Best Filter to Simulate Film Halation (Highlight Blooming)

[George A.]

What about the new true Low Con OLPFs from KipperTie?

Any news/updates on those?

I find that the Pearl halates a little too much. The Carbon halates less, but there are bokeh artifacts.

I think a regular Low Con 1/8 or 1/4 embedded in the OLPF would be great.




---

 

[Marc Wielage]

To be fair (I originally suggested it was the glass too), it's super easy to raise blacks in post... You can do halation in post too, but I find there's a lot more nuance to blooms looking good/real compared to raised blacks (which generally look the same when done in the grade). Truth be told, if there was a lens filter that made things look like the original pics, I'd definitely prefer to use it than having to source vintage glass. Also, nylon on the lens does a very similar thing -- raises black and blooms/halates the highs really nicely -- but it's inconsistent.

I think the best answer is shoot a bunch of tests first. The advantage of doing it all in post is: you can dial the effect up and down on a shot-by-shot basis and precisely control where and what the diffusion/highlight/halation effect is doing. The advantage of doing it all on the set is: it's faster, plus it's more organic. I could go either way depending on the time & budget situation with the specific project.

My thinking would be to go halfway on the set with some glass filter diffusion, and then take it the rest of the way in post with highlight keys and plug-in filters and all that stuff. Tiffen makes a pretty decent fog filter / glow / pearlescent effects package as part of their DFX plug-ins, and they work pretty well. Note you need a very heavy-duty processor to get this to work in real-time.

If you can absolutely make the commitment, no question it will be faster and less trouble to do it live on set with a real filter. But the problem with that is what I typically see is that the filters affect wide shots differently from medium shots and differently from close-ups. Unless you can change the filter every time you change a lens, this could be an issue. In post, it's just cranking the knob up or down to pull back on the effect when necessary, as (for example) a situation where a practical is in the shot and getting much too much diffusion and "glow" off to one side.

I'm a big fan of the look of 1/8 black Pro Mists in general, but I gotta say the Tiffen Glimmerglass filters have a beautiful look that's very hard to emulate digitally. Tiffen has an entire page devoted to Halation:

http://tiffen.com/diffusion/

 

[George A.]

But the problem with that is what I typically see is that the filters affect wide shots differently from medium shots and differently from close-ups. Unless you can change the filter every time you change a lens, this could be an issue. In post, it's just cranking the knob up or down to pull back on the effect when necessary, as (for example) a situation where a practical is in the shot and getting much too much diffusion and "glow" off to one side.

A low contrast OLPF (behind the lens) will affect all shots equally, regardless if it's a wide-shot, medium or close-up.




---

 

[Mike P.]

Marc makes a good point though; I do think that half on set, tweaked and shot-to-shot-balanced in post would make for the best, most consistent results.


... speaking of Tiffen; is it just me or should they make a "cool" black promist instead of a warm one... The colour temp can be so easily changed in even a simple NLE grade, however, it'd be welcomed to get a boost (no matter how tiny) in the blue channel on CMOS sensors (which can then be graded/wb to a really clean daylight/warm in post).

 

[Daniel Stilling]

Those examples to me really look more of a lens character than film emulsion. I love using the Hollywood Black Magic to achieve that.