why is soft bad?

cecil995

cecil995

Well-known member
Here is my question,

From reading alot of post on this forum, the general opinion seems to be that if i shot is soft then it is not good. Maybe its just personal taste, but there are alot of real world examples ( most music videos and television comercials) where very soft footage seems to be the choice. Granted, that trend is not as popular in movies, but I don't see any technical problems with a shot being soft.....depends more on the feel of the movie and what look is trying to be obtained. But when I see just general grabs posted on here, the comments are always the same.....looks too soft. Is this just because most members here are movie people and not commercial or music people? Or is it just the prevailing personal opinion of a few in here?
 
Sometimes 'soft' means out of focus. Sometimes it is a filter use or low res.

Sometimes, believe it or not, some actresses demand they only be shot through a soft FX filter, even have it written in the contract.

Generally speaking the human eye prefers as sharp focus, this is not to say the background can't be soft.
 
A lot of what i shoot is soft... I like it very much. I don't think it is a trend rather a preference. Clouds are soft...
 
Don't take the coments you read here too seriously.

Everyone has their own personal tastes.

Do what works for you. But remember, people like the DVX for it's film-like capabilities [that means softer than video].
 
cecil995 said:
Here is my question,

From reading alot of post on this forum, the general opinion seems to be that if i shot is soft then it is not good.
Click to expand...

A couple of things come to mind when I hear the word soft:

1. Out of focus, blurry.
- This is a mistake, regardless of whether it was shot digital or shot film.

2. Contrast -or- Shadow/Highlight Gamma
- Broadcast shows, by the time they reach my screen, generally have lower contrast. This is partially due to the 7.5 - 100 IRE Setup applied to broadcast footage.

3. Master Pedestal Settings
- The Master Pedestal settings on a DVX100a are kind of low contrast, by default.

I prefer low contrast, or "setup" footage personally. Unless I'm going for crushed blacks...
 
here is my idea of soft.....less harsh detail....especially in faces....and yeah I would understand that some actresses would like to hide any visible blemishes.....and I understand that its all about personal preference. As far as something being out of focus...that is a different look to me, and unless that is the desired effect, there is no reason that something should be out of focus. And I always hear about crushing the blacks, but it seems to really bring blacks out you sacrifce the quality of the overal image, but maybe that is just the case with the dvx....not with a higher quality 35mm cam.
 
Well, wide shots look kind of bad when they are soft, especially in video, since there is already so little resolution and the information in the frame is so small. Long shots always can use a bit of softness, because in video they look too sharp. The crossing line would be to have an image that is so soft it appears out of focus. That is juts plain bad looking.

I worked to some guys that did docs that did not allow "out of focus"/shallow focus to be used never. They thought it was not as real as they wanted to be, and simply would not like images with shallow DOF, imagine soft filters.

Other people swear by them.

However, when people post images from 35mm adapters, people say they are soft and that means bad, because:

#1 35mm adaptors ideally are not meant to make the image sof, only to change DOF, because nobody wants to be stuck with the soft effect... But in reality they will have to live with it, because it does make the images softer.

#2 Soft effects that might look good on TV might look awful on the big screen, especially when you are coming from a video (low-res) transfer. Usually soft effects that show a lot on your monitor screen are too much on the big screen.

Whenever you are using soft effects or whatever, just remember that in general, when things are supposed to be in focus, they have to be in focus "all the way"! Images half way through (also called soft focus) just look plain bad.
 
thanks for the responces,

Basically it comes down to style and taste.....although i would agree that the low resolution of the dvx only gives you limited range to work with. I will assume that since my work will not be blown up to 35mm....then i can get away with more effects.
 
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