unsaturated, muddy blacks

[Demian Barba]

hi.

 

in the photograph attached , i guess the desaturation and monochrome look is acomplished by art direction, but what about the muddy blacks? i will be shooting in S16mm, and even though a print may never be made, i don't want to relay on telecine to get those blacks. should i try overexposing and then pulling? if so, by how much? and how does pulling affect colors?

i will do tests prior to shooting.

 

thanks

[John Pytlak RIP]

Underexposure is the direction to go if you want "muddy" blacks that lack detail and density. Slight overexposure generally increases shadow detail and gives darker ("richer") blacks. Pull-process may help give the "look" you want by reducing overall contrast. Likewise, use a film like Kodak VISION2 Expression 500T Color Negative Film 7229 if you want to start off with a lower contrast "look", and use underexposure to help "muddy" the blacks:

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products....4.4.4.10&lc=en

 

Or 7277:

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products....4.4.4.18&lc=en

[David Mullen ASC]

You sort of HAVE to rely on the telecine anyway, so why not use it to create the look you want? By which I mean, you could do it all in-camera and all it takes is a few twists of the knob for the colorist to "normalize" the image anyway, so either way, you have to control how the image is being transferred to tape.

 

A lot of this look is art direction and lighting. You could overexpose and pull-process -- maybe even a low-con stock -- to get this creamy look.

[DavidSloan]

I would probably consider shooting something like this on a low con stock like 320T and soften the image further with a soft fx filter, or something similar. A healthy amount of smoke won't hurt either.

 

Why don't you try underexposing the image by a 1/2 stop, maybe more, and process as normal? I think that would be more effective then pulling.

 

Also, your lighting has to be low contrast; in other words make sure you're using the middle part of the curve, of the stock you are using.

 

Good luck.

[Demian Barba]

thank you very much for you responses.

i though about under exposing, but i am afraid that would increase the grain too much. i would like to use a 200 asa, either 7217 or 7274.

could you recomend any low contrast lenses?

 

thanks again

 

 

demian barba

[Demian Barba]

320? that's a good idea. i'll test it as well.

thanks.

[Wendell_Greene]

Since your shooting S-16 I'd keep the lenses clean and make any adjustments to softening the image by having the colorist add filtration to the telecine gate. You'll have much more flexiblity and control.