Here ya go! Contax 28/2.8@2.8 this time. Trying to test this lens out a bit more.
No Black Diff (Click for PNG)
77mm Black Diff 3
GH2 Diffusion Filters and GH2
- Thread starter miiko12
- Start date
Here ya go! Contax 28/2.8@2.8 this time. Trying to test this lens out a bit more.
No Black Diff (Click for PNG)
77mm Black Diff 3
Aki_Hartikainen
Carbonite Member
Thanks for the test. I'm thinking it might be possible to use the lens wide open without the filter, as it already has tiny bit of diffusion. Same situation as Minolta MD 35-70 f3.5, the lens offers some diffusion wide open (still useful in most cases). Perhaps add filter for the shots where the lens needs to be stopped down to f4 or f5.6. The filter appears to be worth consideration. Hopefully it is possible to take two versions of a scene, one without the filter and one with it. Probably not practical every time.
I agree with you, Aki. The issue is actually being able to use the glass wide open in broad daylight, to begin with. It would require a lot of ND, thus pushing the noise to a greater level.
If I had a Canon still (sold the 5D) what I would experiment right this moment would be a custom profile just for broad daylight that pushes exposure down drastically. Maybe two stops through the entire curve, that way you could avoid using NDs or stopping down, providing you with the cleanest image you could get. with a highter bitrate, bit depth and color space and greater DR it wouldn't matter much... but these cams don't have any of that.
That's just a theory, anyway.
If I had a Canon still (sold the 5D) what I would experiment right this moment would be a custom profile just for broad daylight that pushes exposure down drastically. Maybe two stops through the entire curve, that way you could avoid using NDs or stopping down, providing you with the cleanest image you could get. with a highter bitrate, bit depth and color space and greater DR it wouldn't matter much... but these cams don't have any of that.
That's just a theory, anyway.
Aki_Hartikainen
Carbonite Member
You could try to allow some over exposure and then use Shadow/Highlight filter in Adobe's programs, especially the highlight part, to recover detail. You might get a nice surprise, as that filter will be able to recover some detail in the seemingly over exposed areas. It's actually the poor monitors that do not reveal all of the detail that the camera captured. So even if an area looks over exposed on the monitor, some detail could still be there. Just not visible without some processing.
Hi there, I always used a Tiffen 1/4 or 1/2 black promist filter on the Gh1 with kit lenses - I imagine the Gh2 has similar picture sharpening circuitry (as indeed do DV cameras). This is enough to take the hard edge off the raw image without "softening" it too much and it will also give you a less contrasty look and slightly bloom out highlights to make the image look more like 16mm film and less like video.
Kholi, thanks a lot for the test indeed! I definitely like the look of that. A bit of halation in the highlights but nothing too 'glamorous' for my taste.
After seeing some samples with other diffusion filters, I think I'll get a Black Diffusion as it seems to be the only one (from what I've seen) to softens the image without giving too much halation or glow.
Thanks again for your help!
Just out of curiosity, do you have any examples you could post here? That'd be interesting if only for the sake of comparison!
After seeing some samples with other diffusion filters, I think I'll get a Black Diffusion as it seems to be the only one (from what I've seen) to softens the image without giving too much halation or glow.
Thanks again for your help!
Just out of curiosity, do you have any examples you could post here? That'd be interesting if only for the sake of comparison!
At first, I didn't know if I liked it but the more I flopped back and forth, and after testing out some sharpening, I definitely like it. The other thing I noticed is how it helps highlight roll-off in general, and how it reduces harsh highlights.
I think I want to get a 2 just in case, for interior shooting, but I'm sold on it more than I was previously. Needs more testing.
Think trying Cinema for a while may help hone in on what to use. Trying Nature out, it was a bit too saturated for my tastes at first glance, but it COULD be a good thing in the end.
Do you mean sharpening in the picture profile settings?
As Tiffen doesn't sell the BD#2 in screw-in version, I was thinking to set the sharpening at -2 when shooting outdoors around f4.0 and above and at -1 or 0 when shooting inside at faster aperture...
Maybe at some point it'd be possible to 'match' the softness between outdoors and indoors.
Cinema could be indeed much more usable considering the low contrast given by the BD#3. And the skin tone (and colors in general) given by Cinema seemed always better to my eye than other picture profiles.
Post sharpening, like local contrast adjustments, or in Magic Bullet Denoiser, the sharpening setting.
I wouldn't throw the sharpening up in camera, do it in post IMO. But test it out!
I am actually, seriously, beginning to like Cinema a lot. As another qwerty123 mentioned in another thread, I think the disappointment with colored highlights comes from a lack of proper white balance, and that's about it. I still need to do more testing, but so far so good.