Software
Review: Boris Continuum Complete 5, Pg. 2
This next set of examples illustrates how it’s possible to change the apparent time of day in a shot.
Wrong Time of Day? No Problem (Figure 4)
Again, BCC5 presets easily change the character of the shot. I’m quite sure with the day-for-night scene that I could also have added sky replacement and generated a starry sky. However, I wanted to show you examples of single-step plug-ins with basic presets.
The next examples simulate glass filters.
I wish I’d bought/brought expensive glass filters and a matte box! (Figure 5)
The Yellow Cast Decrease might have been a UV filter. Yellow Cast Increase: Simulating an Amber Filter. White Mist: Simulating a White Mist filter. Black Mist: Simulating a Black Mist Pro filter. Notice that the black mist effect is more pronounced toward the lower left edge. Black mist filters actually come in graduated versions that can be positioned in a matte box to help with the composition by “misting out” some elements in the scene. The Black Mist Edge effect in BCC5 provides the controls to “aim” the gradation, effectively simulating a whole pack of glass filters. The problem with glass filters, in my opinion, is you have to shoot twice. The right filter can vastly improve a shot. But it’s risky. So you have to shoot a “clean” safety just in case – doubling the shooting time.
I wish I’d shot in Black and White! No Problem. (Figure 6)
In the above examples, I tried several techniques for generating monochrome footage. Most modern video cameras do not have a monochrome mode. You can turn the saturation down, but usually not off. And the images tend to be murky gray washes without the sharp contrast of film. (The HSL example illustrates a simple de-saturation of color). The problem is that in video, a lot of the image information is contained in the color, and collapsing this into a single gray-tone image loses that detail. As you can see in the above examples, BCC5 offers several techniques to convert the color information into gray, and the resulting monochrome images have different qualities, looking more like B&W film.
Speaking of film. I wish I’d shot on film…so that I could make use of chemical process looks.
I wish I’d shot on color film! No Problem. (Figure 7)
Film Grain: This adds grain to the video so that it looks like it was shot on film and transferred to video. Color Reveral and Color Push are both chemical processing techniques. Old Film: Simulates the look of using “stale” film stock.
