Shooting for Black-and-White

Macphilia

Macphilia

Well-known member
Dear Forum Members,
I'll be shooting a short later this month and would like to finish the project in B&W, which will be done in post (actual method to be determined). I will be using a 100A with a B&W monitor and editing in FCP5.
Thus, any suggestions as to the best camera settings, especially color settings, for a B&W finish? Also, if anyone has suggestions as to a method of converting color to B&W in post (i.e., FCP5), that would be great!
Thanks so much,
CB
 
You can easily make your whole project B&W either in Color Correction where you DESATURATE everything or go into your Effects then select Filters and add a TINT to your clips. What I would like to know is how to make B&W have that glossy look. There are a bunch of music videos out that have that B&W look. Im sure shooting on film accounts to much of that look.
 
i've also heard of people shooting w/ a red filter cause it enhances contrast if u're gonna convert to b&w
 
Red Filter....

Red Filter....

That makes a lot of sense, coming from a still photography background. Red filters are often used with infrared film to beef up the contrast.
I'll definitely test that out.
 
Yeah, when I shoot b&w, I always go for a bit of a higher contrast than when shooting color. Burn up your key and back light, and lower your fill... it'll help with a "stylistic" black and white.

As far as just desaturating in FCP, you'll get a washed out, uninteresting black and white. I don't recommend it. There's a LOT that in be done in post to achieve a bad@ass black and white. Magic Bullet's preset is actually pretty good, but I'd still recommend playing around with levels, the color corrector 3-way, and so on...

-brown
 
Macphilia said:
That makes a lot of sense, coming from a still photography background. Red filters are often used with infrared film to beef up the contrast.
I'll definitely test that out.
Click to expand...
I've heard that that is not a good idea with Mini-DV, because red is problematic when it comes to color compression.
 
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