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Blooming Highlights on Dragon

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Dana Rice

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Hi, all... I recently worked with a Dragon for the first time on a feature I'm shooting... it's a 2 camera shoot with a Dragon and an MX. The Dragon is from Panavision and is using Primo lenses. On the last 2 days of shooting I've noticed somewhat extreme blooming in the highlights. The blooming is not present in the MX footage and was also not present in previous footage from the Dragon up until these last 2 days. It had been used for at least 13 or 14 days, many of them day exteriors prior to this with no noticeable blooming. There is no filtration being added outside of ND... lenses have not changed... OLPF hasn't changed... firmware hasn't been updated, etc. I'm just curious if this blooming is normal for the Dragon sensor? If so, it seems odd that it only appeared on these last 2 days and not before.
bloom.jpg
 
Need to know a lot more information:
- What ISO?
- What OLPF?
- What aperture?
- What type of NDs and what strengths?

On the STH OLPF I can create a similar bloom when i want it, but it depends mostly on the lighting conditions.
 
I agree with phil, what are the settings?
 
If you have to match the footage, and one camera is blooming and the other is not, my suggestion would be to add some diffusion in post with various plug-ins, like the Tiffen Filter package, Boris FX Continuum, or GenArts Sapphire. Unfortunately, there's no way to remove diffusion once it's baked-in, so it would be more a problem of adding the same kind of diffusion to the other footage in order to match it. Some mist FX to the highlights might do the job as well.

I'm wondering if it could be some kind of glare kicking back into the matte box or something. Could be a bunch of stuff. But I've seen Dragon material be rock steady and have a great, punchy, contrasty look, exactly what you'd expect.
 
ISO is usually 320... occasionally 800... OLPF is STH... aperture is usually around 4 - 5.6.... ND's are TIFFEN no IR... usually a 1.2 sometimes a .9

These are all the same settings I was using earlier in the shoot and I wasn't noticing it then. Nothing has really changed, which is why it seems weird to me.
 
Lens or filters.. nothing more.
Had the same issue today, pulled out the filter and quickly discovered the cause of the problem. And they looked quite clean, however the bloom was caused purely by glass with probably only 1% haze.
Shot a gig with Pano and Cooke glass a while back, same problem. Only one lens from each batch causing the issue.
Sometimes and I mean sometimes... lenses and filters age badly.
 
Very unlikely that's it's sensor related, photosites just record the light that hits each one, they don't scatter light in and of themselves. This is an optical issue, lens, filter, OLPF or a combination. Keep the filters away from the hairspray :-)
 
It's not the sensor - it's something optical.

Graeme
 
This is just about the exact look I get from some of the older leica r lenses or my nikon vintage glass. I like the look of those primo's, what lenses were on the other camera?

It's probably coating related. As an aside, I actually like this look, but I totally see the issues if you are wanting to intercut things and stuff is happening on one camera and not the other.
 
Marc Wielage said:
If you have to match the footage, and one camera is blooming and the other is not, my suggestion would be to add some diffusion in post with various plug-ins, like the Tiffen Filter package, Boris FX Continuum, or GenArts Sapphire. Unfortunately, there's no way to remove diffusion once it's baked-in, so it would be more a problem of adding the same kind of diffusion to the other footage in order to match it. Some mist FX to the highlights might do the job as well.
Click to expand...
this post deserves a like.

Me, I love me some of that old fashioned Contax Zeiss / STH OLPF bloom.
 
Paul Russell said:
this post deserves a like. Me, I love me some of that old fashioned Contax Zeiss / STH OLPF bloom.
Click to expand...
You know, I gotta say that the "slight diffusion/bloom" look is a popular one, one that I see in a lot of contemporary TV shows and features. The Alexa definitely goes in that direction, sort of like a 1/4-Pro Mist thing. But it's a pleasing look, though I concede it may not be what the o.p. wants or is appropriate for a specific project.
 
The bloom effect is popular but must follow what story is being told. I don't think a bloom-effect serves a darker or more serious story, doesn't mix well, but for this there's not much to do but match other shots in post adding post-bloom.

As for what caused it? It seems like there's moist in the optics or a difference in temperatur between the glass and the environment. It could be that the glass has been in a case which seemed to be in the right temperature, but was actually giving it a different climate than outside.
 
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