Filters - Pearlescent & Glimmer Glass

[Eric Soto]

Hey everyone, just wanted to get experience anyone has with the pearlescent and glimmer glass filters. I'm looking for a softening filter, that reduces contrast, without the glow, pro mist look.

 

Thanks,

 

Eric

[David Mullen ASC]

Then don't use Pearlescent or GlimmerGlass -- they are designed to cause halation (glowing) around lights. They are in the same category as ProMists and Frost filters.

 

Filters that reduce contrast usually do it by spreading light from the bright areas into the dark areas, hence they also cause some halation.

 

Ones that do not cause halation but lower contrast use very fine particles to spread the light more evenly across the frame rather than localized around a bright area - filters like Tiffen UltraCons and Schneider DigiCons. Because they lower contrast, they soften the image a little (contrast and sharpness are connected) but they aren't specifically diffusion filters designed to reduce detail.

 

Diffusion filters work by having an element that blurs the image in small areas surrounded by clear areas that let sharp details pass through -- it's the overlay of a blurred image and a sharp image that creates diffusion, rather than simply throwing the image out of focus (though some diffusion filters can do that too unfortunately -- some versions of Mitchell diffusions for example). Because part of the detail is being blurred, that area spreads a little so there is also some halation from diffusion filters, just a less hazy, misty halation than the type that mist filters create.

 

So your choice might be to combine an UltraCon with something like a Black Diffusion/FX filter or a Radiant Soft filter to get both contrast reduction and softening. Or you might just try the Black Diffusion/FX filter or the Radiant Soft filter and hope that the diffusion is enough without the contrast-lowering.

 

You might try to find the less common Tiffen Digital Diffusion/FX, which is a Black Diffusion/FX with the black dot pattern removed. The black dot pattern was supposed to help retain some contrast so removing it might give you some contrast reduction. It's called Digital Diffusion/FX because it came out in the days of 2/3" HD cameras where the extra depth of field of the smaller sensors was causing the black dot pattern to start to come into focus. (Same thing with the Schneider HD Classic Soft -- the dimples in the regular Classic Softs were large enough to be too visible with a 2/3" sensor's extra depth of field so they reduced the size of the pattern of dimples in the glass that create the diffusion effect.)

 

Or try the UltraCon or DigiCon and see if just the contrast loss provides enough softening for you.

[Eric Soto]

Excellent, thank you David, I will look into those.

[Jon O'Brien]

I watched Superman (1978) again the other day and wondered what filter the DP used for that interesting look. I think use of such filters were fairly common in feature movies around that time. But it was a different look to what Lucas got in Star Wars IV.

[David Mullen ASC]

"Superman" was mostly shot with a Harrison & Harrison Fog #2. Modern color-corrections of the movie tend to try and add more contrast and saturation back into the image so the fog filter doesn't look as hazy and foggy as a #2 normally does.

 

 

By comparison, "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" was mostly shot with a Fog #1/2 on the lens.

 

"Star Wars" used a net diffusion for the early scenes in the desert but the rest of the movie was shot clean. "The Empire Strikes Back" used a LowCon filter (I don't know what strength, maybe a #1) for most of the movie except when shooting against blue screens. "Return of the Jedi" used something similar, it seemed to vary at times between a mild Fog, LowCon, or nothing. "The Phantom Menace" and the other prequels used a ProMist, I think a #1/4 mostly.

 

LowCons and Fogs are similar but Fogs are a bit foggier. "Bound For Glory" switches between LowCons and Fogs at times. "Barry Lyndon" was all shot with a LowCon #3 except for the f/0.7 candlelight scenes, which were shot clean (the image was soft enough at that stop.)

[Jon O'Brien]

Very informative, thank you. I recently watched Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home too. I've never much been into the Star Trek movies but I did enjoy that one, directed by Nimoy.