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Author Topic: Can you tell anything about a lens from a flare? Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-17-2008 10:54 PM                     (Dragline: "If my man says he can eat 50 eggs, he can eat 50 eggs! so put your money where your mouth is!") - "Cool Hand Luke" Warner Bros 127m - 7 reels 2.35/1 Anamorphic Technicolor IB print releases. ..sorry, couldn't resist either.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-18-2008 06:16 AM                        A friend of mine has gotten into producing videos in an animation computer program. He recently discovered a plug in for lens flair, not only flair, but animated flair that he can move all round the image. From that point on, there wasn't a piece that he's authored that didn't have this damn flair zooming all over the place. At first it was cute, then annoying, now I just leave the room when the flair starts roaming around his shots. Bobby's "tasteful restraint" isn't part of his vocabulary. Anyone ever see those star effects around points of light like a starburst that you see when they shoot what are supposed to look like diamonds or other jewels? Is that done with a special-effects lens? I am sure in digital they must have a plug in for that, but I have seen those decades ago, BD (before digital). I have even seen them rotate in a cheesey commercial for a diamond jewelry store. I assume they are made by a lens of some sort and they just rotate the lens, eh? Thing that I'm curious about is, how does the effects lens know which pinpoints of light get the starburst? I mean, if it causes those stars on random bright objects, if you have objects that have intensities of white light, why don't the starbursts form around them? What triggers a starburst, the intensity of the light or the contrast around a small area?  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Wuepper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1026 From: Saginaw, MI, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-18-2008 07:18 AM                     Frank, Those Star like effects are created by a filter in front of the lens. There are very fine etchings in the filter glass and those cause the light to be diffused around a bright object. Since they are only filters, they can be rotated in front of the lens without effecting focus or aperture settings. KEN  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 01-18-2008 11:34 AM                       Frank, all of the lens flare plugins can be animated. Btw, I always thought star filters were cheesy. And since I am the King of Cheese, that is saying something! Haha.  |  IP: Logged Ron Funderburg Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 814 From: Chickasha, Oklahoma, USA Registered: Nov 2007 posted 01-18-2008 12:22 PM                        Monte, Remember this exchange Dragline "he beat you with nothing, just like this afternoon when he kept coming at me ... with nothing" Luke "Sometimes Nothing can be a real cool hand" Dragline "Move over boys let me sit next to my man COOL HAND LUKE" tempted to run over to IMDB and see if I go it right but that is close enough! God I love that movie!  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-18-2008 01:59 PM                     Dragline: "Wipin'it off here, BOSS!" BOSS Paul:"Go 'head Drag, wipe it off!" BOSS Karr: "____spends a night in the'Box'." Cap'n: "Report here says you got busted for destructing public property.. Luke: "Was cutting heads off of parking meters, Cap'n" ("Pop baby, pop") Yes Ron, love this movie as well. First ran this flik in 1970 at a drive-in, then 6 yrs later at another drive-in...was so glad on the DVD release...  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 01-18-2008 04:20 PM                       Btw, "Cool Hand Luke" was one of the great works by the late cinematographer, Connie Hall - one of my heroes. Absolutely beautiful. Also, do you remember that Lalo Schifrin's "Tar Sequence" music was later used by many television stations as their Evening News Theme?  |  IP: Logged Hillary Charles Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 748 From: York, PA, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 01-18-2008 04:31 PM                     When I think of star filters, I think of the 1970's daytime commercials for Slim Whitman. He'd be on a faux stage, lip-synching to "Una Paloma Blanca" with gelled spots behind him. The star filter would be rotated to accent the lights and the mood. And Tim, I don't know the music from "Luke" all that well, but I recall that one of the Philly stations (ch 3?) used John Barry's "007" for its own newscast.  |  IP: Logged Sean Weitzel Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 619 From: Vacaville, CA (1790 miles west of Rockwall) Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-18-2008 05:48 PM                     While most lense aperture/iris are leaves arranged in a circular patten, I have an old C-mount lens on my Bolex that has has three leaves arranged into a triangle shape which creates really cool flares. I'm also a big fan of those BRIGHT blue horizontal flares that scope movies from the 70's were big on incorporating. Vilmos Zsigmond had plenty of them in Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind.  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 01-18-2008 06:14 PM                       quote: Hillary Charles Tim, I don't know the music from "Luke" Here's the theme. (This will only be on my server temporarily, unless someone can xnsfr it to the F-T server...thanks)  |  IP: Logged Hillary Charles Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 748 From: York, PA, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 01-18-2008 06:43 PM                     Thanks Tim, I can see why it would have been used as a news theme. You probably are familiar with "007" by John Barry, but you can understand why it also was used for the news. Regarding lens flare, I remember a "news" story on something like "Inside Edition" in which people were claiming to have photographed some kind of doorway to Heaven! The story showed how they pointed their Polaroid 600 type cameras toward the sun (while looking throught the viewfinders , if memory serves). The resulting shot definitely showed a vertical rectangular image in the center of the picture. Now, if those rubes hadn't blinded themselves by looking into the sun, they could have looked at the lens of their cameras to see the aperture with the exact same shape!  |  IP: Logged Brian Michael Weidemann Expert cat molester Posts: 944 From: Costa Mesa, CA United States Registered: Feb 2004 posted 01-18-2008 08:01 PM                        quote: Sean Weitzel BRIGHT blue horizontal flares that scope movies from the 70's were big on incorporating. Vilmos Zsigmond had plenty of them in Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind Those would be the ones that blinded me in practically every other scene in Transformers, wouldn't they? I figured those were post-production effects, especially since they glinted off the Autobots' CGI waxed body plates more than was called for.  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 01-18-2008 08:29 PM                       Hi, Hillary, thanks. Yes, re: 007.. it has that driving, important sound. Perfect for a news open.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-18-2008 11:16 PM                     quote: Brian Michael Weidemann I figured those were post-production effects, especially since they glinted off the Autobots' CGI waxed body plates more than was called for. Bright horizontal lens flares and elliptical halos are pretty common in a lot of modern anamorphic filmed movies. There's little need to add them in post production with CGI effects, but it does happen. Babylon 5 loved those elliptical halos even though the TV series wasn't in 'scope.  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 01-19-2008 12:34 AM                       [deleted]  |  IP: Logged

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