Best path for quality Black & White
- Thread starter stzasan
- Start date
Justin Kuhn
Veteran
Pay more attention to highlights and shadows since B&W is pure contrast. Dramatic use of shadows is one of my favorite things about B&W, so that could be something you want to try for.
the big problem is if you shoot something red, and you get thoes chroma blockies. i have a B&W scenefile. here it is.
I like this. not everyone does.
deatil +3
Vdetial +7
Coring +7
Chroma level -7 ( this helps keep color blockieness and other Chroma artifacts under control)
chromaphase 0
Colortemp 0
MAster ped -9
Cine like D
Matrix nrom
Skin Detial off
Thin line frequency.
This scenefile kinda reminds me of B&W Kodak Tri X film. Contrasty, deep blacks. Also the Cinegamma D gives you knee protection, and in B&W its kinda ok to over expose a little. At least to my taste. This way, the knee lets the highlights roll off nice and clean. Although an HVX or a JVC HD100 would be better at this as they have FAR superior highlight handling.
If youre going for a softer more tonal B&W, bring the mster ped up to -3, and use Cinegamma, and Dont over expose at all. this will give you a nice flat image. and you can always crush the blacks, and over expose in post. gives you a bit more safety, but i think it smore fun to go gung ho and try to get that contrast in camera.
I like this. not everyone does.
deatil +3
Vdetial +7
Coring +7
Chroma level -7 ( this helps keep color blockieness and other Chroma artifacts under control)
chromaphase 0
Colortemp 0
MAster ped -9
Cine like D
Matrix nrom
Skin Detial off
Thin line frequency.
This scenefile kinda reminds me of B&W Kodak Tri X film. Contrasty, deep blacks. Also the Cinegamma D gives you knee protection, and in B&W its kinda ok to over expose a little. At least to my taste. This way, the knee lets the highlights roll off nice and clean. Although an HVX or a JVC HD100 would be better at this as they have FAR superior highlight handling.
If youre going for a softer more tonal B&W, bring the mster ped up to -3, and use Cinegamma, and Dont over expose at all. this will give you a nice flat image. and you can always crush the blacks, and over expose in post. gives you a bit more safety, but i think it smore fun to go gung ho and try to get that contrast in camera.
Yes, red is a difficult color if you are shooting DV. BW is a fun choice because you can play more creatively i think with lighting. You're no longer dealing with lighting to match chrominance levels or color saturation factors.
Lighting here will primarily effect the faces of the actors (key light) and any other lights to produce shadows or any other high contrast effects.
Good part is that you will be shooting video, so you have the luxury to being able to actually see the image that you are capturing in the frame. If you were shooting traditional BW film on say an old Arri 16BL, you would have to have some formal understanding to how to let a set for black & white output.
In addition, in your NLE when you are color correcting, you have the options of defining the look you want. I personally like shooting with a BW crunch look which i achieve by reducing the setup a bit, increasing contrast and increasing brightness a bit. You know that you have good crunch if you shoot outdoors and you are able to correct so that the blue sky appears dark grey, but the faces of the characters appear bright.
Lighting here will primarily effect the faces of the actors (key light) and any other lights to produce shadows or any other high contrast effects.
Good part is that you will be shooting video, so you have the luxury to being able to actually see the image that you are capturing in the frame. If you were shooting traditional BW film on say an old Arri 16BL, you would have to have some formal understanding to how to let a set for black & white output.
In addition, in your NLE when you are color correcting, you have the options of defining the look you want. I personally like shooting with a BW crunch look which i achieve by reducing the setup a bit, increasing contrast and increasing brightness a bit. You know that you have good crunch if you shoot outdoors and you are able to correct so that the blue sky appears dark grey, but the faces of the characters appear bright.
faultygoblin
Active member
I've had some luck with using sligthly different color temps, for backgrounds and layering the light up, in b&w it tends to build an illusion of space..
TimurCivan any chance you can post a still with that scene file?
I still have a lot of trouble with b&w outdoors, tried filming in a forest, and unless you have a lot of reflectors and flags and decent cloud cover, its hard to achieve pools of light or anything that gives visual variety to the scenery..
TimurCivan any chance you can post a still with that scene file?
I still have a lot of trouble with b&w outdoors, tried filming in a forest, and unless you have a lot of reflectors and flags and decent cloud cover, its hard to achieve pools of light or anything that gives visual variety to the scenery..
Ummm i can try, i dont have anyhitng interesting to shoot unfortunatly. It will be likea grab of me at my desk or something....
EA_Cru_2002
Active member
If you're shooting outdoors, especially in a forest, it's hard to shoot ANYTHING video out there, just because of the huge differences in light that can occur and video's limited latitude. The best bet is to find places where there isn't a huge difference in the amount of light in one shot.
But yeah, the biggest thing about B&W is that you have to kinda reprogram the way you think of the image. Lighting becomes even more important in B&W because you don't have color to help seperate the object from the background. Also, B&W is automatically one level removed from reality, just by the nature of it, hence you can (and should) do bolder things with your light such as playing with shadows and whatnot. What I find is that, compared to shooting in color, you can pump up the backlight a lot more if you're going for a stronger, punchier image, which I usually am if I'm shooting black and white.
You also have to start thinking in difference in gray tonalities rather than color. One thing that might help while shooting is the buy an external monitor (can be LCD if you need it portable. You can attatch it to the top of the camera) that has COLOR control and turn it down so you get a black and white image on the LCD. It won't be exactly what you'll be getting since you could crush the image more but it'll at least give you a rough guide.
But the positive side of this is that you DON'T have to think about color that much, other than "how is this color gonna show up in B&W?" This can add a lot to production design because having no color is preferable to having a color scheme which doesn't match the intent of the story. For instance I'm currently shooting a film inside a convenience store. The store itself is rather gaudy and very "modern" looking. But I shoot black and white and it fits the "crime story" feel a lot better.
But yeah, the biggest thing about B&W is that you have to kinda reprogram the way you think of the image. Lighting becomes even more important in B&W because you don't have color to help seperate the object from the background. Also, B&W is automatically one level removed from reality, just by the nature of it, hence you can (and should) do bolder things with your light such as playing with shadows and whatnot. What I find is that, compared to shooting in color, you can pump up the backlight a lot more if you're going for a stronger, punchier image, which I usually am if I'm shooting black and white.
You also have to start thinking in difference in gray tonalities rather than color. One thing that might help while shooting is the buy an external monitor (can be LCD if you need it portable. You can attatch it to the top of the camera) that has COLOR control and turn it down so you get a black and white image on the LCD. It won't be exactly what you'll be getting since you could crush the image more but it'll at least give you a rough guide.
But the positive side of this is that you DON'T have to think about color that much, other than "how is this color gonna show up in B&W?" This can add a lot to production design because having no color is preferable to having a color scheme which doesn't match the intent of the story. For instance I'm currently shooting a film inside a convenience store. The store itself is rather gaudy and very "modern" looking. But I shoot black and white and it fits the "crime story" feel a lot better.