Low contrast filters

[Simon Wyndham]

With a low budget shoot coming up in a forest soon where there can be extremes of dappled light going on in the background, I was wondering if anyone here uses the Ultra con, or digicon filters at all, and whether or not the concensus was that they were valuable filters or not?

[Markus Rave]

I tried the Ultra Cons in various sizes. The effect is very minimalistic and me liking the blacks beeing black have not been able to use them to my advantage. The scene you describe seems worth a try though since the contrast edges will not be spoiled like with a ProMist or BlackProMist. You will loose some blacks though but surely not all of them and this might do the trick. I have not found the lower grades like half or quarter beeing much of a use but have made some results using grade 1 or 2. You might go ahead as David Mullen seems to do many times and adjust the black level slightly under 0. Also cut down the detail a bit. Do not, as some mentioned in the forum, shut off detail. You will not able to get it back in post in the quality the camera will add it.

 

Cheers

 

Markus

 

PS: I was using DVW 700 and the HDW 900 with the UltraCons.