Green filter for B&W?

[David W. Richardson]

Way back in the Dark Ages when I was a still photographer and we shot stuff on actual film, I remember it was customary to shoot with a green filter when shooting B&W film, as it made the grey tones more accurately reflect the difference in hue between the various colors.

I'm planning to shoot a feature on the DVX100a that will be B&W when all is said and done. Anyone have a thought on whether or not a green filter would be helpful?

Thanks!

 

[rapsucks]

The nice thing is that you should be able to do all the filtering digitally and it should have the same effect. You can adjust the color filters ad infinitum until each shot looks the way you want.

The idea is that the green filter blocks reds and lets greens pass, which then when you completely desaturate, leaves the greens lighter and the reds darker.

 

[David W. Richardson]

True Joseph. While it can all be done digitally, it takes a lot more time to digitally tweak each shot in post. IF the filter accomplishes the same thing, then the effect is done during shooting, which should make post go faster. Right?

But I don't know if the filter works the same way on DV as it did back in the day on B&W film.

 

[The Engineer]

Yellow, not green. Will look funny in the VF, but gives nice results once you drop the colour.

 

[David W. Richardson]

Thanks. I'll give that a try.