11/28/2022 0 Comments Cinema grade premiere![]() One of the most powerful qualities of the black and white look, is it’s ability to hide distracting details. Black and white footage can add mystery or intrigue on a visual level by hiding distracting colors or unnecessary shadow detail. #Cinema grade premiere windowsWith that in mind, I recommend using power windows when they are called for to enhance the B & W look, while being cognizant that the “less is more” approach will almost always serve you best. Power windows can be a very useful tool when color grading – either to add a basic effect such as a vignette, or to highlight a certain area of the frame that may not have been lit perfectly. You can have a relatively high contrast shot that also has lifted shadows – your contrast is just going to live in your mid tones rather than in your blacks. So in fact, it’s entirely possible to have the best of both worlds. In the example above, lifting the black levels was achieved with a simple curve in DaVinci Resolve that looks like this: On the other hand, if you add contast to your image and then lift your shadows up, you will achieve a much more interesting effect. If you simply leave your blacks lifted and desaturate your image, the shot will look flat and boring. In that case, it’s important that you first crush your blacks, and then lift them up. Sometimes you might want to give your footage a more vintage or nostalgic feel, and bringing up the black levels could be the right choice. With that said, there is a time and a place to lift the shadows on your black and white footage. The second image clearly looks more like desaturated video, where the final image looks more filmic. This once again, is because many black and white film stocks tended to have more contrast to them, and we have replicated that more accurately in the third image of the series. Take a look at the shot below as an example. The number one piece of advice I give when coloring black and white footage is to embrace your contrast curve. Many old black and white film stocks were actually very high contrast. In fact, many of them also didn’t have a ton of dynamic range, and as such footage from these stocks were known for crushed blacks and bright highlights, creating a very punchy expressionistic sort of feel. But I’ve already tackled this on a different article. Personally, I don’t like when this look is overdone – for film or black and white, as it is more based in a nostalgic memory of what film used to look like, as opposed to what really good film stocks are able to reproduce. The idea is that lifting your shadows will emulate the look of old film stocks, which sometimes had lower contrast qualities to them. This look is achieved by lifting the black levels on shots so far that sit far above true black (or 0 IRE). In recent years there has been this push towards the “milky black look” on color projects. #Cinema grade premiere softwareKeep in mind that while I am using DaVinci Resolve to create these looks and demonstrate some of the techniques, you can apply these principles in virtually any basic editing software too. In fact, many of the techniques that help color footage look more organic or filmic, can actually have the opposite effect on black and white footage, making shots appear dull or video-ish.īelow are a few of the biggest considerations to take into account when coloring your black and white footage. Many filmmakers use virtually the same grading approach that they would use for color footage on their black and white projects, and more often than not wind up with less than stellar results. While in some respects, grading in color does add an additional layer of complexity, achieving a filmic B & W look can be just as complex for different reasons. #Cinema grade premiere fullThere’s a big misconception that color grading black and white projects is easier than grading in full color. ![]()
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