black and white in camera or post?

shiny4

shiny4

Well-known member
hi,
i have to shoot a video in black and white with canon 5d.
do you suggest me to use monochrome picture style or shoot in color and then desaturate in post?
what is better in compression,noise and image quality?
in normal life is better shoot in color ,but with canon?
i have read that shane hurlbut suggest to shoot using monochrome.
what is your opinion and experience?
thanks
 
I would never ever shoot in monochrome. Why throw away your colour information right from the start? What if you, for whatever reason, suddenly decide it would have looked better in colour?
I see this like going out on a cold day without enough layers of clothes. Better to be able to take layers off than not have any layers to put on.
 
Also, shooting in color will give you different options for how you make your footage black and white by being able to manipulate the r/g/b channels in post.

BUT: You should preview on set in BW for certain. Things like set design and costuming need to be altered most times to have a nice balance of grayscale throughout the image.
 
William_Robinette said:
Also, shooting in color will give you different options for how you make your footage black and white by being able to manipulate the r/g/b channels in post.

BUT: You should preview on set in BW for certain. Things like set design and costuming need to be altered most times to have a nice balance of grayscale throughout the image.
Click to expand...

Excellent reply, forgot about that one. Also I have never shot in monochrome mode because I personally like to play with the colors. So I can go from black and white to any other extreme I want
 
shiny4 said:
hi,
i have to shoot a video in black and white with canon 5d.
do you suggest me to use monochrome picture style or shoot in color and then desaturate in post?
what is better in compression,noise and image quality?
in normal life is better shoot in color ,but with canon?
i have read that shane hurlbut suggest to shoot using monochrome.
what is your opinion and experience?
thanks
Click to expand...

I would suggest to shoot in in black and white. As a filmmaker you should be sure of your creative integrity. You planned it this way. You wanted it this way. It would also be easier on the set to have seen everything on the screen in black and white (granted, you could set your field monitor to b/w but that's not the point), and it'd be less work in post and overall too.
 
Lammy said:
I would suggest to shoot in in black and white. As a filmmaker you should be sure of your creative integrity. You planned it this way. You wanted it this way. It would also be easier on the set to have seen everything on the screen in black and white (granted, you could set your field monitor to b/w but that's not the point), and it'd be less work in post and overall too.
Click to expand...

By your argument then we shouldn't shoot raw. I understand your point, but disagree.

We're not talking about film here where there is a distinct difference to lighting and shooting on B&W stock versus color. If he intends to use black and white, he can shoot for it on set. But there's nothing wrong with having that color information for post or unforeseen uses down the road.
 
handsome pete said:
If he intends to use black and white, he can shoot for it on set. But there's nothing wrong with having that color information for post or unforeseen uses down the road.
Click to expand...

This is the important part. Even if you are shooting in color, monitoring in black and white is crucial. Not only from a set/costume standpoint but from lighting as well. Good B&W photography isn't just taking the color out of an image, it is balancing luminosity.
 
handsome pete said:
By your argument then we shouldn't shoot raw. I understand your point, but disagree.
Click to expand...

No, that would not contradict my argument. I would shoot Raw (always in my photos and videos in B/W too) as it offers many opportunities for exposures, clarity, and grain control - not necessarally just chroma information.

If you intend to shoot colour to be "on the safe side", then make sure you have a lil expensive field monitor set to B/W. But if you can't afford one, personally I'd just shoot in B/W. You'd be wasting alot of time trying to set the right white balance and colour lighting/makeup which otherwise could be spent concentrating on your composition and creative lighting otherwise...

Also, I'm not sure on this, but doesn't it strain the codec less when it only has to compress B/W?
 
William_Robinette said:
This is the important part. Even if you are shooting in color, monitoring in black and white is crucial. Not only from a set/costume standpoint but from lighting as well. Good B&W photography isn't just taking the color out of an image, it is balancing luminosity.
Click to expand...

That's the point I was going to make :)

I don't know what your project is... but it's easier to do all those things in BW. (lighting, set design, and wardrobe)... which may help the project go smooth and fast... unless you find the BW unsettling or distracting in comparison to what you're used to seeing.

One of my sharpest cameras is an old BW machine-vision cam that I set up for standard use... it's a joy to light for it.
 
In camera will lend you the best results (or have a B&W monitor). My composition of a color image is not the same as my composition for greyscale.
 
the way i see it is:
- if you have to ask this question, it will be safer to do it in post.
 
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