I have shot on Kodak (B&W) Tri-X Reversal film before and some of my footage turned out with very little contrast and the blacks looked more like dark greys. The whites also looked a bit "dirty"/grey. I used automatic exposure control on a Canon 814.
I am planning too shoot a music video using the same stock in the near future and I want sharper contrast and blacks that are black. Does anyone have any tips on how to acheive this? Lighting techniques that help? What filters to use? Many shots will be done in studio with a white background and we will be using a Canon 1014.
the key to getting nice contrast in black and white i separation. in color photography elements are separated by their color, but not so in black and white, which means a too well lit frame will often look just gray. use more directional lighting, backlight, hairlight, gradients on backgrounds, light to a higher contrast, and you'll get the punch you're after. you don't have to work very hard to achieve this with tri-x, just avoid flat lighting, even if the scene itself is contrasty.
the filter mentioned is probably a yellow/orange/red filter or a polarizer, but those only increase the contrast outdoors, by darkening skies and shadows and cutting through haze.
Thanx for that. I will probably use a yellow or orange filter. I am planning to do a telecine transfer myself, by projecting the film and recording the image with a decent digital camera. I have bad experiences with letting other people do that for me. Guess I can adjust contrast in post as well.
Jørgen wrote:I am planning to do a telecine transfer myself, by projecting the film and recording the image with a decent digital camera. I have bad experiences with letting other people do that for me.
we all have. you can trust andreas though. i haven't used his services myself but the results i've seen look great. otherwise you'll risk have a bad experience letting yourself do it for you. :-) it's far from easy if you expect decent results.
Jørgen wrote:I have shot on Kodak (B&W) Tri-X Reversal film before and some of my footage turned out with very little contrast and the blacks looked more like dark greys. The whites also looked a bit "dirty"/grey. I used automatic exposure control on a Canon 814.
too flat lighting (like a lot of indirectional light) could indeed be the problem, but if there is no black nor white anywhere on the whole roll it is also possible that the processing is to blame. if you're going to telecine the footage anyway the contrast can be readjusted with no problem... but you cant make up for poor lighting in post
I would just like to add that a home DIY telecine with a projector and a camera will most likely give you greyish images. You don't have much controll of black and white levels which are crucial to achive a great looking and punching film.
Andreas Wideroe
Filmshooting | Com - Administrator
awand wrote:I would just like to add that a home DIY telecine with a projector and a camera will most likely give you greyish images.
hmm.. interesting, i always had the opposite problem, ie the contrast range of the camera was too small to handle a projected image, usually resulting in burnt out highlights and/or completely solid shadows (or often both).
i sometimes turned on small roomlight on to lower the contrast and get a bit more shadow detail.
you actually get both problems. the contrast is too high, so for with an "inbetween exposure" you get clipping at both ends, but the problem is the difference in gamma which makes the video image too dark, and if you increase your exposure so that the midtones look right, you get milky blacks.
