"Soft" but not soft look. How is this achieved?

jambredz

jambredz

Veteran
Take a look ok...that soft but not soft look is more like an organic feel (some would say similar to film i guess). its like a very slight diffusion is on it. Skin tones are smooth and creamy. I know most go after super sharp and "clean (hate that term) images from these dslr's but i MUCH rather this look. This looks more high end to me and does remind me of the look of higher end cameras. Apart from dialing sharpness all the way down which i do, and very soft lighting which they all have...is this achieved in grading?

7D (L glass i believe)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frv6FOt1BNI



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X85UUDhZaCw



5d ( i have heard)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOAMfUJ3tsc&ob=av3e
 
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That first video with the 7D looks remarkable if it was in fact shot with the Canon 7D (certainly could have been for at least the large majority of its shots.) The lighting is fantastic, that doest most of the job -- it's hard to say without knowing what lenses they were using, as well as filters, but I wouldn't be surprised and I'd bet that a good portion of that smoothing was done in post in addition to their lens choices and filter choices, the skin on most of the talent in that video is flawless most of the time, so there may have been a good bit of rotoscoping work here as well as other techniques along the lines of Magic Bullet's Cosmo to smooth things out.

If they shot that on the 7D it looks to me like they were using very fast lenses an if they were Canon Ls, they probably used the older 24mm f/1.4 L (version I) the 50mm f/1.2 L or maybe even the old 50mm f/1.0 L lens (you can rent these from a few places) - the contrast is pretty low and these shots are a teency bit soft (I agree with you however, it's done in a pleasing way) and the DOF is quite shallow, to pull off DOF that shallow on the 7D even you'd need very fast lenses like the 24/1.4, 50/1.2, 50/1.0 and 85/1.2 (probably the older version I of this too) -- they may have even broken out some of the telephotos and super-telephotos like the 200mm f/1.8 or f/2 Ls or a 300 f/2.8 L - longer lenses will assist in a very nice flattering compression to the image, but beyond all of the above, whoever shot the video definitely knew what they were doing and if shot on a 7D, that's just very impressive.

The answer is really "all of the above." You would need everything to come together just right to pull off that video and I doubt it could be done with *just* lensing, *just* post or *just* lighting expertise -- you've got to get it all very right to pull that off no matter the camera, and even moreso on a 7D as these DSLRs as you've said are often too sharp.

Really wouldn't be surprised if these were older cine lenses as opposed to Canon Ls though, but who knows.
 
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if you're looking for a tool that can simulate some of that in post, it won't be nearly as effective as having good lighting, etc, but I'd say what you're looking for is:
* magic bullet cosmo for soft skin tones
* magic bullet looks (or quick looks) for black diffussion
 
An very old trick that can be handy sometimes: clone the clip, stack them on the timeline, blur one of them, then work the alpha of the other. You can actually get a pretty decent 'subsurface scattering' look with this on occasion, especially if your NLE lets you do zone-specific alpha. The fact that you can independently grade color on the clips can give you more control than the average plug-in -- you can over-saturate a bit on the soft clip, for instance, while cranking up the contrast on the sharp clip....
 
nice techniqure. even if it doesnt yield such results... but this can be very useful for other things. thanks.

NVentive said:
An very old trick that can be handy sometimes: clone the clip, stack them on the timeline, blur one of them, then work the alpha of the other. You can actually get a pretty decent 'subsurface scattering' look with this on occasion, especially if your NLE lets you do zone-specific alpha. The fact that you can independently grade color on the clips can give you more control than the average plug-in -- you can over-saturate a bit on the soft clip, for instance, while cranking up the contrast on the sharp clip....
Click to expand...
 
A lot of shoots I've been on have been using the Tiffen BPM (black pro mist) filters to soften the image and make it look more organic.
 
those Tiffen BPM (black pro mist) filters look great and are not expensive; what grade would you recommend? (it goes from 1/8 to 5, and from some samples I've seen on the web 2 seems to be already a bit too obvious)
 
I totally agree on the organic look.
But then some gh2 or Sony user will chime in and say your canon footage is soft :cheesy:
 
I've often wondered that myself - getting some mesh on the back of an SLR lens. My Nikon glass doesn't have anywhere to wrap a small rubber band like some movie lenses do. How are folks doing this?
 
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