SHOOTING FOR BLACK & WHITE

by Lew Fraga

PRE-PRODUCTION:

Though a bit more preparation is needed, shooting for black & white is actually about the same as for color. It takes a bit more thought beforehand in selection of costumes, makeup, color selection for your sets, and lighting schemes, but it is easy to grasp when you put what is needed into perspective.

Think in terms of "light vs. dark" instead of "vibrant vs. dull".

You no longer have colors defining edges, and seperating your actors from the set, or from foreground to background. All different "colors" may have the same grey density when photographed - or so close it is hard to determine where one ends and the other begins.

Take a look at "Example01" and see the variations of color throughout the image. Some are vibrant, some are dull. There are blues, reds, yellows, greens, skin tone, etc.

Example01

Now take a look at "Example02" which is merely "Desaturated". In Photoshop, a comparison of what was the "yellow" rabbit's head (grey levels sampled @ 107) is almost exactly the same color as the green frog under the baby's head (grey levels sampled @ 102). The rabbit's "yellow" tummy area (grey levels sampled @ 129) is almost exactly the same as the "red" border at the top of the mat (grey levels sampled @ 130). I realize this is getting pretty technical, but hopefully it illustrates that different colors, and different amounts of light on said colors, can produce exactly the same shades of grey.

Example02
COLORS:

How can you prepare for this? Try only picking from "dull" colors, whether it is makeup choices, fabrics for clothing and set pieces, etc. It is much easier to realize which color is darker or lighter when you are not throwing something "neon" colored in the mix of things (which will simply result in a version of "light" grey).

If you are still not sure if what you picked will seperate one thing from another, grab a digital camera, light them as you will for the production, take a few shots, load them into Photoshop (or your image editing app of choice) and convert it to black & white (In Photoshop it is Image > Adjustments > Desaturate). This is not a 100% accurate portrayal of what you will get from your video camera or from your color film footage you will convert to black & white in your NLE (different manufacturers have different sensors that react different to light and color, as well as different film emulsions from Kodak and Fuji), but it will give you a solid foundation to prep for the real shoot.

THE "WHITE SHIRT" NEWS INTERVIEW LAW:

Just like shooting for color video, try not to use the actual color "white" for clothing or cloth on set like curtains, as it will tend to blow out when lit. Ever wonder why almost no one wears white shirts on the news, but there are truckloads of "light blue" shirts instead? Now you know why. If you choose something with a little density (think manilla and cream colors), then you will have a better chance of seeing texture and folds in the fabric. This is not a problem for film (as properly exposed film captures a LOT of detail in higlight areas), but for video it turns into a tricky situation very fast.

FOR YOU HORROR MOVIE FANATICS:

Do not use red blood - it just shows up as a dull grey. Use good old Hershey's Chocolate Syrup! It shows up as a rich dark shiny fluid, and your cast will love you - especially if they have to put it in their mouth! However, beware the actors that want to do multiple takes because they "felt they didn't capture the milieu." You will surely run out of chocolate syrup in no time flat, and need to run out and get another bottle.

LIGHTING:

Now that you have gotten your colors seperated between "these are darker" and "these are lighter" you need to take into consideration your lighting. Luckily, if you are absolutely certain you are going to change the footage to black & white, you do NOT have to worry about the color of your lights.

(those with experience in lighting can skip this paragraph)

Major Photography Note: When I say "color" of your lights, there is a distinction between "daylight" and "tungsten/quartz lighting equipment. Ever take a color picture indoors and the flash didn't go off? It was a nasty yellowish orange, right? Daylight film (which is all film, unless specially marked) sees the sun (blue light - around 5,500 degrees kelvin) as white. Indoor film ("tungsten balanced" orange light - 3,200 degrees kelvin) sees quartz lights and tungsten (desk lamps - though more expensive on the professional end) as white light. If you used tungsten film outdoors, or with a flash, it would have come out blue - MANY a cinematographer has used this backwards equation to their advantage when playing with color film! When using daylight film/settings, you need daylight balanced lights. When shooting indoors with tungsten balance film, or tungsten settings for video, use quartz lighting. When your footage/shots are going to be converted to black and white - none of it really matters much! As long as the light is brighter than the ambient light in the room/outside, it will be effective.

Since your footage will be black & white, you (again) do not have color to seperate your subject(s). Take a look at "Light01" and you will see a dull day where at least the colors can distinguish what is what. Convert the shot to black & white (Light02) and you will see there is not that much to seperate the subject from the background. If ONLY ONWE LIGHT is shined from behind the subject at an angle (Light03) then all of a sudden she pops out from the background. I realize that these are not perfect examples, but the idea should clearly be conveyed.

Light01

Light02

Light03

You must use lighting to enrich your images, whether color or black & white, but with the latter you must use lighting a bit more extensively for seperation. Look back at old movies where 3-point lighting was king. There's a frontal light (the "Key" light) slightly to the side that properly illuminates our subject, a light far to the other side (the "Fill" light) which illuminates shadows of our subject, and a usually hard light behind them ("Rim" or "Kicker" light) that is used only for seperation between them and the background. Effective lighting, but not truly realistic.

While modern lighting tends to be more natural, that rear light is still used in almost every movie, especialy if it is going to be black & white, to "pop" subjects from the background. Watch some of your favorite movies, and there it is - been there the whole time and you never thought of it until now because that is what we are accustomed to seeing in photography and movies. If it is subtle, it is subliminal, almost non-existant - but if that same shot did not have that back light it would take on a completely different characteristic. It would look "dull" for some reason you cannot put your finger on, even if adding that back light is intellectually "unrealistic".

POST PRODUCTION: There is a benefit to shooting for black & white when you get the footage into your NLE of choice - you don't have to spend as much time color-matching for footage! Once converted to black & white, more often than not a simple tweak of a density histogram can come very close to matching footage shot on different days with different exposures. You will not have to worry about the shot of your star performer looking perfect in the medium shot, but the shadows go a little green in the closeup because it was shot on a different day, with a different camera (for the sake of argument we'll say it was a re-shoot for pick-up shots), and no one wrote down your exposures - it becomes a non-issue! Quite a perk!

Simply capture your footage into your computer, and either play with channels (to achive a similar effect of using filters for black & white photography - like using a deep red filter makes your skies and foliage almost black, while making caucasian skin tones a ghastly white - think Ansel Adams photography) or simply desaturate.

I hope this helps for anyone who wants to shoot for black & white. Experiment and have fun. Figure out what works for you and what doesn't. Once you have gotten the rules down, the science you felt you needed to remember suddenly takes a backseat in your mind, and allows for your personal style to grow. There is a saying in illustration: "Once you know the rules, you know how to break them."

Learn the rules, break them, and have a great time doing it!

Take care and happy shooting-

-Lew Fraga

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