filter that would tone the colors

[Deniz Zagra]

Hi,

I'm looking for a filter that would desaturate and tone (add gray) the colors in the frame. I know that this can be accomplished in  post, but having a filter that would deliver me these results in camera would save me so much time. I contacted Tiffen, but they weren't able to find a suitable filter. Right now, I'm thinking about getting a gray colored gel and putting that in front of the lens. I don't know if that would work, but I'm really desperate at this point. The look I'm after is kind of similar to the look of Robin Hood (2010). I read an interview with the cinematographer John Mathieson, but the article didn't delve into color grading.

 

Just out of curiosity, how was this accomplished when DI was not a thing yet? Internegatives, or choice of print stock?

Thanks

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Hi!

Are you looking for something like this?

https://tiffen.com/products/tiffen-warm-diffusion-antique-pearlescent
Tiffen has got some more „antique“ filters.

 

Hoya also has got some filters for a „nostalgic“ look, but they might be „too sepia“:

https://hoyafilterusa.com/products/hoya-sepia-b?pr_prod_strat=use_description&pr_rec_id=5e7d9b024&pr_rec_pid=4164840226896&pr_ref_pid=4164840194128&pr_seq=uniform

Jörg 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Joerg Polzfusz

[Deniz Zagra]

I didn't know that Tiffen had filters for an antique look. Thanks! While this might also be useful, I'm looking for one that would have a stronger effect, closer to monochromatic. Sort like these:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0955308/mediaviewer/rm1667730688?ref_=ttmi_mi_all_sf_9

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4244994/mediaviewer/rm1774779905?ref_=ttmi_mi_all_sf_3

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11214590/mediaviewer/rm3428443137?ref_=ttmi_mi_all_sf_39

https://screenmusings.org/movie/blu-ray/The-Thin-Red-Line/pages/The-Thin-Red-Line-125.htm

[David Mullen ASC]

"Robin Hood" was color-corrected digitally where saturation level is a simple adjustment.

I desaturated the movie "Northfork" (2002) photochemically. The non-digital solution combining multiple techniques:

1) Art direct the movie in b&w -- this is the most effective way to reduce color in the frame, by actually reducing it in front of the camera. The problem is that any other desaturation approach lowers color overall and pastels drop away faster than primaries, and faces tend to be in the pastel range, so they lose color more obviously than, for example, a red stop sign.

2) Lower the contrast and lift the blacks of the negative. This can involve using haze on set, flashing the negative, using misty/foggy filters. The lifted blacks cause colors to look softer, like when you mix some white paint into a color paint.

3) Skip-bleach processing. This leaves black silver in the film. If done to the print (if printing) then it adds contrast to the shadows, counteracting the loss of blacks from Step 2. 

There is no color filter that desaturates color. At best, a heavy color filter will cause opposite color wavelengths to get canceled, reducing the color range of the image -- for example, a heavy Sepia or Chocolate will get rid of a lot of blue information, so even if later you corrected out the sepia color, you don't get back to full saturation.

In the case of "Northfork", being a winter story, we pulled the 85 color-correction filter and used tungsten stocks in daylight to get a bluer negative with reduced reds.

For the movie, we had a b&w American flag sewn, we put grey paint in ketchup bottles, we covered red leather seats in the diner with grey contact paper, we put b&w xerox Campbell's Soup labels on cans.

We also flashed the negative, we used ProMist diffusion ,we hazed the sets, we shot uncorrected tungsten film in daylight, and we did a skip bleach print.