Always leave on blackmagic filter?

[Steve DiMaggio]

I have a 1/4 for macro shots of womens faces that I use that I don't think is cutting it, I am thinking about maybe getting a stronger one and thenm putting the 1/4 on my wide which is what I shoot with most of the time, is it common to leave on of these filters on all the time?

steve

 

[Phil Holland]

Yes, especially if going for a consistent look.

There are two schools of thought from there.

1. Go consistent with the same strength filter for each focal length.

2. Mix up the strengths depending on your focal length and shot type to help visually match them better.

 

[Steve DiMaggio]

Thanks Phil, does it make sense to use the stronger filter for macro shots of girls, most of the are really tight shots of lipstick and such being applied so the softening needs to be stronger

steve

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Diffusion filters are an art as much as a science -- I will switch strengths more on how it looks on a monitor. If the filter looks too strong for a wide shot, I go lighter, and if it looks too weak for a close-up, I go heavier.

But keep in mind that it is easy to soften a shot further in post.

Detail is partially a psychological thing, your eye/brain expects to see more of it in a wide landscape shot than in a macro shot of a face where every pore and pimple isn't the most attractive to see in sharp relief.

I did a movie recently called "The Love Witch" where I shot on film and did a photochemical post and print, so no D.I. -- there were a number of tight shots of faces and I went quite heavy with the diffusion to keep the same romantic look (which in general was soft but under hard lighting.) But keep in mind that I wasn't using soft lighting.

The only thing I found with using macro lenses to shoot details on the face is that you are looking through a smaller portion of the diffusion filter so some of the effects can be odd. I mostly used nets but I got some exaggerated patterns in the flare around the hot spot in the eyeball, so eventually I changed to glass diffusion (Soft-FX). So I'd avoid a filter that has a coarse and large pattern in it like Classic Soft because with the macro you are only looking through a few dimples in the glass trying to create the diffusion effect. Hollywood Black Magics are good but I'd do a test and if you can live with saving the softening in post, you might want to just for the greater control so you can keep the skin soft but the eyes sharp, etc.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about. The first was shot with a Fogal net over the lens, the second with a Soft-FX filter:

(Different scenes, different days, from different dailies so the color doesn't match)

You can see that even though a Fogal net or a Soft-FX 2 would be considered quite heavy for an ordinary shot, once you get this tight, you are still seeing a lot of skin texture even with such heavy diffusion. But most movies wouldn't use a direct 650w fresnel as a key right over the lens...

 

[Justin McAleece]

Great explanation. Thanks David!