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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Epic & old glass

Available light and a MK II 65

Part of what I hope to develop into an exhibitionworthy portait of a (somewhat fictional) woman of many faces...
Now: Funding... :)

Shot 2 days.
Plan 15 more to cover the extremes... :)

I like to be kind to skin in grades.

322926_10151156201035126_1648905761_o.jpg


221037_10151156204505126_933170954_o.jpg
 
Timur Civan said:
Skin Tone Test with the Wollensak as Promised: NSFW

PW: skin





The lens is an F5.0, but i stopped down to a F5.6 for most of this, that 1/3 stop makes a big difference. ISO was set to 2500 for a large majority of this. Only the very tight close ups are at 800, where i could get exposure. A lot of the "over exposure" is the flare lifting the mid tones up, there is very little you can do to control it. Its one of the quirks of this lens. One of the oddest, but good things is that the Wollensak lifts the black level up so high with its veil flare, that it pushes it up out of the range of the noise floor. One of the reasons that despite being shot at 2500 ISO, the image is so clean. Makes me want to experiment with heavy ultracon filters on normal lenses.
Click to expand...

WOW. This looks amazing.

A) I love how sharp it gets. Proof that OLD glass can be RAZOR SHARP. I've been collecting loads of lenses the past 2 years, and the first thing I noticed is exactly this: OLD GLASS CAN BE CRAZY SHARP. Improvements in lens design over the decades appear to focus on fixing other problems: distortion, flare, color, CA, even performance across the frame and across apertures, consistency of color across a LINE of glass. But sharpness? I have lenses from the 50's that can cut through brick.

And THIS LENS is a 100 years old. So further proof of how SHARP glass was, even early on.


B) The flare on this is breath-taking. I'm so grateful you did this test. From what I've been reading, it looks like lens coatings become popular after the war. So 40's and onwards. Pre-War lenses are much more likely to be completely un-coated, and thus susceptible to very unique and rarely seen types of flare. Your test totally showed how wonderful this flare can look. There was a dreamy quality at times I loved. And yes...big case for testing Ultracons.

Thanks again Timur. You're devotion to craft is the shit.
 
James T Mather said:
Low exposure a la David Fincher also assists this film-look quality I find.
Click to expand...

Hey James can you elaborate on the "low exposure" look of David Fincher? I don't think I realized he was doing this.

Do you mean how dark his frames are? With little pools of light in the frame and on peoples faces, with high contrast ratios? (Ala Dragon Tattoo?). I just think you are bringing up something really interesting, and wanna make sure I understand it completely. Thanks.
 
Nick Morrison said:
Hey James can you elaborate on the "low exposure" look of David Fincher? I don't think I realized he was doing this.

Do you mean how dark his frames are? With little pools of light in the frame and on peoples faces, with high contrast ratios? (Ala Dragon Tattoo?). I just think you are bringing up something really interesting, and wanna make sure I understand it completely. Thanks.
Click to expand...

All of Finchers stuff is very dark and lighting very natural. I think that's why it looks so cinematic. He doesn't do anything stylized lighting wise, it's always based on practicals.
 
Matt Ryan said:
All of Finchers stuff is very dark and lighting very natural. I think that's why it looks so cinematic. He doesn't do anything stylized lighting wise, it's always based on practicals.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. Thanks, Matt.

I wonder if this approach helps him place his B-Cam across the room? Without too much lighting or gear in the way, Im guessing this cleans up sight lines and make this easier, right?
 
Nick Morrison said:
Gotcha. Thanks, Matt.

I wonder if this approach helps him place his B-Cam across the room? Without too much lighting or gear in the way, Im guessing this cleans up sight lines and make this easier, right?
Click to expand...

Every lighting setup is minimal and usually overhead or just out of frame. Definitely makes getting multiple angles at once easy. Check out the bts of Social Network and GWTDT. Lighting is pretty minimal especially in interiors. Mainly kino flo's diffused with some book lights every once in a while.

Here are some shots from my shoot this past weekend. 18mm Super Speed MKII (I love super speeds). These are all pulled from steadicam shots.
Bike_Sun.jpg

A012_C003_0811J1.0001075.jpg

A012_C003_0811J1.0001079.jpg

A012_C032_0811RD_S000.0000000.jpg

A012_C031_08111P.0000802.jpg
 
Matt Ryan said:
Every lighting setup is minimal and usually overhead or just out of frame. Definitely makes getting multiple angles at once easy. Check out the bts of Social Network and GWTDT. Lighting is pretty minimal especially in interiors. Mainly kino flo's diffused with some book lights every once in a while.

Here are some shots from my shoot this past weekend. 18mm Super Speed MKII (I love super speeds). These are all pulled from steadicam shots.
Bike_Sun.jpg

A012_C003_0811J1.0001075.jpg

A012_C003_0811J1.0001079.jpg

A012_C032_0811RD_S000.0000000.jpg

A012_C031_08111P.0000802.jpg
Click to expand...

Matt these Super Speed shots are AMAZING. I just love that "look". The blacks are rich, but the whites have that "glow" that I've come to love. You've done an amazing job with these. Congrats, sir. 10 million kudos.
 
Nick Morrison said:
Matt these Super Speed shots are AMAZING. I just love that "look". The blacks are rich, but the whites have that "glow" that I've come to love. You've done an amazing job with these. Congrats, sir. 10 million kudos.
Click to expand...

Thanks Nick! I love the way the brights sort of flare out and the way they render contrast. Not as crunchy and sharp as the newer Zeiss lenses.
 
IMO the superspeeds give almost as much "film look" as film grain. Great shots Matt...
 
Lovely stuff Matt!

I have this hunch that sensor-resolution is as important when using "sfter" "imperfect" glass, because the imperfections (which are often smoothness like bleeding in highlights, special flareing) becomes too harsh when you don have the rez and gradients available to gently represent the optical imperfections.

Same goes for glass like the Masters or RPP's, which I frankly didn't like much on the R1. They became too "crisp", but with the Epic and the higher precission it offers and "fatter image", and not the least, carracteristics in the extremes of the exposurerange, pin-sharp glass, becomes more gentle, too. Really dig Masters and RPPs... On Epic.

the other approach - offered by Alexa, is a lot of pre-filtering of the image, to make it more gentle.
That approach is available on the Epic too, you just need to choose your poison of diffusion yourself.

I like that.

Old glass can be a good startingpoint.

A bit of fog, another.

Either way, you need to do something to mess up the optical path to get a gentler more "filmic" image...
 
Lomo zoom

Lomo zoom

I shoed this here before buit I think it fits in this thread...

lomo zoom 25-80.

A really nice lightweight vintage lens. It has a backmounted removable 2x ana glass that was removed during this little test film.

When Shoting with quite high F stops the lens comes trough as very sharp wide open at 3,5 it's a bit fussy. It fills out the whole 5k sensors almost on all instances only on some focal length with certain focus settings there is vingetting.

If there is any intrest I might want to sell this lens... A perfect indy anamorphic / non anamorphic zoom lens... also have some diopters for it.

https://vimeo.com/42594298
 
Björn Benckert said:
I shoed this here before buit I think it fits in this thread...

lomo zoom 25-80.

A really nice lightweight vintage lens. It has a backmounted removable 2x ana glass that was removed during this little test film.

When Shoting with quite high F stops the lens comes trough as very sharp wide open at 3,5 it's a bit fussy. It fills out the whole 5k sensors almost on all instances only on some focal length with certain focus settings there is vingetting.

If there is any intrest I might want to sell this lens... A perfect indy anamorphic / non anamorphic zoom lens... also have some diopters for it.

https://vimeo.com/42594298
Click to expand...

Nice.
Wish I had the money for it! :)
 
Gunleik Groven said:
Lovely stuff Matt!

I have this hunch that sensor-resolution is as important when using "sfter" "imperfect" glass, because the imperfections (which are often smoothness like bleeding in highlights, special flareing) becomes too harsh when you don have the rez and gradients available to gently represent the optical imperfections.

Same goes for glass like the Masters or RPP's, which I frankly didn't like much on the R1. They became too "crisp", but with the Epic and the higher precission it offers and "fatter image", and not the least, carracteristics in the extremes of the exposurerange, pin-sharp glass, becomes more gentle, too. Really dig Masters and RPPs... On Epic.

the other approach - offered by Alexa, is a lot of pre-filtering of the image, to make it more gentle.
That approach is available on the Epic too, you just need to choose your poison of diffusion yourself.

I like that.

Old glass can be a good startingpoint.

A bit of fog, another.

Either way, you need to do something to mess up the optical path to get a gentler more "filmic" image...
Click to expand...

I wish I could fit this post into a fortune cookie, and take it around with me. A lovely statement on old glass, Gunleik. And the philosophy behind it makes total sense to me. Bravo.
 
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