Vaseline Effect

Hello guys...Did anyone of you tried the Vaseline on a clear filter to get some glow and soft areas on the image? I didn't test it yet...It's a sensual romantic black and white scene between a couple in a studio. Here in Lebanon our only lab "Kodak" doesn't develop B&W film.

Do you have a suggestion concerning which colour film stock can helps me to get finally a nice B&W image? 250D 7205? Maybe I will go for a bleach bypass processing effect if the art direction doesn't help me.

Any idea concerning my Vaseline trip?

Thanks

Petiboso
DP
Lebanon

>Hello guys...Did anyone of you tried the Vaseline on a clear filter to get >some glow and soft areas on the image?

KY lubricant is easier to clean / change the pattern.

I'm not sure what they think at the Drugstore when I've gone in to buy KY and mascara applicators.

(Maybe similar to the time with my FX guy who stood in the Supermarket checkout line with 4 boxes of condoms and a gallon of maple syrup...)

Sam Wells
film/.../nj/usa

What is the KY lubricant? Is there a specific one or a simple lubricant can give me that effect. I would like to have some Gaussian blur effect.

Thanks
Petibozo
DP
Lebanon

> What is the KY lubricant?

http://www.drugstore.com/qxp12679_333181_sespider/

k_y/jelly_personal_lubricant.htm

Sam Wells
film/.../nj/usa

>Hello guys...Did anyone of you tried the Vaseline on a clear filter to get >some glow and soft areas on the image? I didn't test it yet...

One issue to take into consideration is that you start to see it too clearly on wide angle lenses.

Jim Sofranko
NY/DP

Sam, somehow I fear that you had that page bookmarked!

Mitch Gross
NYC DP

Petibozo wrote:

> What is the KY lubricant? Is there a specific one or a simple lubricant >can give me that effect. I would like to have some Gaussian blur effect.

Well, there is regular KY, and New KY warming gel.

You might also try adding food colouring.

I had a friend tell me there was a kit to add colour to Vaseline, but perhaps it was just simple food colouring.

Steven Gladstone
New York Based Cinematographer
Gladstone Films
www.gladstonefilms.com
CML East Coast List Administrator

My preference to Vaseline or KY is hair spray.

The cheapest canned aerosol hairspray you can find works wonderfully. The trick to even application on a filter is to blast the hairspray into the air, then wave the filter through the mist.

Repeated applications may be necessary to get the level of softness you prefer. It's easily removed with glass cleaner. Obviously, you don't want to use and expensive filter for this.

Cliff Hancuff

Cliff the hair spray will cover all the filter, it will soft all my image, I think KY Vaseline will give me the effect because I will choose the area I need to make it soft. If not I will try your idea and after I have to clean out all the areas that I don't need. I will see and tell you about results after shooting.

Thanks

Petibozo
DP
Lebanon

> Cliff the hair spray will cover all the filter, it will soft all my image

You could try getting some lace, Laying it over the filter, and cutting out the area you want to be softer, then spraying.

Oh the fun.

Steven Gladstone
New York Based Cinematographer
Gladstone Films
www.gladstonefilms.com
917-886-5858
CML East Coast List Administrator

You could always try clear hair gel instead

Best,

John Babl
DP
Miami

Actually what I really like about the hairspray effect is that you can cover part of the filter with a slip of paper so that it gets no diffusion or less diffusion in multiple passes. I've used this selective diffusing a few times for shots with windows that would bloom or a frame with one actress who needed it and another who didn't. Far more controllable and subtle than Vaseline or KY.

Mitch Gross
NYC DP

Petiboso wrote :

>Did anyone of you tried the Vaseline on a clear filter to get some glow >and soft areas on the image?"

Maybe it's not too late to chime in here...some great ideas already put forth...just want to add that Robert Farber, in his still photography, used to touch his nose to collect skin oil and carefully wipe it across a clear filter in the selected area(s) where he wanted to alter the light. The effect is to create rays of light coming from a highlight in the scene, like a light source, or a window or skylight. As with a star filter, the rays are perpendicular to the direction of the streak of oil on the filter. You can get some interesting effects by making a curve instead of a straight line, or by making a circular pattern perhaps, but not necessarily, centred in the image.

Another thought- using clear nail polish is a way to make a filter that lasts longer than Vaseline- play with different application items, like a feather, sponge, brushes of different materials and textures, and tissues, etc. Use it sparingly - very little does a lot. Also, once done with the pattern, you can use polish remover to start over. Just remember that if you are using a laminated filter (and you know who you are) be careful that the remover doesn't seep into the edge of the filter, which, even if sealed, may be subject to some deterioration by the solvent in the remover.

Best to use a solid clear filter for this, but as you may also want to combine this effect on another optical filter effect, this is good to consider.

If all else fails, Robert also used to do what many other still photogs do- breathe on the filter, and if there is enough moisture, it will fog the filter for enough time to get an effect- although better suited to stills where a shot is achieved in an instant, it may be something to keep in mind.

Ira Tiffen
Coming soon to VT

Ira Tiffen writes :

>If all else fails, Robert also used to do what many other still photos do- >breathe on the filter, and if there is enough moisture, it will fog the filter >for enough time to get an effect - although better suited to stills where a >shot is achieved in an instant

What a novel idea. I've known about this for use in still photography, but the thoughts of using this in motion shooting is truly interesting. It would be an alternative look to moving from out of focus to sharp focus.

As the breath-fog dissapates the image gets sharp.

Cliff Hancuff

Some of you (who have been on this list over 5 years) remember my fascination with diffusion (including my freezing and oven baking a H&H laminated clear filter they made for me in my attempts to get the glue to reticulate). Ira's post of using breath to fog a filter for diffusion (and my realization that this could create and interesting diffusion effect that would dissipate during a take) has gotten my mind to wander a bit further on this dissipating diffusion effect.

There are several still lenses (that are likely out of production) that had soft focus rings that you could simply turn to dial in your level of softness. The two that come to mind are the Tamron 75-150 f2.8 SF and the Minolta 85/2.8 Varisoft. The Tamron lenses required a bayonet lens adapter to fit it to a particular brand of still camera. (read: Nikon or Canon adapter for this lens that, in turn, could be used with a motion picture camera adapter for Canon/Nikon lenses).

Yeah, I know, this is way out on the skinny limbs of any soft focus discussion. I only mention it because I can't recall ever seeing any motion picture shot with the look one would get by dialling in softness or sharpness during a take.

Who knows, it could be one of those things that makes a DP look as brilliant as they are to those who may be inclined to think otherwise. I can't think of any other way to achieve this effect, especially for the couple hundred dollars it takes to have one of these lenses in your kit.

"... and now back to our regularly scheduled program."

Cliff Hancuff

Cliff Hancuff wrote :

>>"I can't recall ever seeing any motion picture shot with the look one >>would get by dialling in softness or sharpness during a take."

Years ago, Dick Barlow, long-time head of the camera department at Warner Bros., and the man who ran the Tiffen Burbank office for years after opening it in '89, showed me a 3" x 7" (roughly) filter that was made, I think, by Pancro that fit into a manually gear-driven (Arri?) matte box that allowed you to turn a knob and the filter would slide through the slot that centred it on the 3" dimension in front of the lens.

It had a stepped series of sections of gradually increasing strengths of the Mitchell Diffusion A-B-C-D-E pattern. It allowed you to vary the diffusion level by sliding the filter from one grade to the next, all while shooting.

The negative to this was that the effect was slightly skewed to be stronger on one side of the frame than the other.

An improvement to this was the dual opposing gradient, which placed two such filters so that one's gradually increasing strengths were match by the other's gradually decreasing strengths, so that the net effect across the frame evened out, but you still had the ability to vary the overall strength.

Another improvement recognized that you could have a stationary filter that had the linear gradient at its weak beginning remaining in front of the lens at all times. This would even out the gradient on the slider, but would require that the slider be about twice as
long to get the same range of grades as the dual sliding unit.

I remember making a Soft/FX version of this. The same technique also allowed varying overall colour or light transmission using softly graduated versions of ND and other colours.

Ira Tiffen
Coming soon to VT

Cliff Hancuff wrote :

>"... and now back to our regularly scheduled program."

Maybe it is just me, but I'm glad that Cliff has started to post again.

Steven Gladstone
New York Based Cinematographer
Gladstone Films
www.gladstonefilms.com
917-886-5858
CML East Coast List Administrator

>Maybe it is just me, but I'm glad that Cliff has started to post again.

I'm glad too, esp. since he's retained his willingness to share his techniques. Many still photographers are very reluctant to do that.

Jessica Gallant
Los Angeles based Director of Photography
West Coast Systems Administrator, Cinematography Mailing List
https://cinematography.net/