i actually had half hour to do some shots, i was working for a news channel doing a story on early blooms. Had the rushes so decided to cut them together at weekend.

A good Low Contrast +5 example
 

My parents were attending a formal last night and asked me yesterday afternoon to take some pictures of them with their digital camera. The manual control is really quite shoddy as it's one of those cheaper built-in zoom cameras, and I'm used to the control an SLR offers, but I was able to lock down the settings. I shot the first photo with a .9 ND and the Low Contrast filter, and the second with just the ND. The Low contrast filter requires a levels adjustment in post but offers greater latitude. You'll see how with the levels locked down, the Low contrast filter wards off overexposure while still allowing you to expose more for the shadows, like you would with film (instead of exposing for the highlights as you would for video). You see less of this effect with something with already low latitude like HDV but the effect is still there.

I like the way your father looks in the first shot (with the low contrast filter) and your mother looks better in the second. It has more to do with the pose than the filter, but the overblown highlights seem to have a smoothing effect on the face. The brighter colors in the foliage on the second shot look more appealing. I'm assuming you didn't do any color correction yet on the first shot. Bringing up the mid-high colors would give that nice bright feel from the second shot while retaining the details preserved by the greater contrast. It's amazing the difference of the range between the shots. It's not even an extreme sort of shot as there isn't sky in the background yet the difference is clear. The shadows are brighter and the highlights noticeably darker with the filter.

I have an Ultra Contrast 3 filter on the way as I'm hoping to get some of the latitude improvements the adapter brings at times when I don't have it installed. I also have an interesting idea about how to use a contrast-reducing filter along with the Brevis. I'll let you know if it was a stupid idea or not.

I did not get a Low Contrast 5 filter because I don't have a 4x4 mattebox yet. The best I have is a Cokin filter holder and they don't have any low contrast filters that size. The only thing that even came close was a 72mm Ultra Contrast 3. I'm thinking I will need to add some sort of light diffusion filter to simulate the effect of the ground glass, but I can probably approximate that with a digital filter in post until I work things out.

http://web.mac.com/philip.bloom/iWeb...f%20crime.html


this is a link to a clip from a short I have recently made using my JVC HD201 and the Brevis 35mm with the new CF3L diffuser.

I have posted an update to my shootout with a few comments on the two new diffusers from Dennis Wood and Cinevate on my shootout page

Good looking stuff, Phil...

thanks v much. The new completed edit looks great. Very happy with the 3 I have finished. Only one to go!

Just had a chance to check that clip Phil. CF3L on the HD200 is looking great :-)

Was that at 30p or more? The motion looked pretty video-y. Otherwise that's insanely shallow DOF.

Really? No 25p...don't forget that is a compressed version