Black and White Documentary
 

Hello there! My question is about how to get the most of black and white in the Sony V1.
I'm shooting a documentary in Paris, in September, about a retired photographer who's dying of aids, and is a southamerican political exciliate from the 70's, now living in a small room in the last floor of an old dark parisian building.

All his pics are in black and white, and Paris is quite a cool scenario for black and white. So my questions is how can I get the best of my Sony V1 and its functions thinking on this. I will be editing in FCP. I've never done something in B&W, so I would appreciate any kind of help!!

thank you
Martin

It's simple. Shoot in color and then use the Desaturate filter in FCP. It's a real time filter. You can also desaturate using the Color 3-way corrector. That way you can adjust Blacks, Midrange and Highlights. A free plugin from Eureka! simulates silver print and infa-Red. I would advise against using the in camera presets for black and white as you'll be stuck with it if you change your mind.

Good Luck!

thanks!

And what about black strech? Would you recomend to use it? And is there another camera function that I could play with when thinkinng on B&W?

Thank you!

You might try some tests with and without black stretch. Shoot some and bring it into FCP and desaturate. I usually don't mess with camera profile settings, preferring to do my adjustments in post. That shouldn't stop you from experimenting prior to your shoot. If you don't have a broadcast quality television monitor, don't trust the viewer in FCP. If DVD is your final destination, burn a test DVD and play it on a few televisions.

You might even wish to leave a hint of the colour left and not desaturate completely? Perhaps even start in colour and slowly go to near-desaturated for the end of his life ... or even the other way around. Just a thought.

Andrew