I use promist mainly for how it produces halation
In my opinion, UltraCons do better at extending DR than Low Con filters. I used to use this to lift shadows for the GH2 and then crush them back down a little in post. The goal was to lift the exposure above where the GH2 mushed everything together, but I think most cameras have moved past the need to do this. I wouldn't do it anymore. Maybe it still offers a benefit with the Ursa mini, I don't know, but my guess is that it's just replicating the flatter look of a log colorspace without providing the additional dynamic range.
Guys looking to smooth out the ursa mini 4.6k ,and get a better roll off (getting closer to alexa image ).. I have a tiffen low contrast #2 (not ultra contrast ,not sure if they are same or not) and I also have tiffen black pro mist 1/4 ,which one would be best to use ,thanks in advance
I actually liked the Ultra Contrast 1 look in the video test above. I do wonder if this would be a great way to get some character out of a cam like the Sony RX10 which doesn't have interchangeable lens capability. I also will be trying one these filters with my 50D using Magic Lantern RAW. It may work better with RAW since it has so much more data to work with and you can really push it around in Post.
I can't recall the exact words but David Mullen ASC was firm about that soft con is not of much use for dynamic range purposes. At most, you can gain about 1/3 of a stop, and that comes with a much softer look.. not to mention other problems that arise with more glass in front of the lens.
Filters can be of good use to alter the look of the image, but you can also f.i. use nylon stocking over the lens for that purpose.. These days, it's really not worth the hassle IMO (unless you really need a particular filtered look) - as most of it can be easily obtained in the grade, but some prefer mist filters for shooting high key to soften highlight rolloff, which produces a kind of halo effect around the light sources..
I noticed more banding with Low con filters, just something to look for.
@Psyco - That was a 2. It's the only one that I have at the moment. You have to be very careful as to any lens hits. The subject was under an ez up tent, so his lighting was very even, I wanted to see more of what the filter would do in regards to the background holding exposure as well as, seeing more detail in the bays. I think it worked pretty well. I think the 1/4 may be a little too little, but it may work for applications inside better. The 2 can get pretty milky...
Looks very promissing, but was that really the Ultra Con 2? The effect looks very small - I thought the #2 would give a stonger effect. I have a Tiffen Ultra Con 1/4, but have not used it yet, so maybe I won't hardly see anything difference with mine.
I did a very quick comparison with my Tiffen Ultra Con2 a couple weeks ago. Take a look for yourself.
Which one looks more grade-able? Look into the garage bays.
I made a small video of the samples above:
This time I used After Effects only for grading. I'm still evaluating the best methods to offset the magenta in AE. For this I used Exposure filter (individual channels). Other filters in AE were curves and levels. It is a bit tricky method but the quality is there, so it just needs some massaging to get the look right. Obviously this scene would have needed some fill light but for low budget movie making the fill light may not be there so I am first trying to get a grip of things using just available light.
Bitrate goes up when using the magenta filter, so there should be more image to grade.
To avoid these have a flag or sheet of black wrap on standby. And read that with the spot meter when the fog is perfect, then keep using it as a reference to how thick/thin the haze should be.
Great tip added to my list of tricks.
I have a 3x3 (cokin A sized) Hitech Ultra Con permanently on my 1/3" Sony Handycam .. it helps.
I got the Tiffin #3 yesterday. I haven't had a chance to really work with it yet but the limited testing is interesting. It seems to very subtly raise the details in the shadows.
Also. You'll need a higher data rate for haze. I can't tell you which patches to use for it. But the sub 100 Mb/s patches tend to hate haze and smoke, whereas 130Mb/s and above never have an issue.
The all patches will actually drop the data rate when haze is used, and on the lower Bit rate patches this will create massive macro blocking.
I use smoke or haze where I can, if that is impractical I'll use a silk stocking over the rear element which also softens up the image a bit, I'm looking forward to trying a Tiffen Ultra Con 1, to see what it can give me. But I know it will also soften the image a bit.
Haze is my preferred way to really boost shadows, lower the contrast, and not lose sharpness. It also gives you a nice flat image to grade, and some other fun stuff like light rays. But you gotta stop down, cuz it picks up the exposure all over. You'll see what I mean the first time you have your exposure set, and you add smoke and EVERYTHING starts blowing out.
The final thing it gives you, is the white noise you get from the haze usually crushes down to a very nice grain.
My caveat is that you need to have someone who's job it is to the regulate and operate your fogger/hazer or you'll have some continuity issues. To avoid these have a flag or sheet of black wrap on standby. And read that with the spot meter when the fog is perfect, then keep using it as a reference to how thick/thin the haze should be.
If you wanted to compress contrast without diffusing effect magenta color correction filter will do that. Useful dynamic range is better.
I have attached three screen grabs from GH1 video from a high contrast scene. I used a Tiffen CC40M filter. In After Effects I applied a green photo filter with 40% value to offset the magenta. Now the image is desaturated and the captured compressed contrast is seen. Values have been shifted to the left, which means dark hues were encoded at higher level. Now there is room to apply curve to simulate blooming high-lights that seems to be the desired look these days. In the final version you could also see that the color gradients are smooth.
I'll tell you Jeff, If I need blue sky it rains, If I need rain, it snows, I'm going to the coast again this evening to film the sunset and it probably won't. I need all the help I can get!
Probably so, yeah. I just stay in and curse the heavens those days!
@jeffharriger It looks like it may be good for those cloudless harsh sun days where I have drastic light/dark differences.
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