Color filters

[Mike Williamson]

I've just gotten back some tests I shot looking at different warming filters on a day exterior, I tested the Tobacco 1, Chocolate 1, 81EF, 81A, and an 812. Shot the tests on 35mm Fuji 250D (8562), I've been looking at a Mini-DV telecine transfer, going to project the workprint once I find a place to screen it (I'm using an out of town lab).

 

For the tests, I shot each filter twice, once without making any exposure correction and again making whatever correction the manufacturer recommended (I think I guessed about one stop on the Tobacco and Chocolate). As expected, the effects of the filters were much stronger when viewing the shots without exposure corrections, I'm almost felt that the compensations were exposing out the filters.

 

Right now I'm planning on using the 81EF and Chocolate and making the exposure compensation (2/3 and probably 1 stop respectively), then probably printing down a bit later, nothing wrong with a denser negative. The Tobacco was quite nice, but a bit too "bling" for the upcoming film.

 

I'm wondering how other people rate (or print/transfer) their stocks when shooting with filters? Do you tend to end up with darker images to retain more of the filter's color? Any thoughts or advice is appreciated, thanks!

[David Mullen ASC]

Just depends on the scene.

 

Usually I would compensate for the filter factor to keep the negative density up, but for a cool dusk scene or a warm sunset scene, you sometimes underexpose to bring out the color cast more, but those are scenes where you expect the highlights to have come down in intensity from midday sunlight anyway.

 

Also, I think warming filters can make a scene too orangey anyway, so keeping the exposure higher helps wash some of that out. That's why I like Chocolates; they aren't an overpowering color.

 

The exposure issues are the same for interior scenes lit with colored lights; to retain more of the feeling of the color, you tend to expose the scene a little darker or else the saturation washes out. But these are situations -- like in a nightclub -- where you would naturally be playing exposures "under key". The thing to remember here is that you aren't really "underexposing" in the sense that you won't end up printing at lower numbers to restore the brightness to normal, but keeping the printer lights the same as if you were shooting a normally exposed scene.

[Mike Williamson]

Thanks, David. I'm planning on using filters as part of a look for all of the day stuff, so I'm trying to figure out a general approach to use. The film will be finished to HD, so I know I can play with color saturation at that point, trying to keep things consistent on the negative in case we make it to print. Anyone else have thoughts or suggestions?

[Thomas Cousin]

The Tobacco was quite nice, but a bit too "bling" for the upcoming film.

 

 

what do you mean by "bling" ? does my english limited ? or is it a personnal term of yours, and if can you explain it to me, to understand what you are saying.

thanks

[David Mullen ASC]

Found on Google: "bling-bling" definition:

n. synonym for expensive, often flashy jewelry sported mostly by African American hip-hop artists and middle class Caucasian adolescents.

the sound light makes reflecting off of chrome

 

Another:

Main Entry: bling bling

Part of Speech: noun

Definition: jewelry, often gaudy or ostentatious

Etymology: from the sound it makes

Usage: slang

Source: Webster's New Millennium? Dictionary of English, Preview Edition

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From Wikipedia:

 

"Bling Bling" is a 1999 hit hip-hop song by The B.G., featuring his Cash Money Records labelmates Juvenile, Lil' Wayne, Turk, Baby, and Mannie Fresh. The song, and its many follow-ups from the label, popularized a hip hop slang term which refers to expensive jewelry and other accoutrements. The term is thought to be derived from the onomatopoeia of a visual effect used to denote light glistening off metal or jewels.

 

The word gained acceptance in the mid- to late 1990s as a result of gangsta rap music and videos, which frequently glorified high class clothing, jewelry and other possessions.

 

Mainstream hip hop music's fixation on bling bling and other material and luxury goods has led to much criticism from media pundits and musical critics. They charge that the phenomenon promotes consumerism and materialism, and strengthens racist arguments that young African American men are incapable of higher or more virtuous or spiritual goals than material gain.

 

The extremely widespread proliferation of the term into the early 2000's inevitably lead to a degrading of its hipness value. With MTV itself even releasing a satirical cartoon commercial in 2004 showing the term being used by a rapper, then several other progressively less "streetwise" characters, then finally by a middle aged white woman who uses the term to describe her earrings to her elderly mother. It ends with the deadpan declaration: "RIP Bling-bling 1997-2004". The clip thus simultaneously recognizes the term's once attainment of an unusual level of popularity while cleverly underscoring the term's perceived aspect of "tiredness" in the current youth culture. Today, it is rare to find a mainstream rapper who uses the term in anything but a sarcastic manner. Infact, you are more likely to hear the term "bling-bling" from a critic of rap music, then you are from an actual rapper or someone who is a fan of the genre.

 

---

 

It's a term I first heard when Daniel Ashley-Smith used it in regards to "chavs":

 

Wikipedia:

Chav is a derogatory slang term in popular usage throughout the UK. It refers to a subculture stereotype of a person who is uneducated, uncultured and prone to antisocial or immoral behavior. The label is typically, though not exclusively, applied to teenagers and young adults of white working-class or lower-middle class origin.

 

Personally I never heard of "bling" until Daniel used it in connection with "Chavs", which shows you just how out of touch I am with youth culture these days, particularly hip-hop.

[Tony Brown]

Chav is a white culture thing in the UK, to associate Chav with Bling would most likely get you a smack in the mouth where I live :blink:

 

I tend to use Tobacco as my correction when shooting daylight source on Tungsten stock. it gives a completely different palette in TK and crushes blacks earlier than normal. Be aware of compressed formats if you go this route. DVD's for example tend to require a little flatter image in my experience.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

Yeah.

 

But you'd be right.

 

The thing is, "Bling" is an American term, whereas "Chav" is a UK term, although I suspect that "white trash" is a near-synonym.

 

Phil

[John Hall]

I think this will settle everything nicely.

 

 

The people in the photo are chav's, the tacky gold 'round their necks is the bling.

Edited June 28, 2005 by John Hall

[Tony Brown]

I think this will settle everything nicely.

 

 

The people in the photo are chav's, the tacky gold 'round their necks is the bling.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Nope, Chave 'Bling' is known as Chain Mane

[J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR]

Nope, Chave 'Bling' is known as Chain Mane

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Or Goldie Lookin' Chains...