Which tiffen soft/fx do I get?
 

I have a canon gl1. Which tiffen soft/fx do I get to help me get a film look?

Do i get the Tiffen 58mm Soft/FX 3 Glass Filter

or do I get the Tiffen 58mm Warm Soft/FX 3 Glass Filter?

You can achieve the same results in post production. Advantages would be:
-You can undo the filter
-Varying grades/strength
-When you do it in post, the softening/diffusion will smooth over video noise and other artifacts. This doesn't happen when you use a filter in front of the lens. If your subject is well lit, this usually isn't that much of an issue although you might see video noise in dark areas of an image.
-Free

Disadvantages:
-It takes rendering. If you're always doing the effect, it's worth it to get the filter just for the time savings.

To achieve the effect in post:
Duplicate the video onto itself.
Set the opacity of the top to around half.
Add a blur to the top. Gaussian blur will work well, but tends to render slow. Your program may have faster blurs.
Add unsharp mask to the bottom layer if you want to gain back perceived sharpness.

I'm not sure what the warming part of the tiffen filters do... I don't really see any warming in the after pictures. But you can very easily add warm colors in post.

2- Turn off the sharpening in your camera to almost minimum... this will go a long way towards getting rid of the video look.

3- That filter won't really contribute much to the film look in my opinion.

matt,
i used to use the tiffen soft f/x filters but i stopped using them and went ot using post filters to achieve the same look.

FWIW the Soft F/X 3 is alot of softening. If you are going to use one I would suggest a 1 (but then again I am not sure exactly why you are wanting to use one).


matt rickman


p.s. I have also heard the BlackProMist is better for DV than the Soft FX......

I've shot with a Tiffen Black ProMist 1/2, but now that I got the DFT 55mm program I'm going to try and create the same effect in post.

I think what I have learned from this post is that there are alot of Matt's out there!


matt rickman

haha, thank you guys for the help. I guess I will do it in post if I need to.

what software are you using for editing? I am using Final Cut pro and to achieve this effect I use joes filters to achieve soft looks..

http://www.joesfilters.com/


matt rickman

I have adobe premiere pro and im going to purchase after effects/mb

Matt I would *strongly* encourage you to download both the demo of Magic Bullet and the demo for Digital Film Lab by Digital Film Tools. After working with both demo programs and talking to the company I went with DFL and am VERY happy with that choice. More presets, better control (imo) and much faster render times. It does not however do frame rate conversions, if you are not shooting in 24p. But if you are, I think this is definitely the program to get. Also check out there 55mm package, every filter you could ever want and the results are astounding. Also, I called the company when trying to decide what to buy and they spent about 45 minutes on the phone with me going over exactly what I wanted to do and how to do it. Great company.

Matt

are you talking to me?


jk


matt rickman

I have a Gl1 camcorder, should I shoot in Frame Mode Or Normal and deinterlace in post? Which looks better and has better resolution?

Matt: Frame mode has better resolution than de-interlacing in post.

What do I care I have the XL2 and shoot 24p... OOOHHH.... The other Matt, er no, the OTHER one... LOL!

Wow, both modes have their ups and downs. So Magic bullet is the closest program to make it look as good as Frame Mode (resolution/quality wise)? Are there any other softwares that are as good as frame mode? If so, are you guys willing to sell me a copy?

I shot a couple of quick comparisons with the Tiffen Soft FX 3, 4 and Pro Mist 1/2 and Black Pro Mist with the GL2. You can check it out by clicking here

Personally, I always shoot with a Soft FX 3 or at least a Pro Mist 1/4. It's all a matter of preference, but I love the look of graceful blooming highlights and a subtle softer look. While viewing on an NTSC monitor on the set, it's nice to see how the lighting will change the image with these filters, sometimes I intentionally blow out highlights just to have them bloom and look a bit magical.

For film-like fx in post, Graeme's filters over at nattress.com rock too!

I don't know what the most efficient process is, but using real filters is definitely funner. I used to use Schneider Black Frost filters with our GL1 (until some creep swiped it!), and really liked the look. It took off the edge without making the image look blurry and gave a nice flare to the highlights. They are difficult to use though -- you have to keep a very wide F-stop or the carbon dots in the glass come into focus.

Guy, absolutely great video! That's the sort of stuff I like to see before I buy something.

Cheers
Aaron

Hi guys. I'm new to the forum and this is my first post. I bought a Sony pd170 last summer and have done some shorts and commercials. But I do want to get a little more like film look to my next few projects. I have read what you said here on this thread, but I am still a bit confused on the the whole filter thing. Before I joined the forum I have purchased Tiffen Soft/FX 3, Pro-mist 1, and Black Pro-mist 2 filters. While I like the look they give me on a static shot, I don't like the "rippling" effect that you see when you pan or tilt. Of the filters I like the Pro-mist, so should I go to a Pro-mist 1/2 to get the same look without the ripple, or will it still be there? And if so, is there something else (besides in post)someone can suggest I do to get the look I want? Thanks. Please help out a new guy.

If I understand you correctly, you're "seeing" the filter because you are shooting with a greater depth of field. If you're shooting at F2.0 or so for a shallow depth of field look, you will not "see the filter's glass."

If you're shooting and it's too bright to shoot at F2.0 try:

-Reducing light if possible
-Turning on your camera's built-in ND filter
-Screw on an ND Filter
-Increase your shutter speed
-Decrease gain (on Canon XL2 etc)

-G

Thanks Guy. I increased the iris setting and the shutter speed and that seemed to do the trick. Thanks again.

Guy,
That tutorial was awesome.

Do you have other turorials you did for achieving film look and how do you wanna get such softness in post?

Hi Eniola,

Thanks for the praise, it comments like yours that make us want to create more of these free tutorials.

We don't have any online tutorials as of yet, however we do lead live sessions at events on how to achieve a film look http://www.macworldexpo.com/live/20/...o/QMONYA04OXNG

Thanks Guy. Holly Molly.
Everything is in CA?

I was looking for a way to soften my Sharp XL2 look and you nailed what I needed. I didn't want the trial and error in post.

Thanks mate.