I'm going to be shooting a project that needs to look like Black and White film in post. I'm trying to figure out whether a C100 or C300 will do. At first, when I read google searches, I thought it must be that 8 bit color when converted to shades of grey produces only 256 shades of grey on a grayscale. But then I read other articles that suggest it can produce much more shades of "grey" if kept in sRGB color space. I'm technical but not THAT technical and I'm confused. Anyone here know what I'm trying to do? Basically, I want to keep as much tonal information as possible, but it has to LOOK black and white. Do I have to shoot in 10 bit or 12 bit color in order to produce more than 256 black to white tonal values/steps? I thought I would post it here in the C100/C300 forum because I'm considering shooting it on the C100 due to its super light weight and light sensitivity.
C100: 8 bit color produces how many Shades of Grey?
- Thread starter Doctor Wu
- Start date
Matt Turner
Well-known member
Interesting question! Grey has no colour, so therefore R == G == B, and if there's only 8 bits to use then it would have to be 256 levels. Canon Log might distribute them differently but there surely can't ever be more than 256 distinct levels (including pure black or pure white). ???
You might be right Matt, I don't really know for sure. Here's an interesting article on converting 8 bit color to get 10 bit greyscale:
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/16_bit_black_and_white.html
However, we'll be grading images in Resolve where it will be kept in the sRGB color space and not converted to photoshop greyscale. Will 8 bit color, desaturated to remove chroma information, result in greater than 256 distinct black to white tonal values? This feature film is imminent, so I'd like to know a technical answer. My gut says yes, my eyes aren't fooling me, I do see more than 256 tonal steps when I desaturate the image from my nikon D810. But my display is only 8 bit too... so... ???
If converting 8 bit color to 16 bit color, in the case of working in sRGB results in a kind of dithering and averaging of the color values for gray scale... might it also not benefit the moving image workflow in programs like Resolve or After Effects that end up in Black and White (no chroma information)?
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/16_bit_black_and_white.html
However, we'll be grading images in Resolve where it will be kept in the sRGB color space and not converted to photoshop greyscale. Will 8 bit color, desaturated to remove chroma information, result in greater than 256 distinct black to white tonal values? This feature film is imminent, so I'd like to know a technical answer. My gut says yes, my eyes aren't fooling me, I do see more than 256 tonal steps when I desaturate the image from my nikon D810. But my display is only 8 bit too... so... ???
If converting 8 bit color to 16 bit color, in the case of working in sRGB results in a kind of dithering and averaging of the color values for gray scale... might it also not benefit the moving image workflow in programs like Resolve or After Effects that end up in Black and White (no chroma information)?
Last edited:
DPStewart
Veteran
Oh you're bad!
indiawilds
Veteran
I did a CEO's short message. It was 45 seconds or so. He wanted it in black and white. So I shot in C300 in c-log and converted in post. The client was pleased.
A bit of unwanted suggestion here. Shooting in black and white is different from colour. You need to design your frames with the bright highlights and shadows to lead the eye into the required portion of the frame. My personal favourite films for study are Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, High and Low...
Even though you would shoot in black and white the clothes would be in colour. So selecting costumes on the basis of tonalities will be of help.
A bit of unwanted suggestion here. Shooting in black and white is different from colour. You need to design your frames with the bright highlights and shadows to lead the eye into the required portion of the frame. My personal favourite films for study are Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, High and Low...
Even though you would shoot in black and white the clothes would be in colour. So selecting costumes on the basis of tonalities will be of help.