Black & White is Still Beautiful

[composite1]

I ran across this video by DoP Phillip Bloom shot with a 5Dmk II DSLR camera. Shot at night in the city of Prague Phillip makes everyday life in that wintry city look like something that should’ve been in an Audry Hepburn flick. The Mk II is hardcore in color, but shows that in the hands of someone with an eye can kick butt in B&W too!

Prague: Canon 1DMKIV from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

[CraftersOfLight]

One word…

Awesome!

Just watching and studying the composition and editing techniques may take one several days and they will stillfind something new. Thank you for sharing this jewel.

[composite1]

Awesome indeed. My main hope is that any beginners or intermediates will look at this stuff and not get ‘punked out’ feeling that they couldn’t possibly do well with what they have. It’s not that Phillip did anything spectacular, in fact the shooting is really simple and he used the basics many of the regular forum contributors always hear me harping on. This video is startling because with his command of the basics, he took a great camera and made a beautiful memory of a night in Prague. I guarantee the guy (or anyone else with similar skills) can do the same thing with a lesser camera. Now, obviously the imagery will not be the same because of the capabilities of the Mk II. But, you could still get a similar look using good composition, good focus and good exposure.

[Luis Oscar Maymi]

Amazing. When I was watching for some reason it remind me of Citizen Kane. The composition is so good and the music fits perfectly. Really like it.

[ophelia]

Thanks for bringing B&W back into focus – haha – (a still photographer’s joke). Personally, I like B&W best, and it always shows the caliber of talent of the shooter (or lack thereof…). This is probably a noob question, but do you know howMr. Bloom created thetransition where the falling snow fades and then overlaps thenext scenes?

[Anonymous]

Beautiful. The great depth-of-field possibilities in the new DSLRs like the Mark II are fantastic. I think one can certainly masterfully control a lesser camera, but I also think that the the DOF and selective focus that is realized with better equipment is the one thing that would make many great videos greater.

[composite1]

Ophelia,

Off the top of my head it looks like he used transparency overlay (i.e. the ‘snow clip’ is laid over the following clips.) Since it was lit snow on a black sky, it wouldn’t have been hard to do. Just another example of simplicity being beautiful.

Film,

I agree. The thing I want newbs and intermedi8s to understand that until you master the basics you won’t be able to take advantage of advanced capabilities like DOF and Selective focus. Not on purpose anyway.

Sarge,

I’m glad you and the others are enjoying this video. Too often I hear people get bent over having to watch something in B&W. Shooting in B&W and making it look good is in some ways more difficult than shooting in color. Light, Shadow, Tone and Contrast are all you’ve got to work with and if you can’t adjust your video is going to look awful.

[Author]

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