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Q: Whats's your favorite beauty lens/filter/light?

B

BRANDON JAMESON

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Whats's your favorite beauty lens/filter/light?

And why do you love them?

My favorite beauty lens is a Carl Zeiss 58mm F2 Biotar T Lens

Favorite light: Briese line of light modifiers and mated HMIs

Favorite beauty filter: Hollywood Black Magic 1/8 or a black/super sheer Fogal stocking snot-taped to the back of the lens.
 
Favourite beauty lens: Zeiss 85mm T/2.1 CP.2, it can make almost anyone look pretty.

Favourite Light: MoleBeam paired with HMI bulbs, it's magic in a can. A huge, silver and burgundy can.

Favourite Beauty Filter: Black ProMist 1/4, it take the hard edge of reality off digital footage. A lovely, lovely filter.
 
Would love to hear from more Redusers on this one!

What's YOUR favorite beauty lens, light, filters?
 
My favorite thing is to photograph a beautiful women who looks great under any light, with any lens!

There isn't a one-size-fits-all when it comes to lenses and faces, some respond to different focal lengths better than others, and sharpness can be controlled with filtration, so I'm not afraid to use a Master Prime to shoot a close-up, not if I have some filters with me.

As for filters, it depends on the combination of softening versus halation you want, and what filter artifacts you are trying to avoid, but that said, I have a homemade net on a 4x5 frame, made from a thin black nylon wedding tule / veil material, that is lighter in effect than any Dior or Fogal stretched on a frame (haven't dealt with nets on the back of lenses yet) and makes faces look great. Bill Wages, ASC turned me onto this stuff, you can find it at many wholesale fabric stores.
 
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David Mullen ASC said:
My favorite thing is to photograph a beautiful women who looks great under any light, with any lens!

There isn't a one-size-fits-all when it comes to lenses and faces, some respond to different focal lengths better than others, and sharpness can be controlled with filtration, so I'm not afraid to use a Master Prime to shoot a close-up, not if I have some filters with me.

As for filters, it depends on the combination of softening versus halation you want, and what filter artifacts you are trying to avoid, but that said, I have a homemade net on a 4x5 frame, made from a thin black nylon wedding tule / veil material, that is lighter in effect than any Dior or Fogal stretched on a frame (haven't dealt with nets on the back of lenses yet) and makes faces look great. Bill Wages, ASC turned me onto this stuff, you can find it at many wholesale fabric stores.
Click to expand...

Thank you, Sir David!
 
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In preference order.

40mm front light.
100mm top light.
21mm back light.
85mm side light.

But this is just in my head. The face, the location, the wardrobe and the context of the 'beauty' shot will dictate what's best...
 
BRANDON JAMESON said:
Whats's your favorite beauty lens/filter/light?
My favorite beauty lens is a Carl Zeiss 58mm F2 Biotar T Lens
Click to expand...

Great choice of lens! Literally a "Classic"!

Filterwise, I'm a big fan of Classic Soft 1/4 and 1/2. Black Magic 1/2. Glimmerglass can be nice too.
 
Nick Morrison said:
Great choice of lens! Literally a "Classic"!

Filterwise, I'm a big fan of Classic Soft 1/4 and 1/2. Black Magic 1/2. Glimmerglass can be nice too.
Click to expand...

I haven't tried Glimmerglass, what is the difference between it and Classic Soft, Nick?

Here's another cool way to achieve an amazing locked-off shot of an older actress, taught to me by Dutch cinematographer, Kees Hageman.

1)Point two strong hot lights into white boards slightly behind and on either side of the camera, facing away from talent.

2)Stretch a king sized white sheet over a frame and place it vertically between the lights/camera and the talent.

3) Cut a hole in the sheet that is just large enough for your lens to poke through, adjust your lights and shoot.

We just used this set-up for a series of fashion films and the results are amazing.
 
GlimmerGlass could be described as a Silver ProMist (silver specks rather than black specks in a Black ProMist). The silver specks have a similar effect as the black ones in Black ProMist, to reduce some of the loss of contrast that comes from the halation due to the mist particles.

Classic Soft is different, instead of a dispersed particulate matter that spreads light, the glass has a pattern of indented dimples that act to blur the image, surrounded by clear areas to allow a sharp image to pass through. Since these round dimples get very large and out of focus being close to the lens, they produce some unique flare artifacts -- a hot backlight edge may have a blurred halation effect, almost like that hot line has been thrown out of focus and then layered back over the image. At certain longer focal lengths and strengths, a point of light will produce a ring from reflecting around the edge of the dimple. Some examples from "War of the Worlds" from using a Classic Soft:

Blurred hot edges:
wotw3.jpg


Ring around lights:
wotw4.jpg


wotw5.jpg


Because the dimple pattern is so strong and regular in the glass, Schneider created the HD Classic Soft with smaller, more random dimples so that the pattern would not come into semi-focus on cameras with more depth of field (like 2/3" video) or the pattern would not get too large and blurred on longer lenses. When they added the 1/8 Black Frost to the HD Classic Soft, they called it the Hollywood Black Magic (when they added the 1/8 Black Frost to the regular Classic Softs, they just called it Classic Soft Black.)
 
S4 65mm (although 90mm on the cabrio is pretty sweet when wide open)

9light through a 4x of 216 into a 12x of unbleached muslin with a grid.

1/8th Hollywood black magic.

You get a huge eye kick....
 
Timur Civan said:
S4 65mm (although 90mm on the cabrio is pretty sweet when wide open)

9light through a 4x of 216 into a 12x of unbleached muslin with a grid.

1/8th Hollywood black magic.

You get a huge eye kick....
Click to expand...

Timar, thank you for expertise and generosity of knowledge and talent!

I invite all Redusers to keep this thread going with as many of your ideas as possible!!!

Who's next? :)
 
BRANDON JAMESON said:
I haven't tried Glimmerglass, what is the difference between it and Classic Soft, Nick?

Here's another cool way to achieve an amazing locked-off shot of an older actress, taught to me by Dutch cinematographer, Kees Hageman.

1)Point two strong hot lights into white boards slightly behind and on either side of the camera, facing away from talent.

2)Stretch a king sized white sheet over a frame and place it vertically between the lights/camera and the talent.

3) Cut a hole in the sheet that is just large enough for your lens to poke through, adjust your lights and shoot.

We just used this set-up for a series of fashion films and the results are amazing.
Click to expand...

Would love to see the results of this set up, Brandon.

Mike
 
David Mullen ASC said:
I have a homemade net on a 4x5 frame, made from a thin black nylon wedding tule / veil material, that is lighter in effect than any Dior or Fogal stretched on a frame (haven't dealt with nets on the back of lenses yet) and makes faces look great. Bill Wages, ASC turned me onto this stuff, you can find it at many wholesale fabric stores.
Click to expand...

David,

can you share the name/model/manufacturer of the material you're using as a net solution ?

Thanks.

- M
 
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