Softening wrinkles with a Schneider Hollywood Black Magic Filter

[jnanian]

Out-of-focus and motion blur as SF lens/filter alternatives... how novel... but it works, I suppose.

... and its free !

[StoneNYC]

no worries from me stone

when i say taking lens, i mean on the camera ( sorry for the lingo ! )

what camera are you planning to do the soft-shots with ? LF or MF or 35mm ?
you might use front focus and have your lens not open all the way
but stopped down a little bit and focus on something infront of your subject
and use the lens' natural ability to soften your subject. it isn't really that hard ...
you could also shoot with something obstructing your lens and that can soften your subject too.
when i say obstructing, i mean like a finger or something physically close to and infront of your lens
when you expose your film ( or whatever ). try exposing everything with deep DOF but at very slow shutter speeds too
( 1/2 S ) long exposures have a way of softening things up too.

have fun!
john

I will mostly B&W shooting on 35mm canon EOS camera, either my 1V or another type, but also my Mamiya RZ67, since almost all the lenses in both systems use 77mm I figured this would be the cheapest option. And I have a 58-77 step down ring for the others.

I'll have to find a really crappy filter to try Vaseline with, I would never do that with my B+W filters...

I'm on set today and I'll try and ask the camera guys about it, but they are often super busy.

Brian I'll take one of your lesser SF's since you don't use them


~Stone

The Noteworthy Ones - Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1 / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic

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[BrianShaw]

My preference tends toward duto filters, then softar I (and its imitators). Many of the others are just too soft an diffuesed for my taste.

[BrianShaw]

I'm on set today and I'll try and ask the camera guys about it, but they are often super busy.

Ask them about Harrison & Harrison Diffusion filters too. Those were very popular with the film industry.

[StoneNYC]

Ask them about Harrison & Harrison Diffusion filters too. Those were very popular with the film industry.

I think Harrison makes a black magic diffusion, I don't need the Schneider version just the hollywood black magic info, not specific to brand.


~Stone

The Noteworthy Ones - Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1 / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic

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[David A. Goldfarb]

Duto and Softar I are about as much as I can stand as well.

[StoneNYC]

So the little time I had to snag a camera operator to ask them on set today about the Hollywood Black Magic filters, he said it's the preferred filter because it gives the best diffusion while still not blowing out the highlights and also not creating any noticeable halo effects on bright lights, this is why they use them. Sold me! Now I just have to save my pennies, I'm still looking for a cheap 4x5 field camera with lots of movements, so the filter will have to wait, I guess I sort of answered my own question. But I did learn a bunch of fun techniques to try in a pinch. Thanks guys!

I'm leaving this thread open for now if anyone with more info or anyone who's actually used them wishes to comment.

He said the preferred version was the 1/2 and sometimes the 1 stop filters, not so much the other ones. Which makes sense.