grey card

[Jeremy Rumas]

Hello all,

 

I have been shooting 100 foot rolls of daylight stock with my Bolex. I will usually shoot one 100 foot roll over the course of a few days, or even a couple weeks, and each shot is usually in different outdoor lighting conditions. I have been shooting a grey card for 4 or 5 feet at the beginning of each roll, wherever I happen to be when I reload and am ready for a new shot. And then I'll go and shoot with that roll as described above.

 

The results have been good for the most part. But I am wondering if there is a more sensible way to approach this? Would it be better to not shoot a grey card at all when I am shooting like this? Or should a grey card be shot before every change in lighting conditions?

 

thanks

 

Jeremy Rumas

[David Mullen ASC]

The grey card is just a silent communicator to a timer or colorist as to what "normal" is when you won't be there to supervise the transfer, especially if you want them to leave orange late afternoon light warm rather than correct it, or leave a blue twilight blue, whatever. But it's only a guide, it doesn't guarantee anything. If I'm shooting quickly as the light is changing, I don't bother with grey scales, especially not at the head of a lot of little rolls. I tell the colorist by phone what I had in mind when I shot it, tell him to do his best, whether to match or not match shots, etc.

 

At some point, you will need to color-correct the footage anyway.

[Patrick Cooper]

I was shooting negative film for the first time recently with 16mm and I shot a grey card, grey scale and a colour chart on the head of the roll. I filmed the grey card and associated paraphernalia in neutral overcast / open shade conditions and several days later on the same roll, I was filming in the warm glow of late afternoon light. So with my future unsupervised transfer, I hope the colourist gets the hint to leave the 'warm' look in.

[Frank Barrera]

Hello all,

 

I have been shooting 100 foot rolls of daylight stock with my Bolex. I will usually shoot one 100 foot roll over the course of a few days, or even a couple weeks, and each shot is usually in different outdoor lighting conditions. I have been shooting a grey card for 4 or 5 feet at the beginning of each roll, wherever I happen to be when I reload and am ready for a new shot. And then I'll go and shoot with that roll as described above.

 

The results have been good for the most part. But I am wondering if there is a more sensible way to approach this? Would it be better to not shoot a grey card at all when I am shooting like this? Or should a grey card be shot before every change in lighting conditions?

 

thanks

 

Jeremy Rumas

if you are using a slate to keep track of your shots you could just put the grey card in with the slate at the head of any lighting change. if not using a slate keep in mind that you only need a single properly exposed frame for the colorist to do their job.

[Jeremy Rumas]

Thanks for all the info guys. I am most concerned with getting my negative stock processed accurately, representing the actual light I was shooting under. If I have warm twilight tones on a roll, yes I want the warm tones kept in there. I also want the duller overcast shots to look overcast, etc. I likely will not be doing a D.I. with this footage, and instead am planning on an optical blowup to 35mm when finished. That being said, should I keep on shooting a grey card at the beginning of each roll? From your comments, it seems like this would be a good idea...

 

thanks,

 

Jeremy

[David Mullen ASC]

Processing is not affected by the grey card -- that's standardized for the roll: "normal", or "push one-stop", etc. Until they process it, they can't know the visual content on the negative.

 

The grey card only affects the timing/color-correction of the workprint or video dailies transfer if you aren't there to supervise. Has no affect on the quality of the negative for blow-up later. Therefore if the dailies aren't 100% accurate, doesn't really matter if you are later going to cut negative and blow it up optically.

[Jeremy Rumas]

Thanks for clearing that up for me, David. Much appreciated.