Dirty window look

[Ingo Stahl]

Hi everyone,

I've been reading for a while, but this is my first post. Already now, thanks for your input!

I'm about to shoot a daylight promotional video at a location with a large wall of windows. There is construction going on outside and the overall outlook isn't pretty so I'm thinking about ways to obscure the view. One option I'm considering is taping Hampshire Frost on the back side of the windows. They are actually large windows with the "grid look" only applied on the inside, so it would be pretty easy to tape the frost gel from the outside.

What I would like even better than this "perfect" matte though, is something like in the photo attached.

I'm thinking this might be a mixture of dirt, steam and some sort of dulling spray? I would have to ask the location if I could even apply dulling spray to the windows, but generally I'm interested if any of you have created a look like in the photo attached and if so, with which tricks and tools.

Bonus question: What's your guess on the light source outside the window?

Thanks and have a lovely day everyone!

Ingo

Edited November 28, 2023 by Ingo Stahl
typo

[Ed Conley]

You don't need to tape the gel. Just use a spray bottle application and then you can Art department the distressed windows.

peel off the gels after the shoot.

here is an example using ND gel. 
 

 

[Ingo Stahl]

Thanks Ed,

we ended up going with taping 1/2 Hampshire Frost from the outside, simply because there wasn't time to clean all the windows after the shoot, plus  I didn't want to cut all the pieces perfectly to size. Once I'm allowed to post stills from the project I will share a pic of how it ended up looking.