Please stop leaving your iris's wide open

armisiano

armisiano

Veteran
I'm almost thinking this should go in the Cafe due to it's probably pointless nature, but here it goes.

Every now and again I spend a couple of hours surfing the forum and watching footage. DVX, HVX, HPX, XLH1, etc., I watch'em all. And being a 35mm adapter owner and supporter, I make a point to watch footage shot with an adapter.

I have to say it, because it drives me nuts: People. PLEASE stop leaving your 35mm lenses iris's wide open! At least when you're shooting outside during mid day! It's ridiculous. Yeah, if you're indoors, it makes sense, in the evening, makes sense, IN A SETTING WHERE YOUR EYE'S IRIS WOULD OPEN UP ALLOWING MORE LIGHT IN THUS CREATING A SHALLOWER DEPTH OF FIELD, yes, it's appropriate. But when it's the middle of the afternoon and there's tons of light out, and you're shooting with a 85mm f1.4 wide open, it just looks awkward. In fact it looks almost less "film-like" because no commonly used 35mm cinematic film stock is that slow.

It makes it look cheap. It takes a great concept, and sort of kills it.

This was a silly rant, don't take it as much more than that, but I had to get it out.
 
Yes - what I have tried with my DIY adapter I ve noticed that sharper image quality comes from stopping the lens down.

Although I didn't quite understand the cheap look you mentioned? If you have ran into some vimeo's which look like this, Could you provide a safe link (not offending the person who shot the footage) so we could compare? thanks!
 
true, when it's possible, best is to stop down at least to 2.8, lens don't work best at wide open for sure..
 
I think someone should make a 35mm adapter tutorial for the best, most cinematic look. Almost like Hvx bootcamp. For beginners and pros alike..

That way problems/issues/techniques that people aren't normally told can be easily understood.

i'd buy that.
 
This is precisely the reason I asked about how to calculate the actual camera fstop in this thread.

After shooting with an adapter, it became readily apparent that both the camera AND adapter-lens need to be stopped-down to get an adequate picture (sharpness and even light distribution across the frame), which mean that when shooting indoors a massive amount of light would be required for proper exposure.
 
Dillon Novak said:
I think someone should make a 35mm adapter tutorial for the best, most cinematic look. Almost like Hvx bootcamp. For beginners and pros alike..

That way problems/issues/techniques that people aren't normally told can be easily understood.
Click to expand...

With a 35mm adapter, the selection of the background becomes very important. Many people get an adapter to try and hide poor production design and/or ugly backdrop, this is what makes it look cheap. Think carefully about what will look good when its out of focus vs. in focus and what will not. For example, specular highlights (really bright spots that occur on shiny objects when they're hit with lights) is very attractive when out of focus, same with headlights, street lights etc.

On the other hand, uniform things like bodies of water or a field of grass is very unremarkable when out of focus, especially when you use a long lens. The texture of the surface is lost and you end up with an unrecognizable blob. I wear glasses so I regularly put my glasses on and off to get an approximation of how an area will look when it's out of focus. Works pretty well since a lot of times what you think maybe an attractive background doesn't look that good out of focus.
 
damn, Huy...that's something i never thought of (i wear glasses)...sounds like a good technique, but then again i'm blind as hell w/o my specs...my bokeh may end up looking like a wheat field in Manhattan ...lord knows. i'll have to try it.

Chris
 
skinny! said:
damn, Huy...that's something i never thought of (i wear glasses)...sounds like a good technique, but then again i'm blind as hell w/o my specs...my bokeh may end up looking like a wheat field in Manhattan ...lord knows. i'll have to try it.

Chris
Click to expand...

It's also a dangerous habit to get into. Sometimes when I'm driving at night I just couldn't resist slipping my glasses off for a moment to admire the pretty bokeh made by the cars' headlights :(
 
yeah, i do the same, and when the horn sound in the begining of "Runnin' With The Devil" by Van Halen enters my mind, i snap back into reality. "not everything is a film" is what i say to myself hourly.
 
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