fjablo wrote:
I can recommend doing it in photoshop (or affinity).
It only takes a couple of seconds to do it and you get a lot of flexibility that you don’t have with a physical filter - you can adjust the strength of the effect, how deep into the midtones it should reach and most importantly you can mask it.
Let’s say you’ve taken a portrait and you like to have blooming in the highlights in the background but you don’t like what it does to skin details - easy peasy with photoshop, out of luck with the physical filter.
You could even apply two different filter strengths to different parts of the image. ...Show more →
Yes, lots of benefits to doing it digitally if it can be done well. Think I’ll take a half day on the screen and see what can be done with some examples!
The number of options with these filters is mind numbing haha. Black mist, white mist, gold mist, shortstache with a green tint and so on. I like the Tiffen Black Satin, blooms highlights a bit, softens skin a bit, and just takes a bit of that digital crunchy-ness off photos and videos. Sure you can try to replicate it in post, but I like the look and it cuts the time in post considerably just using a filter.
rob_ww wrote:
Lots of interesting posts in the thread @nehemiahphoto@ referenced above (https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1695216/) But that thread is five years old.
Just wondering if the preference for lenses with some SA I sometimes see on the forum can be replicated by choosing the right filter and amount. I have tried to do it in post but unsuccessfully although I will try the suggestion by @RoamingScott@ above when I next have some suitable samples to work with.
I don’t really think a lot of it has changed to be honest. There are some new filters but the discussion largely still pertains.
I use a Schneider Hollywood Black Magic 1/4 filter on pretty much all portrait shoots with the GF55 lens. It's barely noticeable, if at all, on skin. You can see the effect in the highlights in the out-of-focus background.
You can find a few examples on my Flickr account if you search for "Schneider", but all portraits with GF55 from the last couple of years had it too; the images just weren't tagged for filters.