Master Ped -6?

L

Ldogg

Active member
I'm working on a documentary very soon, that we have already budgeted to have blown up to film. The film recomendations I am following call for the master peds to be brought down to negative 6 (to really crush the blacks).

The problem is that the main character is a very dark skinned African American. When I crush the blacks so hard his face becomes very hard to distinguish. The situation is so run and gun that we rarely have much time for intricate light set ups to combat this, and mostly rely on camera mounted sun guns. The guns help but...

My question is how crucial is crushing the blacks to blow to film. I don't really understand the process, and was wondering if just taking it to negative 3 or 2 (as opposed to -6) would be acceptable in the long run. The bump up certainly makes a little difference on the moniter. If the answer is yes....Then how high could I technically go.

The final product/look is very important to me, but at the loss of the face of the main character I really need help on creating some form of a compromise. Thanks.
 
You don't want to "crush blacks" in camera at all, if you're concerned about preserving image data. Crushing them means forcing more detail to disappear than otherwise would. It makes for a stark high-contrast look that many of us find quite appealing, but if you need to preserve information in the dark areas of the frame, you certainly don't want to go crushing the dark sections down.

With that said, -6 doesn't really crush anything, it still allows the camera to see full gradation of brightness in the dark scale. However, you may find it easier to discern detail if you raise the master pedestal up from that level (remember, you can go all the way to +15). I find 0 to be a little "gray", -6 seems to be spot-on, and when I want the "crushed blacks" look, I go to -10. -15 is a bit extreme. +15 just makes everything look really washed out.

I'd say you should do some tests on a PROPERLY CALIBRATED production monitor, and see what you're getting. If worse comes to worst, err on the side of caution (i.e., set it at zero) because you can always crush down in post, but if you do lose detail when shooting (crushed to black) you can never get that back in post.
 
Thanks so much Barry. I thought that was one of the things you couldn't do in post...but now that you say.... I think that I will certainly leave it at zero as my friends face is so much more visible.

Would you say I could even go a little higher if need be, and still have the peace of mind to know I can get closer to the full graduation of brightness in post.

As I said before. My main concern is being able to see the subjects face, being that this is a documentary. I am not as much concerned about perfection of the dark scale. Thanks.
 
Many behind the scenes in 35mm movies, we see "deleted scenes", original footage very washed but lot of latittude there.... after post image is another history. Barry gave you the correct advice, get as much image info as you can, remove it in post as necessary :)

Ulisses
 
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