Green/Cyan Pastel Look

Hi,

I am looking for some personal feedback from people who might have done a similar process to the one I describe below. And possibly hear your opinions on different approaches, but remember that there is not time for extensive testing and budget is tight.

I will be filming an independent S16 short where some of the scenes require an green-cyan slightly pastel look where the windows of the interior shots blow out into the white and the blacks remain solid (i.e. Not milky and quite deep with a bit of crushing). I will be shooting Kodak's Vision2 100T 7212. I am also planning on bleach bypassing the negative to blow out those highlights and underexposing it by 2/3 of a stop mainly to add some grain but also to retain some detail on the skin. During filming I was thinking of using a ½ green enhancer in order to block out some of the other colours. At one particular point in the script however I want to emphasize a bright orange dress which should stand out and have not quite figured out a way other than in post to make this prop stand out.

I hope this makes sense to you guys and look forward to hearing your feedback.

Eric Trometer – Lighting Cameraman – London
http://www.trometer.com

Eric Trometer wrote :

>>"I want to emphasize a bright orange dress which should stand out..."

Orange is one of the colours that usually responds well, becoming more saturated and intense, with the red enhancing filter.

To make anything stand out, it helps to have everything it must stand out from to be different in some relevant way. So, in this case, it'll be easier if the surroundings are predominantly orange complements, meaning colour-opposites, like blue and cyan. You can also differentiate by lighting, of course, with luminance levels favouring the areas of particular interest.

Ira Tiffen
Basking Ridge, NJ

Here's a link to an article I wrote about the skip bleach process (and others). "Testing the Limits" in the Tech Tips section. http://cameraguild.com/

Neg processed skip bleach tends to go a little green because of the process.

Good luck.

Mark Woods
Director of Photography
www.markwoods.com
Pasadena, California

Hi Eric,

Lighting the zone where the dress is going to be to a lower colour temperature than the rest of the set might give you the warming emphasize to the orange dress. Good luck mate.

Kamal Bou Nassar
DP / assistant camera
Beirut - Lebanon

Hi,

Thanks a lot to all the people who replied to my posting so far.

Mark, I had a read through your article and the tests you performed yield interesting results. If I understood well, the test where you skip bleached the 5277 Vision 320 T Negative, and the 5298 EXR 500 T Negative returned respectively EI640 and EI2000 as being the optimum exposure for obtaining density at LAD. I was wondering if you had carried the experiment further to be able to draw out a conclusion such as : 'the slower the negative film speed, the less underexposure one has to make to achieve optimum exposure in a negative skip bleach process and vice versa the faster the negative film, the more underexposure one has to make to achieve optimum exposure in a negative skip bleach process' (optimum exposure being, as defined in Mark's article, when the density approaches the Lab Aim Density)

Would that be a fair theory or is that just a worthless speculation given that only 2 stocks have been tested? I am just asking that because I want to achieve optimum density on my neg and given that I am applying the skip bleach on 7212 Vision2 100T, will an underexposure of 2/3 of a stop return an optimum density for my neg?

Sorry, I know that under normal circumstances testing would give me the answer but given the time and budget, this is not an option.

I welcome your thoughts...

Thanks

Eric Trometer - Lighting Cameraman - London
http://www.trometer.com

Hi Eric,

>>Mark, I had a read through your article and the tests you performed >>yield interesting results. If I understood well, the test where you skip >>bleached the 5277 Vision 320 T Negative, and the 5298 EXR 500 T >>Negative returned respectively EI640 and EI2000 as being the >>optimum exposure for obtaining density at LAD.

Because of the nature of the process, the added speed (2/3's to 1 stop faster) is based on the silver not being removed from the negative. The silver essentially creates a mask on the neg. I believe this increase in film speed would be similar regardless of what film and it's EI is. For example, an EI 100 film would be rated at EI 160. These tests are for print. The telecine process can reach deeper into more dense areas that are beyond the range of lab printers. Also, I hope you noted that there are about 4 stops tonal range on the skipped bleach neg. Again, if you telecine the neg, you will get more tonal range than in print.

Finally, if you look at the individual colour characteristic curves, you will see that they do not track parallel and don't match in terms of where minimum density begins and maximum density ends. That's the reason why there are colour shifts. If you want to emphasize a colour light it to the stop where it will have maximum density on the neg.

Hope this helps. Have fun!

Mark Woods
Director of Photography
www.markwoods.com
Pasadena, California

>>I was wondering if you had carried the experiment further to be able to >>draw out a conclusion such as: 'the slower the negative film speed, >>the less underexposure one has to make to achieve optimum >>exposure in a negative skip bleach process

In other words, does the effect of bleach bypass on emulsion speed depend on the original emulsion speed?

I never did formal tests on this (Mark's tests are the best reference for BB in general), but my general experience says yes it does, to a slight degree.

I guess this is because (a) the bleach bypass effect is due to a retained silver image, and (b) faster film stocks (in the same range of emulsions, i.e. V2, or Fuji, or EXR etc) tend to have more silver.

However, depending on what effect you are looking for, matching LAD (i.e. mid-grey tonal range) may not be the best way of determining the ideal exposure.

Dominic Case
Atlab Australia

Dominic thank you for your kind words. Although I think that if I tested today the new films wouldn't be very far off of what I've published.

Mark Woods
Director of Photography
www.markwoods.com
Pasadena, California