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Posted

Me and my workmate often have this discussion about what density of diffusion filter to use on certain focal lengths on a two camera shoot.

He thinks that higher density filters need to be used on wide angle lenses, whereas less dense filters need to be used on telephoto lenses.
To make the shots match in the editing.

I would claim the exact opposite. Use a denser filter on telephoto and a less dense one for wide angle shots.
My theory is that wide angle shots often tend to look to creamy and lack sharpness when combined with heavy diffusion filtration.
Hence my gravitating towards lighter filters on wide shots. 
Plus the heavier diffusion on close ups benefits the rendition of skin (especially in the age of 4K resolution).

What are your takes in this topic? 
What is the traditional/common way to use diffusion filters on different focal lengths?

Posted (edited)

Daniel, matching diffusion from lens to lens is tricky. It does not depend on debates; it depends on tests. You don't shoot a project on speculation; you shoot it on facts. You get the facts by testing.

In the USA we got B+H. It is a simple matter to buy all sorts of diffusion filters to see what work for the project before shooting it and return the unneeded filters.

Do you have such a source in Germany, where you can try different options?

Good luck!

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Posted

Two different concepts regarding diffusion. Longer lenses need less diffusion to match the degree of softening compared to shorter lenses, though the jumps in filter strengths may be bigger than that difference… but wider shots need less diffusion than tighter shots because our eye craves more detail in wide shots.

So together it may mean the simplest thing is to just use the same filter if your wider shots are on shorter focal lengths and your tighter shots are on longer focal lengths (which is not always true.)

The complicated answer is that so many things affect the perceived sharpness of the image that you have to evaluate which filter strength to use based on the individual shot rather than follow rules blindly.

 

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