GH4 Black Pro-Mist filter

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RedChalice

Active member
Here is a short video of my GH4 + 1/4 black pro-mist filter attached to a canon 50mm f1.8 in NYC

https://vimeo.com/138480076

I was surprised by the amount of flare/reflections I'm seeing in the footage.. i wonder if the black pro mist used with my speedbooster caused this.. or maybe its a normal effect on these filters(?)

Does anyone have any experience with black pro-mist ?
 
You can get a lot of ghosting and reflections when using filters if you are not careful. Without a lens shade or matte box, all those light sources you filmed bounce around between the filter and the lens. Sometimes this looks cool. A matte box helps. I shot several shots in the videos below with a Black Pro Mist 1/4 and 1/2. I used a 4x4 glass filter in a matte box, however.

[video]https://vimeo.com/witheredworld/lastshow[/video]

This one above, most of the interior shots used the Black Pro Mist. All the singing stuff on stage starting at 3:24 uses it. It created a great halo around the light bulb.


The wide shots of the singer with the sequin dress use it, as well as the close-ups of her alter-ego sitting across from the guy who enters the club.
I think it gives a classic look to shots and softens skin. A little goes a long way.
 
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dvbrother said:
You can get a lot of ghosting and reflections when using filters if you are not careful. Without a lens shade or matte box, all those light sources you filmed bounce around between the filter and the lens. Sometimes this looks cool. A matte box helps. I shot several shots in the videos below with a Black Pro Mist 1/4 and 1/2. I used a 4x4 glass filter in a matte box, however.

[video]https://vimeo.com/witheredworld/lastshow[/video]

This one above, most of the interior shots used the Black Pro Mist. All the singing stuff on stage starting at 3:24 uses it. It created a great halo around the light bulb.


The wide shots of the singer with the sequin dress use it, as well as the close-ups of her alter-ego sitting across from the guy who enters the club.
I think it gives a classic look to shots and softens skin. A little goes a long way.
Click to expand...

interesting.. i wonder how much a lens hood couldve helped in my case.
 
I wish the manufacturer's would multi coat these filters, even a single layer AR coating would be better than nothing.
 
Greg_E said:
I wish the manufacturer's would multi coat these filters, even a single layer AR coating would be better than nothing.
Click to expand...

I'm not an expert, but I imagine since the purpose of filters like Black Pro Mist is to disperse light, to cause flaring of highlights, lifting of shadows and such, that antireflective coating would inhibit their intended effect.

Edit: It looks as though Tiffen offers a Digital HT version of some of their filters which are multi-coated (and more expensive). Pro Mist filters don't seem to have this, though.
 
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The multi coating is just to let light into the glass, and keep it from reflecting off the surface of the glass. the diffusion effects and other parts are done between two sets of glass or molded into the glass. All I really want to do is keep the light fromt reflecting off the surface of the lens back into the filter, etc. They charge a lot for it, but it's a pretty basic process now and not really that expensive when done in larger scales. I was watching a video of how Fuji builds their still camera lenses, they had a very large machine that deposited the metal on the lenses, something in the order of hundreds of elements at a time and they had several machine doing this all day long. Even a single MgFl coating would go a long way to reducing reflections between lens and filter, or filter to filter and should work on all of these diffusions without issues.
 
It looks to me like RedChalice got "hit" by "all of the above". Diffusion enhances flare, I've used a lot of diffusion in my portrait work in the studio, I had one lens designed for it and several filters that gave me varying degrees of diffusion ranging from so subtle you couldn't really tell any was used to "don't even try to focus through this one".

The Canon EF 50mm f1.8 can flare a bit wide open.

The speedbooster introduces a number of extra lens elements (six, I believe) that can contribute to both flare and internal reflections plus it will enhance any flare caused by the near the edges portion of the lens elements (that 50mm wide open again).

In addition the greenish colored "spots" appear to be internal reflections likely caused by the filter surfaces.

All said, though, I love the look of that black pro mist on the singer in the sequined dress. I have one and this tells me I need to find uses for it. Diffusion looks great on portraiture of women, I sure enjoyed using it in my studio days. The first time I saw the film "Somewhere In Time" and what they did in that still of Jane Seymour I almost couldn't enjoy the the movie for scribbling notes on the back of business cards.

I introduced the "Somewhere In Time" portrait in my studio business and had women bringing in dresses their Grandmothers made and wore for it. I had loads of fun and got some really nice portraits.
 
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Black Pro Mist filter is great, used one on all the shots of the model on the bed in this video: https://youtu.be/ip1KtNMrJms

Never gotten the reflections the op mentioned but then I'd probably never use it in the setting that he did (though it did looked cool and i would have assumed it was an intentional style choice). It's more of a tool for skin softening (generally) or if you have a look that requires bloomy highlights.

I also recommend Hollywood Blackmagic filters and Digital Diffusion FX.
 
RedChalice said:
interesting.. i wonder how much a lens hood couldve helped in my case.
Click to expand...

Well with the 50mm lens (ff equiv of 100mm) a pretty deep hood would have helped some in that any light sources coming from an angle blocked by that hood would not have caused any real flare, but any light source the lens FOV included would still cause problems.



dvbrother said:
I think it (black pro-mist filter) gives a classic look to shots and softens skin. A little goes a long way.
Click to expand...

Very much agree on the "classic look". In the early film days some actresses refused to be filmed without some degree of diffusion. A little going a long way is the real truth. Based on this thread I pulled out the two commercial diffusion filters I've purchased for use with m4/3 native lenses.

A Tiffen "black diffusion FX #3" proved to be too strong and adversely affected skin tones when tested with the GH2 a couple of years ago. Needed additional contrast and brightness added in post. Looks much better with the G7/GH4 using Natural "profile". The Tiffen "Black Pro-Mist 1/4" I picked up used at B&H about a year ago does a lot more diffusion than I expected, yet looks like a small amount of increased contrast in post will bring it right where want it.

Both filters provide more diffusion than I would normally like to use but I will likely order lesser strength "Black Pro-Mist" filtration from B&H in the near future. I like the quality of diffusion both filters provide.

A little definitely goes a long way. Dvbrother is spot on with this.

Bruce Foreman
 
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