shooting outdoors and bright sunlight, and then immediately I move windows and there’s like dimly lit, I quickly have to adjust my settings. And then suppose I’m going to shoot. 

a night scene outside. Then again, I have to adapt quickly. So that’s the technical side of it. Right now, a lot of production crew are requesting to use like producers are basically requesting to do smoother frames for that. Like we are using like gimbals and all. These are the techniques. Yeah, even for BTS. So 

Vineet  

even for babies. 

Oh, so they want VTS also to look as professional as… 

Arpan Banerjee 

Yeah, so we worked in Bulbul. We did the BTS. So we had a team. So I did the poster photography and the behind the scenes photography and 

Arpan Banerjee  

So my friend did the behind the scenes cinematography of that film and the producers specifically requested for the entire film to be shot in a gimbal. 

Vineet  

Why do you think that is like why. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Hmm. It just depends on the budget. Because if that quality is required, yeah, like more the quality has, the quality has the money. 

Vineet  

Or maybe the director is also going for a specific vision even for the… 

Arpan Banerjee  

Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. 

Vineet  

And I’m just going to ask you one last very quick question on this because we did want to come to this but time nahi bajaya. The colour science behind what you do, not just behind the film but behind the film photography. How much does the colour science impact how you look at it on a daily basis? 

Arpan Banerjee  

M’huh 

Arpan Banerjee  

Hmm. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Ummm 

See, in modern photography… 

We live in the age of filters. So even the very layman now knows that, yeah, there’s this color aspect to it. So right now, various color palettes are mostly used to evoke different sorts of emotions, to create moods, or to even establish a particular aesthetic in order to create a decision. So I particularly assess a photo. 

Vineet  

and 

Arpan Banerjee  

by its emotion, by its composition and by its tone. And then I decide what type of edit color, edit or color palette I will work on. So like, they’re like, for example, say analogous colors, analogous colors, so there’s this color wheel. Color wheel very simply explained is like a webgear pattern represented in a circle. So it goes violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and then again, violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red. 

So in this color wheel, all the colors which are adjacent to each other are called analogous colors. Say suppose all the warm colors, say red, orange, yellow. So these come close to each other, next to each other. So these are called analogous colors. And analogous colors are often used to… how to say it… used to invoke… 

Very particular, very simplistic form of emotions. Say suppose a sense of unity or a sense of warmth. Analogous color scheme goes well. Then there’s complementary colors. Complementary colors are mostly and cross- split complementary colors are mostly used in film, film cinematography, film edits. I personally am a huge fan of complementary colors. Complementary colors are colors which are 

directly opposite to the color field. 

Vineet 

Next to the one example I keep seeing online is like drive, which was very orange and teal, orange and teal. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Orange and teal is an example of complementary color. Blue and yellow, cyan and magenta, red and green, these are like the opposite color schemes and which are used in various aspects of filmmaking. And each of these color palettes invokes different moods in respect to the setting. 

Then there are like monochromatic color palettes. Mostly people think monochrome means like black and white or sepia. It’s not. Monochrome is basically when 

There’s this one particular color and then white. To be simply put, there’s white and there’s one particular color. So it could be black and white, it could be red and white, it could be green and white, it could be pink and white, it could be whatever. Sapia is basically a brownish red and white, basically. So these are like monochromatic color palettes. Monochromatic color palettes are mostly used for me when it’s… It can range like… 

Vineet 

Hmm. 

Arpan Banerjee  

It has a huge range for me. I think monochromatic color palettes have the biggest range. It can be subtle and it can be like very dramatic and very contrasty at the same time. And then there’s like triadic colors, triadic colors. I am like just getting into cryatic colors for the past four or five years. And I’ve seen particularly some fashion photographers use it. Some editorial photographers also use it and it looks really nice. 

outdoors, particularly I see outdoors or in indoors where you have the entire color scheme in your control and that light setting in your control. Triadic lights are three colors, which are like, you know, evenly spaced around. So if this is the wheel, so one will be here, one will be here and one will be here, like a triangle. So it’s evenly spaced out. So using three color signatures. 

I particularly like triadic colors because every photograph has, you can like divide one photographs in three parts. So one comes the shadows, then midtones, and then it’s highlights. Highlights are the all the brighter parts on the scene. Shadows are basically say my, this dress is, it will be considered shadows. And everything in between, like the skin of the color of the wall are part of the midtones. 

So assigning three different triadic color schemes to different like shadow, highlight and midtones, you get like crazy cool effects. And it comes down to practice, I guess, and personal taste mostly. Let’s go. 

Vineet  

I think so like when I play around in Lightroom, I didn’t understand that when I play around in Lightroom for my photos, I have tried to make a formula out of this, that this will work on this, I can’t. With every photo I am like, no, here it looks better. But I just feel I am not good enough to say why this looks better, it just looks better. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah, it just looks better. So I would not, you know, make any hard and fast rules over this colors and you have to do it otherwise you’re a farce. It’s not that man. Like I particularly have edited a lot of my photos, which doesn’t really follow any rules whatsoever, but it still looks good. It’s a quiet taste, I guess. And it’s a matter of choice and how you practice, how you practice. 

Vineet  

Yeah. 

Vineet  

Hmm. 

Arpan Banerjee  

comes down to practice and personal taste man because I have seen a lot of photographers who doesn’t give a crap about all these rules but still they perform brilliantly because I guess they have this aesthetic sense inside them and they have like experimented there is nothing better than experimenting with your work man and you will learn the most from that only 

Vineet  

Yeah, the human versus AI debate, I think that very be so we’re using a lot of AI, but we’re like very clearly the human has to be on top. The aesthetic sense, the aesthetic sense, the creative sense can only come from the human. The AI, the tech is there to support the human and make his life or her life easier. Very, very clearly. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Of course. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah man, I’m not gonna comment on AI because it has like, you know, it might make a fool out of me in a couple of years. 

Vineet  

Yeah, I somehow like and we use it a lot 

Arpan Banerjee  

I completely get your point and a lot of people think that it’s going to make them lose their job. I particularly think it’s just going to help us more in order to create our vision. These are all just tools and yeah, but the AI is a tool which has kind of its own conscience. So that’s where things have been. 

Vineet  

I’ll be there. 

Arpan Banerjee  

complicated. 

Vineet  

It’s a long debate in itself. So let’s, I think that’s a good point to end on. And Arpan, thank you so much. This has been an absolutely fantastic discussion. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Yeah man, it’s completely different. 

Arpan Banerjee  

Thanks, thanks, it was amazing talking to you. 

Vineet  

And thanks guys, thank you for tuning in and you can follow us on Spotify, YouTube, everywhere, you know how it works. Like, subscribe, share, whatever everyone is supposed to say to get more followers. See you guys next week. Bye bye. 

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