Jump to content

Sony F55 Shooting B&W whit color filters


Jean Paul DiSciscio

Recommended Posts

Hi everyone,

 

I just ran some camera tests on the Sony F55. We're shooting an MFA thesis film at Emerson College in Boston and this was our first test. Here's my question:

 

Why does shooting with a Red 25 filter yield such extreme contrast after converting to black and white? We're shooting the entire film black and white by simply turning the monitor to b&w, then reverting the Raw images to be graded in post.

 

Our tests with yellow filters and blue filters converting to black and white yielded similar results to using color filters with b&w film, increasing contrast. Shooting with a Red 25 then converting to b&w out looks like some kind of Microsoft paint filter, like a posterize effect.

 

Can anyone explain why this is? I've shot with red filter and converted to b&w on DSLRs and they simply make a blue sky black and bring out the whites more in clouds.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

It's better to shoot without color filters because you have more information in each color channel to play with before conversion to monochrome. You can easily darken the blue channel, for example, to darken skies before you turn off the color, so I don't see a reason to use a red filter and rob the sensor of exposure in that end of the spectrum.

 

By using a red filter you basically have less exposure in the blue and green channels. Keep in mind that a debayer algorithm does more than simply make the blue channel from the blue filtered photosites since those are only 1/4 of the total photosites on the sensor, and a lot of information comes from the green filtered photosites that the red camera filter has now partially robbed of exposure. Plus sensors in general are less sensitive to the blue end of the spectrum and thus prefer more of those wavelengths.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi there,

 

Me too I will shoot a short in a couple of weeks for the Sydney Film School, and we will use the Sony F3 with an external recorder for get the ProRes 10bit 422, and if we can the Gemini for the RGB 444.

 

I will shoot in color, watch the field monitor in monochrome as reference and then work on the B&W in post.

 

It's the first time that I will shoot in monochrome, I will appreciate any recommendations and suggestions.

 

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

For digital black and white, definitely try to shoot raw or at least 4:4:4 if you can. Having as much distinct red, green and blue information as possible gives you considerably more range to manipulate your tonality in the same way you could with colour filters on B&W film.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...