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Shooting B&W vs Colour
- Thread starter srbclarke
- Start date
Usually i advocate in-camera cinematography but with DSLR's it can be trciky. With the 5D, i would recommend shooting in colour and converting to BW in post.
This assumes you want to retain utmost control in how your BW footage looks.
This assumes you want to retain utmost control in how your BW footage looks.
I always shoot color (pictures and video) and convert to black and white con my computer.
There's no point in doing it the other way, since you loose all control over the look of the image.
You'll end up with a grayscale video looking more like an old videocam viewfinder, than a black and white film.
There's no point in doing it the other way, since you loose all control over the look of the image.
You'll end up with a grayscale video looking more like an old videocam viewfinder, than a black and white film.
I just finished watching "Good Night and Good Luck". Holy crap, I love the cinematography in that movie. I'm far from being a DP, and I'm totally guessing here, but I have to think that they shot it in B/W.
I used to be on the side that says you should always shoot in color, and do B/W in post. But what I wasn't considering was the implications that that has on lighting. The beautiful low-key lighting in "Good Night and Good Luck" surely must've been influenced by the fact that it was to be B/W, no? Wouldn't the method of shooting heavily dictate the lighting choices?
Ernest, I'm curious why you say it's tricky with DSLR. You know way more about that subject than I -- could you expand on that?
I used to be on the side that says you should always shoot in color, and do B/W in post. But what I wasn't considering was the implications that that has on lighting. The beautiful low-key lighting in "Good Night and Good Luck" surely must've been influenced by the fact that it was to be B/W, no? Wouldn't the method of shooting heavily dictate the lighting choices?
Ernest, I'm curious why you say it's tricky with DSLR. You know way more about that subject than I -- could you expand on that?
Hope this helps.
I did a movie in 2004 that went to the AFM for distribution. I was told by the agent who represented my film, that it needed to be completely in color (and would have helped if I had used a better format than DVcam to shoot in). The story was about a film-maker and the horror/science-fiction movie he was making. The Haunted Movie was a very complex story structure I tried to make easier to follow by using B & W and color, etc.. The movie-part was B & W, given a film-look and letter boxed, the 'real' portion of the movie was done in color, full screen with a high-end DVcam look.
I changed the black and white later to color -- I could because it was all shot in color to begin with. Film look and letter boxing are also processes that can be done in Post. Shoot in color. Manipulate as you wish in Post, or else you are stuck with what original footage you have.
Archive everything. I am guilty of having gone back and re-edited that movie several times, (last time I did a complete re-edit was in 2010). Still wondering where I went wrong. Oh well. Hope this helps.
Do it in color.
I did a movie in 2004 that went to the AFM for distribution. I was told by the agent who represented my film, that it needed to be completely in color (and would have helped if I had used a better format than DVcam to shoot in). The story was about a film-maker and the horror/science-fiction movie he was making. The Haunted Movie was a very complex story structure I tried to make easier to follow by using B & W and color, etc.. The movie-part was B & W, given a film-look and letter boxed, the 'real' portion of the movie was done in color, full screen with a high-end DVcam look.
I changed the black and white later to color -- I could because it was all shot in color to begin with. Film look and letter boxing are also processes that can be done in Post. Shoot in color. Manipulate as you wish in Post, or else you are stuck with what original footage you have.
Archive everything. I am guilty of having gone back and re-edited that movie several times, (last time I did a complete re-edit was in 2010). Still wondering where I went wrong. Oh well. Hope this helps.
Do it in color.
+1 Shoot in color.
With the right black and white filter in post, you get the ultimate control of the image. In After Effects there's one that lets you adjust the brightness/darkness of each color. Really helps to make skin tones pop and random bg disappear, etc..
With the right black and white filter in post, you get the ultimate control of the image. In After Effects there's one that lets you adjust the brightness/darkness of each color. Really helps to make skin tones pop and random bg disappear, etc..
Shoot in color, but monitor in B&W. That allows you to gear your lighting towards the B&W, but retains the color raw footage that gives you more to work with. That's what I did.
At some point, when I have nothing better to do, I'm going to go back and do a new cut of my first film Beyond the Wall of Sleep in color.
At some point, when I have nothing better to do, I'm going to go back and do a new cut of my first film Beyond the Wall of Sleep in color.
oh, thats good!
Speaking of which.. can you monitor in B&W on t2i lcd screen? Need to bust out my manual..
If not, rig up a an external of some kind, even if a cheap one.
According to IMDb it was shot on color stock. Surprised the hell out of me.
I dont know about that but here's my 2 cents:
I usually say that you should get as close as to the look as you want in camera so you just have to tweak in post. It's tricky with DSLR's since they can be quite limited in certain cases, filming with a black and white preset being one of them. In this case, you're actually going to get closer to the look you want in post with much better software than letting the body do that for you.
The only way to shoot 'black and white' on a digital camera is to desaturate the image. This looks like crap because all you've done is remove the color information, which is not the way b&w film works. An example - on most b&w stocks red renders very dark, but if you just desaturate a color image it turns into a middle gray. To me it looks muddy rather than contrasty.
Retain the color information and do the conversion in post.
Heres a link to some frame grabs from a short I shot on our Red camera. I color corrected in Apple Color using a custom FX setup (to get the highlight glow, the diffusion, etc). I wish I thought to shoot a Macbeth Color Checker on the set, but this to me got very close to what I would see from Plus-X.
"Web of Lies" stills on Flickr
I can post (or send) my Color setup, if you're using that app for grading.
Retain the color information and do the conversion in post.
Heres a link to some frame grabs from a short I shot on our Red camera. I color corrected in Apple Color using a custom FX setup (to get the highlight glow, the diffusion, etc). I wish I thought to shoot a Macbeth Color Checker on the set, but this to me got very close to what I would see from Plus-X.
"Web of Lies" stills on Flickr
I can post (or send) my Color setup, if you're using that app for grading.
Wow, that is surprising, about "Good Night and Good Luck". However they did it, it looks awesome!
Ernest, that makes sense, about the DSLRs. Thanks.
Ernest, that makes sense, about the DSLRs. Thanks.
Random thought: I always think it's a shame when someone absolutely refuses to watch anything black and white. Everyone's entitled to their tastes, but it's hard for me to shake the notion that they're missing out.
Sounds like you made a good call though. Best of luck!
Sounds like you made a good call though. Best of luck!
My son (18) wouldn't when he was younger, but he's coming around.
Haha, I admit, when I was younger I avoided B&W stuff. After my Dad making me sit down and watch Casablanca my opinion changed.
Sadly, many of my friends won't bother with B&W either.
Sadly, many of my friends won't bother with B&W either.
I've never understood the anti-b&w sentiments of some people, nor anti-subtitle, sometimes from the same people. Though to be fair, one of my formative experiences was catching M on the local PBS station when I was in middle school. Absolutely blew my mind.
But, on the other side of the coin, if I generally don't like country music, I won't be likely to sit down with a new album, even though I know there is country music I like. Doubly so if I don't have a lot of free time; I'd rather watch/listen to something that is closer to my general taste. (in the back of my mind, to quote They Might Be Giants "if you only hear one album this year...there's something horribly wrong with you")
But, on the other side of the coin, if I generally don't like country music, I won't be likely to sit down with a new album, even though I know there is country music I like. Doubly so if I don't have a lot of free time; I'd rather watch/listen to something that is closer to my general taste. (in the back of my mind, to quote They Might Be Giants "if you only hear one album this year...there's something horribly wrong with you")