Canon XL1 footage converted to Black and White...

[Arturo Tapia]

I'd like to shoot a project on the XL1 and have the finished product converted into black and white.

What is the best method for shooting/setup in order to get the best image for converting into black and white? If need be, I am willing to shoot with an adapter allowing me to attach prime lens's to the camera.

I want the black and white image to look as crisp as possible.


Thanks in advance.

[Robin Davies-Rollinson]

Why can't you just play around with the settings yourself and then you decide what works best for you.After all, it's not as if you're spending money on film and processing is it? It's all free - after you've paid for the tape of course.
The same tennets hold as for basic colour shooting: - correct exposure! You might also like to light with more backlight (check out any B&W classic), since you need to create separation of your subjects from the background in monochrome. That seems to work a whole lot easier in colour!
Anyway, if you're doing the B&W conversion later - ie. in post - that will be an opportunity to try out various tweaks of gamma etc.

Robin.

[Marco Leavitt]

I'm fairly interested in this topic myself. I know in Photoshop you can sometimes get better contrasts with still photos by throwing out two layers and converting the third (usually red) to black and white. Some people also use filters when shooting black and white, particulary outdoors. We're planning a feature in black and white next year. I'd love to hear what you come up with.

[Arturo Tapia]

Has anyone heard anything about this new mount for the XL1?

http://www.xl1solutions.com/IMAGES.htm

What do you guys think of the following setup?

Canon XL1, Arri PL mount, Angenieux 12-120 zoom lens.

We own the XL1, the Arri PL mount and the Augeniex lens, together would be a $1000 investment.

The feature project is dark and we would like to submit the finished product to film festivals once it'scompleted.

We will conduct lots of tests, before we start production.

And, after we test, if we can't get the results we want for black and white, we might just go ahead and shoot in color.

Thanks.

[Josh Brusin]

I've seen stuff shot with yellow and orange filters and converted afterwards to b&w... looks awesome.

[Rob Lohman]

Artura: do a search on XL1Solutions and you'll find a couple of
threads earlier. Keep in mind that their adapter does have a
multifaction aspect. The mini35 does not.

You do not need anything to do black and white shooting. You
might use a color filter as Josh suggests but you can easily
shoot B&W changing a custom preset or do it in post.

Expirement and searching is the key. There have been numerous
threads on B&W shooting on this board already. So please try
a search.