BW workflow

[Charles_Boileau]

Hi,

I recently shot a BW movie with the Red. I've been trying to get some info/accounts from people who have done the same, but it seems to be a rare discussion on the forum.

So what we did so far was just to desaturate the proxies in order to have decent BW preview during the shoot. We used no filtration in order to keep all the colors intact and have the most latitude with our post work. When I ran the clips thru Red Rushes in BW for the offline edit.

Specs
4K anamorphic
Lomo lenses
23.98
Redcode 36

I just read the most recent AC and Anthony Dod Mantle mentions that they had a hard time getting the Red footage from Antichrist to look good in BW.

So I was just wondering if anybody could share they own magic potion to achieve a nice looking BW.

For my still work I use several different avenues in Photoshop. Is there more than one way in AE? Any suggestions welcomed.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Working on a BW project myself these days...

I think (for now) that it|s most differently in the lighting...

But I haven't started post yet.

Cool with ideas here.

I've actually been considering using only one channel as the main source, but haven't experimented extensively with it yet.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Lighting for B&W is all about contrast and little to do with color. It's not so much about achieving the contrast range you want, but using the light to paint all the shades in between. Oh, wait... That's just about lighting in general. Any monkey can shine a light on something and make it bright compared to something else dark in the same room.

You won't want to limit one channel as your main source. Every surface in our world reflects light differently, in different wavelengths. If you limit yourself to only using green, for example, then suddenly a red fire truck is black.

On the other hand, this is why certain color filters, primarily red and to some extent, yellow, have been popular over the years with B&W photographers. To alter the way certain types of light are received by the camera.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Thanks Jeff! -

I've just been playing around a bit with the files, and seen that that (particullarily the red and blue channels) could be nice. Well, for quite different uses, that is.

So lighting is about creating contrasts and shadows?

Gee!:yikes:

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

So lighting is about creating contrasts and shadows?

Gee!:yikes:

Yeah, I was being a smart-ass. Joke failed.

One thing that is cool about black and white is that you don't have to preserve chroma info (obviously), so you can push and pull each RGB channel more so or in different directions than you would for a color grade. I love working with B&W, it never seems to go out of style.

 

[Dan Hudgins]

Matrix

Matrix

If you shoot with the sensor off white balance then matrix the three colors and matrix out all the chroma, you can get a sort of HDR monochrome image.

To do that try setting the camera at 5500K and then shoot in daylight with a 80B filter and under tungsten with 2x80B.

You need to OVER expose the blue, and under expose the red, so that the red will hold the highlight details and the blue the shadow details.

In my CC there is a 9 adjustment chroma matrix, you can adjust the curves on the inputs before that to give a S curve so that the cliping does not show, then blend the colors to get a longer scale.

Also the chroma matrix can adjust for more red than green and blue for a "super panchromatic" look like in the 1930's, or more green than red for an "ortho" look like in the 1910's etc.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

I really like BW photography and even though I am not THAT old really, my introduction to film was through my dads love for Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel & Hardy and lots of other BW stuff.

It has made some impression on me, I can confirm, some 35 years later...

And for stills. Not all of course, but I really love monochrome.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Thanks Dan!

Things to play with!