Marcell Rev shoots Euphoria like a fever dream rendered in light. The signature look combines deep saturated neons — purples, magentas, electric blues — with a restless handheld camera. Rev uses colored practicals as primary light sources: LED strips, party lights, phone screens. Beneath the color extremes, contrast is handled with restraint — shadows are lifted, highlights soft, skin tones maintain detail even under the wildest gels.
Euphoria switches between three very different kinds of light, often within the same episode: saturated party colour, the flat glare of bathrooms and bedrooms, and soft golden sunlight for memories and rare calm moments. The emotional temperature of a scene decides the light, not realism — so pick your recipe by mood first.
Coloured practicals do the lighting — LED strips, string lights, phone screens. Faces are often split between two colours, and skin is allowed to turn violet or pink. Shadows stay open enough to keep make-up and glitter visible, so it feels lush rather than murky.
Recipe: Party Neon ↓Overhead fluorescent light, pale walls and close framing. Colour drains towards cool green-grey, contrast is plain and unflattering, and texture becomes more noticeable. These scenes are where the show feels most exposed.
Recipe: Bathroom Fluorescent ↓Low backlight, flares and warm haze around hair and shoulders. Colour softens into peach and honey, highlights glow, and the image loses some sharpness on purpose — it looks like how a good memory feels.
Recipe: Golden Hour Rue ↓Turning colour up on a normal photo won't make it look like Euphoria. The show's colour comes from coloured light sources placed in the scene, so different parts of a face or room glow in different hues. To get close, shoot where there already are coloured LEDs, neon or screens, or add a cheap RGB light yourself — then let the recipe handle the rest.
Euphoria's golden-hour scenes and party lights glow with soft, dreamy highlights. A black mist filter does in camera what no recipe can: it makes highlights bloom and softens contrast slightly, without washing out the blacks. A 1/4 strength is the safe starting point.
The size depends on your lens, not the camera body — pick it on the product page.
| XF 35mm f/2 R WR | 43mm |
| XF 23mm f/1.4 R LM WR | 58mm |
| XF 18mm f/1.4 R LM WR | 62mm |
| XF 56mm f/1.2 R WR | 67mm |
| XF 18-55mm / XF 16-50mm kit | 58mm |
| XF 16-80mm kit (X-T5) | 72mm |
| XC 15-45mm kit (X-S20) | 52mm |
| X100VI (with AR-X100 adapter) | 49mm |
X100VI: the lens has no filter thread, so you need the AR-X100 adapter ring first, then a 49mm filter. Several lenses? Buy one large filter (e.g. 67mm) plus a K&F Concept step-up ring set and use it on all of them.
The recipe handles colour and tone. These handle what a recipe can't.
No neon sign handy? A pocket RGB light becomes your coloured practical — wash a wall, a face or a mirror in magenta and the recipe does the rest.
Bounce low sun back into faces. The gold side adds the honeyed fill these warm recipes are built around.
Rent or stream it tonight, then pause on a frame and shoot it.
The disc carries far more image detail than a stream — worth it for a film you study.
Velvia/Vivid for the neon party scenes, because it holds strong purples and magentas without going muddy. Classic Neg suits the cooler, harsher indoor moments, and Nostalgic Neg gives the soft amber warmth of the golden-hour scenes.
Use coloured light: an RGB LED panel, LED strips or even a phone screen with a purple image. Place it to the side of the face so the other side falls into shadow, then shoot with the Party Neon recipe at a high ISO.
All settings work on current X-Trans V bodies such as the X-T5, X-S20, X-T50 and X100VI. Nostalgic Neg needs an X-Trans V camera (or the X-H2/X-H2S); on an X-T4, X-S10 or X100V, Classic Neg is the closest substitute. Every body renders slightly differently, so take a few test shots and adjust.
Marcell Rév was the main cinematographer. The second season was shot on Kodak Ektachrome film stock, which adds to its rich, slightly grainy colour.