Tiffen Ultra Contrast Filters etc - do they work?

A

andrew00

Well-known member
Hey,

I've been reading a lot of threads on the forums about the Tiffen Ultra Contrast filters and not really got a conclusive answer.

I was wondering if anyone has used them and knows if you can slap one on the camera and if it really does increase dynamic range by pulling in the extremes of high/low or if it just feigns doing so by increasing the gamma or whatever without actually giving a real improvement.

I remember back when we were all trying out the different presets Superflat was popular but in the end just seemed to give the image a grey appearance without necessarily increasing dynamic range.

Obviously you can't change the cameras sensor, but if you can reduce the extremes it can help.
 
andrew00 said:
Hey,
... if it really does increase dynamic range by pulling in the extremes of high/low....
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You can't change the dynamic range of the camera. What you're doing is cramming more detail into whatever dynamic range you have at the expense of contrast. How much detail vs. how much contrast you want is something you'll have to figure out on a per-scene and sometimes per-shot basis.

I know this doesn't actually address whether a Tiffen Ultra Contrast helps, but that's my point: You can't just apply a universal filter on a DSLR. You have to try to get as close to what you want as possible in camera when it comes to dynamic range. Yes, you can grade the contrast back some, but if you push the shadows or highlights too far into the mid-tones, you can't send it back with just a contrast slider. It just doesn't look the same in my experience. That's why superflat just turns your image grey. Once you've gone that far, it's not really possible for a super-compressed 8-bit image to come back.
 
Short Answer. They help a lot. Depending on what you are looking for.

Rent some in different strengths and test them before you buy.
 
Surely just shooting as flat as possible and doing this in post is infinitely easier? And if you know for sure you want a contrasty image before you start shooting, why not just do it in-camera? No need to put extra glass in the way of the sensor that isn't needed
 
Ayr, thanks for the replies. I thought the way Digital works is that most of the cameras's dynamic range is concentrated in the middle 1/3 of the image.

Ergo I thought having a filter that brings in the highs/lows into that middle third bring more of the image into that more responsive area. So does it really reduce the detail you get?

Also, by bringing in the extremes aren't you giving yourself greater latitude to expand in post? I.E. If the filter brings in a spot that might otherwise blow out, you can then raise the entire brightness of the image a bit more etc.

As in the problem w/the Superflat's of the world is they changed the entire image to the muddy grey feel. Do the contrast filters do this or can they be used just in the extremes to bring things in without affecting the overal quality of the image, especially in the middle areas.

This'd be useful especially since colour correcting an image often pushing different colours to different extremes, so if you have a bit of headroom etc...

I myself prefer low contrast images - my favourite photographer for example is Juergen Teller who shoots film (Portra NC aka low contrast) and often has low contrast in his images, e.g. - http://www.selectism.com/news/wp-co...ller-marc-jacobs-advertising-1998-2009-01.jpg or http://www.re-title.com/public/artists/2137/2/Juergen-TellerLouisXV-1.jpg

a
 
Hey, so I bought the filter, hurrah. At first I thought it was second hand when I got it as the paint seemed to be a bit flaky and the threads a little rough. However, I'm actually wondering if it's just Tiffen's average build quality?

Either way, I thought I'd do a test for people to check out. Anyone interested in that? If so let me know the best way to do it, i.e. what to shoot and how/where etc. I've got shots of just random stuff looking at the contrast but if there's a specific and better way to test I'll do it...
 
I'm definitely interested in how well these work.

I was interested in buying one so that I could brighten up the shadows and then stop the lens down to pull more detail out of the highlights.

I was also curious of how well they would work in conjunction with a polarizing filter.

The way I think of it, if I were to use both an Ultra Contrast and a Polarizer, with the polarizer being attached to the lens and the ultra contrast attached to the polarizer since I would imagine the Ultra Contrast won't work well with linear light, then I should be able to bring in a few stops more latitude.
 
i read all the posts there and they don't mention it at all.
i have GH2 myself and waiting for someone in the forum to shoot a test.
 
roei z said:
i read all the posts there and they don't mention it at all.
i have GH2 myself and waiting for someone in the forum to shoot a test.
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I was going to buy a 1 or 2 filter this month, but I think I'll try the Tiffen software instead to see if I can get more use out of it.
 
you prefer waiting for post? i don't.. i prefer to first try to get an image as close to what i want while shooting.
i e-mailed the guy that shot the clip, asking him about it.
if it's post, i'll need to see it on full rez to decide. a lot of post work looks "baked". and this video upload is sd quality.
if they used lens filters, it's safe to say it will look good enough watching it on HD
 
roei z said:
you prefer waiting for post?
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Yeah, generally. It gives me more options.

i e-mailed the guy that shot the clip, asking him about it.
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I'd love to hear what he has to say. That vid turned a lot of people on to DSLRs.

if it's post, i'll need to see it on full rez to decide. a lot of post work looks "baked". and this video upload is sd quality.
if they used lens filters, it's safe to say it will look good enough watching it on HD
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A lot of post work does look baked, but I don't think a contrast leveling would look bad.
 
this video is pretty old.. if it was that easy to tweak in post, there were a lot of videos looking like that.. hmmm
 
roei z said:
this video is pretty old.. if it was that easy to tweak in post, there were a lot of videos looking like that.. hmmm
Click to expand...

I'm betting they did it in-camera. Just hoping that the Tiffen filter software can achieve close results.
 
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