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Newbee: What does “Crush the blacks” mean?
I’ve heard this phrase used recently when speaking with a friend about his techniques. He says that first he “Crushes the blacks.” What does this mean exactly?
Is this a method used often for removing grain?
Is this a first step in a process? Crush blacks, color correct, adjust levels.
I am really simply trying to dial in on a solid work flow/approach to post for my own adventures in video production.
Thanks for any and all help 🙂
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8 Replies
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adjusting contrast if you go too far or run into a buggy workflow (some say 10-bit can) you lose the shadow detail in your blacks so instead of seeing something in the darkness, it becomes pure black and you see nothing.
The opposite of this is called clipping and its the same deal but you lose details in whites and highlights in particular (aka blown out)
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Just to add, you can easily crush your black levels by using the Levels tool. Simply slide the black level to the right and it’ll, well, crush the blacks. Any shadow detail will be gone. This can look good or bad, depending on what you’re trying to achieve.
Marco Solorio
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Crushing the blacks means to darken the black areas of the picture. Your friend is doing it to add a look to his video – generally film has deeper contrast and black detail, so crushing video blacks is a cheat way (along with upping the contrast) of getting closer to the film look. That’s a massive oversimplification by the way – a real film look is about more than this, and film blacks shouldn’t be crushed anyway, but I digress.
He is NOT describing a method for treating all video (such as colour correction), that is unless this is his only ‘look’ for his edits. You will develope and copy many looks in your time, so try to avoid picking up buzzwords like this and assuming all tv talk is big and clever. Mostly, I think doing this is just a bit lazy.
If you want to learn more about treating video, the best way is to spend some time with an editor (and preferably more than one) who’s work you admire – that’s how I learnt there was more to video looks and treatments than ‘crushing the blacks’.
Ben
Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd
EVS & FCP specialists for live broadcast.
OB Server 1 HD – Mobile FCP editing done right.
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Big help…I think i get it. Thanks for the clarity.
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> I’ve heard this phrase used recently when speaking with a friend about his techniques. He says that first he “Crushes the blacks.” What does this mean exactly? < Crushing blacks is an term from the ancient and venerable art of black and white television. It was a compromise, highly undesirable. One reduced the amount of black detail by rolling back the iris or turning down the pedestal. On a waveform monitor, these actions brought gray and midtones down to the pedestal level, crushing everything else into a flat line at pedestal level, 7.5%. Pulling down the iris to prevent blooming had the same relative effect of compressing the tonal range. > Is this a method used often for removing grain? < It certainly can. But you should be using grain removal filters or, far better, you should be doing everything you can to avoid grain; much easier not to have any than to remove. > Is this a first step in a process? Crush blacks, color correct, adjust levels. < Just my opinion, regular ol' video is quite complex. Trying to go off and crush blacks, correct color and adjust levels without knowing more of the fundamentals is dangerous. Time to get some serious training materials and do some heavy research. bogiesan This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
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Is there a way to do this in FCP or is it a Color kind of process. In FCP levels, I don’t see blacks that I can mess with the look of “crushing the blacks” described above.
Thanks.
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Use the 3-way color correction filter. The black level is controlled with the slider under the color wheel on the left side.
Make sure to turn on your CC scopes and the do not push the the black level below “0,” which you will see as the heavy line near the bottom of the waveform monitor.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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Beautiful! This is very helpful. Thank you.
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