bleach bypass in supervised transfer

[Elliot Rudmann]

Tomorrow, I will be doing a supervised transfer of a 16mm film I shot and I am thinking about trying to emulate a (partial) bleach bypass for some scenes. The stocks I used were 7217 and 7205 if that matters - but what concerns me is that throughout the production, I did not underexpose (significantly) any of the shots, I rated the film normally throughout filming, and I've heard that the bleach bypass look works better when you underexpose the images by 1 or 2 stops - or is that only the case when you're doing the BBP/ENR photochemically? I understand that clipping highlights will be a concern with the added contrast, but are there other things I should know about and/or tell the colorist? Thanks!

 

Elliot

[David Mullen ASC]

I've heard that the bleach bypass look works better when you underexpose the images by 1 or 2 stops - or is that only the case when you're doing the BBP/ENR photochemically?

 

Yes, it's to compensate for the big increase in density (as if you overexposed) from leaving the silver in the negative that would normally be removed in processing. But one side effect of underexposing to compensate is more graininess, although one could use a slower-speed stock since one needs to rate it faster anyway.

 

To create the look digitally, you're basically going to increase contrast and decrease color saturation. The problem is recreating the look of the silver grains left in the image, which gives it a rough texture.