best way of B/W shooting

G

Garinion

Active member
I'm thinking to shoot my movie in Black & White - I will have HVX200 connected to a laptop with Adobe OnLocation and three 800Watt Quartz lights and I want some tips for that...For example is better to shoot it in color and change it on post production or set the camera to shoot B&W ?


Thanks !!
 
....For example is better to shoot it in color and change it on post production ....
This would be very practical and safe .
 
Garinion said:
I'm thinking to shoot my movie in Black & White - I will have HVX200 connected to a laptop with Adobe OnLocation and three 800Watt Quartz lights and I want some tips for that...For example is better to shoot it in color and change it on post production or set the camera to shoot B&W ?


Thanks !!
Click to expand...

I would suggest shooting in the 'native' color mode, then postprocessing the results to B/W. I follow the principle of deferring such decisions to the last moment, especially in regard to capture methods which can not be 'undone'...

In addition, with such a deferal, one can select what type of 'black and white', i.e. what color cast, warm, cold, whatever... and who knows, even use the color info for a differential effect, like map 'greens' to a brighter black and white value to give the result a pseudo infra-red, or whatever...
 
If your not experienced with the zone system in B/W photography, I would recommend changing the PREVIEW output on your camera to B/W. This way you are monitoring in your final format, while still shooting native in color.
 
Black and White is a very delicate art and many people consider it more difficult to shoot than color.

The big thing I can recommend is to watch your highlights very carefully. Keep your eye on the waveform monitor (or some zebra stripes set to 90) and make sure nothing blows out. Nothing looks worse in black and white than blown out highlights. If you have any white clothing items... tech them down by soaking them in a water bath with some tea in it... it will darken enough so it won't blow out easily.
 
Re filters, is there any case for using filters (other than haze, IR, or polarizer) vs. modifying in post? Would any particular camera settings be beneficial when trying to achieve an orthochromatic film look vs. modifying in post?
 
This was shot with modified user settings... on an HD100.
1166030899.jpg
 
J Michael said:
Re filters, is there any case for using filters (other than haze, IR, or polarizer) vs. modifying in post? Would any particular camera settings be beneficial when trying to achieve an orthochromatic film look vs. modifying in post?
Click to expand...

UV filter... to protect your lense..

For me, given the possibilities of postprocessing, as I recommend above, capture as much in the original shot as possible, and as 'neutral' as possible.

In the Film world, there is a difference in film stock, for me Kodak tends to 'bluish', Fuji tends to 'greanish'. (Agfa... does anyone use Agfa for anything...). I personally like the human skin tones of Fuji that has given 'normal' development processing... but in any case, the stock sort of sets the basic starting point. The next thing about film is the grain structure. And again, there are differences from the manufacturers.

Enter digital... Digital camera makers also have their 'profiles', and so one as these basic starting points. Personally I have yet to see a CCD array 'digital noise' that I like... it ends up being big pixelated bloches, and not the fine grained effect of film...

If a filter is used during capture, one really has to make sure that it is worth it, that whatever the filter's effect is, one is willing to live with it. This is sort of 'white balancing' against different color cast 'whites', like balance to a bluish (or yellowish) white to give a cast to the result.

I can see a event videographer wanting to do something like this to avoid having to fiddle in post to get an effect. For a filmmaker who is creating works under the heading of 'art', unless there is a very specific reason, I see most things being done in post. (Obviously the ones mentioned, to capture 'real' near infra-red... or something like that... or remove mitigate specular highlights using a polarizing filter, cut down on light with ND filters... things that really can not be done in post... boost gain to compensate for low light...)

Speaking of low light, note that with some filters, the result may cut the brightness down, and one could loose a stop's worth... May not be a problem for brightly lit scenes, but just something to remember...
 
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