How do you deal with mixed footage (dof adapter / non-dof adapter)? Strategies? at DVinfo.net

Nicolas Raddatz · May 21st, 2008, 04:57 PM

Hi all,
After researching a lot about DOF adapters, I have some questions regarding its usage.

1) Filming wide open
For what i've seen, If one chooses to film with a DOF adapter, it seems most people end up filming wide open all the time because of the inherent light loss of the device. I wonder, doesn't that limit you too much? Isn't it tiring to have all of your footage with such a shallow DOF?

Of course, you could say that if you don't need shallow DOF, there's no point in using the DOF adapter at all. But what if you want small DOF in some shots, and deep DOF in others?

Which brings me to the next question:

2) Mixing footage
So, you want to have shallow DOF in shome shots, and deep DOF in others. You could a) Use a DOF adapter for shallow DOF, and using the camera lens for deep DOF or b) Use a DOF adapter all of the time, but you probably won't be able to step down a lot (I guess not more than f/3.5 or f/5.6), and there will be a noticeable loss of image quality.

Let's suppose you go a) and film some scenes with the adapter, and some scenes without it. How do you deal with mixing such different footage? I mean, the 35mm optics add a lot of texture, there's no way in the world you can make both look the same...If you go b) well, we're back at question 1) which is, how not to make the footage boring by having everything with shallow dof.

I'd like to hear how are YOU dealing with those problems, what are the tradeoffs that work for you, how's your workflow regarding this....

THANKS A LOT!!!

Christopher Ruffell · May 22nd, 2008, 03:55 AM

I've shot footage that I love both with and without a 35mm adapter. Personally, I'll mix footage if and when the 'story' fits!

How?

I'll first and foremost colour correct the footage to match, and then, depending on the differences between the footage, I might add a vignette around the edges of the 'without' footage if it makes sense.

It should be known that DOF alone often won't set 35mm footage apart from 'without' - depends on the lens (wide open yes) but a wide-angle lens won't have shallow DOF anyway, so, depends on the footage itself more than anything! Boring footage if shot without a 35mm adapter? I don't think a 35mm adapter alone can ensure footage will be exciting. ;)

May 21st, 2008, 04:57 PM	#1
Nicolas Raddatz Tourist Join Date: May 2008 Location: Montevideo, Uruguay Posts: 3	How do you deal with mixed footage (dof adapter / non-dof adapter)? Strategies? Hi all, After researching a lot about DOF adapters, I have some questions regarding its usage. 1) Filming wide open For what i've seen, If one chooses to film with a DOF adapter, it seems most people end up filming wide open all the time because of the inherent light loss of the device. I wonder, doesn't that limit you too much? Isn't it tiring to have all of your footage with such a shallow DOF? Of course, you could say that if you don't need shallow DOF, there's no point in using the DOF adapter at all. But what if you want small DOF in some shots, and deep DOF in others? Which brings me to the next question: 2) Mixing footage So, you want to have shallow DOF in shome shots, and deep DOF in others. You could a) Use a DOF adapter for shallow DOF, and using the camera lens for deep DOF or b) Use a DOF adapter all of the time, but you probably won't be able to step down a lot (I guess not more than f/3.5 or f/5.6), and there will be a noticeable loss of image quality. Let's suppose you go a) and film some scenes with the adapter, and some scenes without it. How do you deal with mixing such different footage? I mean, the 35mm optics add a lot of texture, there's no way in the world you can make both look the same...If you go b) well, we're back at question 1) which is, how not to make the footage boring by having everything with shallow dof. I'd like to hear how are YOU dealing with those problems, what are the tradeoffs that work for you, how's your workflow regarding this.... THANKS A LOT!!!

May 22nd, 2008, 03:55 AM	#2
Christopher Ruffell Major Player Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Victoria, BC Posts: 202	I've shot footage that I love both with and without a 35mm adapter. Personally, I'll mix footage if and when the 'story' fits! How? I'll first and foremost colour correct the footage to match, and then, depending on the differences between the footage, I might add a vignette around the edges of the 'without' footage if it makes sense. It should be known that DOF alone often won't set 35mm footage apart from 'without' - depends on the lens (wide open yes) but a wide-angle lens won't have shallow DOF anyway, so, depends on the footage itself more than anything! Boring footage if shot without a 35mm adapter? I don't think a 35mm adapter alone can ensure footage will be exciting. ;)