Any Examples - 1/16 Pro Mist, Glimmerglass, Pearlescent ?

[Nathaniel Haban]

Hello All,

I've been curious about the very low-strength, 1/16th version of Tiffen's Filters, currently available in: Pro Mist, Black Pro Mist, Glimmerglass, Pearlescent, or Black Pearlescent. I've run into plenty of situations where the halation from even a 1/8 is overkill. Try as I might though, I haven't been able to find any footage or images from these filters. Adding on top of that, there's no rental houses near me that have them available. So I figured I check to see if anyone here has used these filters, what their impressions were, and if someone has examples of them in action.

 

[M Harvey]

I've never tried the 1/16 strength of these filters. But I've had the same problem with out-of-control halation effect-- for example, when shooting against a brightly lit white backdrop, the halation bleeds onto the subject. For those situations, I now switch to a Tiffen Digital Diffusion/FX 1/2. (Most commonly I use Schneider Hollywood Black Magic 1/8 or 1/4 or a Black Pro Mist 1/8.) It has a fine diffusion effect, a little softening of contrast, and pretty much none of the halation. It's maybe a touch less "filmic" than HBM or BPM, but it does take some of the edge off.

I found my way to the digital diffusion/fx via this Tiffen chart, btw-- maybe helpful for you, too:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2560/2536/files/TriangleOfDiffusion-Web.jpg?8477

You could also try Black Satin, which is designed to have less halation, in 1/4 and 1/2 strengths. I've only tried it in 1, and I think that's too strong to make the kind of difference you're looking for...

 

[Nathaniel Haban]

You could also try Black Satin, which is designed to have less halation, in 1/4 and 1/2 strengths. I've only tried it in 1, and I think that's too strong to make the kind of difference you're looking for...

I do want to run some tests to see is Black Satins are a good compromise. For the time being, when halation has to be minimized, I've been moving over to the lower densities of Glimmerglass. As particular as it may sound, sometimes I'd love to have very slight halation, but have it stay concentrated around a hard point of light, and am hoping maybe the 1/16ths could do this.

 

[Joshua Cadmium]

Schneider also has their newer Radiant Soft filters, which might have the effect you're looking for.

As well, they have their HD and regular Classic Softs in 1/16 (and their Hollywood Black Magic is just an HD Classic Soft combined with a 1/8 Black Frost, so you could make your own 1/16 HBM if you wanted to).

 

[Björn Benckert]

If shooting some references it´s quite easy to mimic these filters in post. Personally I think such approach is the best way to go when worrying about to much or to little lens filtration. As it´s really depending on the scenery, lens used and light scenario how much filtration you want. When doing it in post its ofcourse all adjusteble. Sure a bit of a chicken thing to do but to me it at times cause way less anxiety while shooting. Especially with VFX shots. We did a series now where the DP Mårten Tedin shot with quite heavy filtration. I insisted to shoot the green screen stuff clean and then mimic his look in post... the other way around would not have been a lot more difficult.

Filtering chroma by Björn Benckert, on Flickr

 

[Uros Zuraj]

If shooting some references it´s quite easy to mimic these filters in post. Personally I think such approach is the best way to go when worrying about to much or to little lens filtration. As it´s really depending on the scenery, lens used and light scenario how much filtration you want. When doing it in post its ofcourse all adjusteble. Sure a bit of a chicken thing to do but to me it at times cause way less anxiety while shooting. Especially with VFX shots. We did a series now where the DP Mårten Tedin shot with quite heavy filtration. I insisted to shoot the green screen stuff clean and then mimic his look in post... the other way around would not have been a lot more difficult.

reminds me of NCIS series a bit

 

[David Mullen ASC]

https://vimeo.com/92660033

 

[David Mullen ASC]

For me, in terms of minimal halation, from low to high, it would be a 1/2 Black Diffusion/FX, then a 1/4 Radiant Soft, then a 1/8 Black ProMist / Black Frost.