TIFFEN GLIMMERGLASS LENS DIFFUSION FOR FILMMAKING

In today's video we are talking about Tiffen Glimmerglass, one of the more popular lens diffusion filters for filmmakers. There are different strengths, the one I am showing you today is the GlimmerGlass 1, it can be a little overpowering at times and depending on what focal length you're using as well but it's my top choice for lens diffusion for all of my work.
Tiffen also has them in different sizes, I have the 4x5.65 filter to use with my Misfit Atom matte box but they also have them in your standard 77mm and 82mm filter threads. At the end of the day we use lens diffusion to help get our videos to look more like film, to give a organic look that is not so sharp or digital.
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[@smepable]

I think Tiffen has also a digitial plugin suite to simulate effects in post. I would like to see a comparison of real filters and digital filters.

[@GlennUpgraded]

What's the difference between the glimmerglass and black glimmerglass?

[@joelmartinez6476]

Wonderful video man! Thank you for bringing up the difference between GlimmerGlass and black satin.

[@atdavidlee]

Glad the video helped out Joel! I know there’s other diffusion filters to compare but I’m glad I could do the two that I use and hopefully it helps others 🙏

[@tomweitz976]

Awesome! This channel needs more attention!

[@atdavidlee]

Thanks Tom! Glad you’re enjoying the channel I appreciate that!

[@The_Daliban]

I would really love to know if you would recommend the glimmerglass 1 or 3. I want to get rid of some sharpness but don’t want the blacks to be too washed out. I know the glimmerglass is known to retain sharpness while defusing highlights. There is no good comparison filming a subject on KZbin

[@hautehussey]

I think you mean lowering the contrast, not raising the contrast!

[@theothertoday]

Thanks legend. Just what I was looking for!

[@atdavidlee]

Haha! Glad I could be of help and hope the video did exactly that for ya 🙏

[@scotey]

Thanks for this video. It was super educational. What would you recommend for Glimmerglass strength for a sit-down interview? My current doc subjects are mostly 60 and older, and I want something that flatters them but doesn't "announce itself." Would that be 1/2 or 1/4?

[@gianlucamazzanti4255]

Love this video! Keep it up, just buyed a Glimmerglass after watching it!

[@atdavidlee]

Nice!! I’m sure you’ll love it 😁

[@damnjjwtf]

where can I get those cool sir magic lens caps?

[@camillemartinrd]

Thank you so much, David!

[@atdavidlee]

Glad the video helped Camille!

[@briangibson9599]

Brother excellent work, very informative and quite thoughtful of you to keep sharing as you do. Quick question(s)what’s your thought process of one using this type of diffusion if using software like filmconvert? Is there danger of baking an image early on that would hurt you down the line? And have you heard of this type of diffusion throwing off/confusing auto focus? Thanks for everything!

[@atdavidlee]

The more you get in camera the more you’re actually committing to the image whereas a lot of people have the mentality of “fix it in post”. The more you get in camera the more you’re actually putting in the work on pre production/storyboarding/shot listing and in the commercial realm I work in that’s part of the process. So to answer your question, haha, if you like how the filter looks you’ll be fine when using FilmConvert. And it won’t affect AF performance, I’ve used black satin a ton when I had my 1DX II and never had any issues 🙏

[@DatrysiadMedia]

I got the moment cinebloom and use a variable ND and its been working great. Getting a BMPCC6K in March and found out about the IR issue and then started looking at IR cut filters. Wanted to use a matte box but didn't want to use the 4x5 filters as its damn expensive. Then watching Justin Phillip and he looked at the IRND glimmerglass I check the priced and its like $650 per glass. That was a no go for me at that stage, then I rechecked yesterday and they had a sale and each was down to $128 per glass.....$128, I got the 0.9 and 1.2 and all in all $298 with shipping!!! Conversion for UK i paid £215!!!! £215!!! So just waiting for them to come as they fit all what I was looking for, IR cut, fixed ND and diffusion which if I bought and stacked circular filters would cause more headache with vignette and cost wouldn't be that better since good glass is expensive. So now I just need to buy the tlita mini matt box and I can just use that setup to switch between lenses and just swap with fixed ND I want. To say in happy is an understatement as I wanted to get into 4x5 but that cost to step in was so step.

[@atdavidlee]

What a deal! So glad you found that man that’s awesome! Let me know how they work out 🙌🙌🙌

[@DatrysiadMedia]

@@atdavidlee will do, love the channel and your vibe, really relaxing and informative, will keep you posted happy new year BTW

[@atdavidlee]

Thank you I appreciate the words and support so much! Hoping to content helps you out more this year and wishing you a blessed and opportunity filled year!

[@MrrAlien]

This is awesome!

[@thefloridamurphys6282]

Great video. I'm torn... was looking for black satin 3 and not finding it anywhere for 67mm. Now I'm intrigued by glimmerglass because it doesn't warm things up. But I am looking for something that works for darker skin tones, which would benefit from the warmer colors. glimmerglass looks similar to pearlescent, but the latter is off the chain with the amont of halation it produces. I want something to soften the skin, but not look like an old glamour shot. XD

[@atdavidlee]

You could definitely still go with black satin but probably a 1 or a 1/2 if you can find it. I just checked B&H and they do have a 67 black satin 1 in stock. For glimmerglass i'd probably go with a 1/4 or a 1/8 to just add the effects subtly.

[@jarrodbarker]

@@atdavidleedo you feel 1/2 glimmerglass would retain enough black and offer subtle enough halation, yet still soften the digital look enough to be used in documentary work? I’m finding black pro mist 1/8 still lifts the shadows a bit too much for my liking as I’d like to adjust curves myself after the fact

[@TJIzzy]

The OLPF in the Arri cameras is a huge part of their magic, don't know why people don't talk about it more lol.

[@atdavidlee]

ARRI is still the standard by far, there’s a really good episode on the Team Deakins podcast where they interviewed one of the pioneers of the ARRI cameras and how the transitioned to digital by spending months/years replicating film emulation, stock, printing to create the Alexa sensor lol

[@TJIzzy]

@@atdavidlee I think I saw that! Saw one where they mentioned the Arri team made him a specific LUT that was almost exact to his favorite film stock. I noticed the good cine cameras desaturate the highlights a bit. Btw, have you tried out that new RED Komodo? I had one and it was pretty nice, but Arri is still next level lol.

[@atdavidlee]

Not yet haha

[@chengtsungwu3020]

Very informative! Have you considered Black Diffusion Fx filter? I’m thinking to get one for my photography, but I’m a bit hesitated to get either Glimmerglass or Black Diffusion Fx. Any recommendations?

[@atdavidlee]

I haven’t tried black diffusion FX myself but from what I’ve seen it’s probably not for me. Glimmerglass is the closest I’ve come to a filter that doesn’t alter too much of the image

[@brittacurkovic]

Do you have any comparison between glimmerglass 1/2 and Hollywood Black Magic 1/4 or 1/2?

[@Petramojomusic]

Excellent video! I hope you can tell us just exactly which circular Tiffen filter to use for cinematic look beside Black Satin if there is any for .Thank you! We like all you make

[@atdavidlee]

The filter you need should fit the visual language you’re going for. I’d look at black pro mist and Hollywood black magic as other choices

[@Petramojomusic]

@@atdavidlee Thank you!

[@danielgoncalves3143]

Great video! Keep it up! Have you ever used Streak Filters (eith by Schneider or Tiffen)?

[@atdavidlee]

Thanks Daniel! I haven’t but next week I have a review video for the Cinepacks Clear Streak and Split Crystal filter so be on the look for that 🙌

[@Always1Ambitious]

In the future please shoot the vlog portion with the same type of filter, in this case glimmerglass. And please state what level strength the filter is? This will help to make the video now clear and not make people think they like the filter when they might actually be looking at the blog portion which you stated was shot with a Black satin filter. And these filters have multiple strengths so people can correctly understand what they are looking at before they buy one. Thanks

[@atdavidlee]

Thanks for the feedback! 🙌

[@liaoei]

Thank you for making it, great video. May I ask the focal lengths used by the lens in the talking video? This is a reference about the diffusion density. Tiffen Black Glimmerglass and Glimmerglass filter, what is your evaluation on their differences, I would like to hear your professional opinion. I'm deciding whether to buy BLKGG1 or GG1!

[@jarrodbarker]

I have not tried glimmerglass, but have tried black glimmerglass at different strengths and I would imagine it's a very similar look to black satin. It has a slight shift towards warming the image, there is certainly no skin/detail smoothing, but it does give some nice strengths at about the 50mm and 1 strength level (aka 24mm strength 2, and 85mm strength 1/2 level). There is also really no discernible difference in contrast with Black Glimmerglass. I'm going to try normal glimmerglass before I decide to keep the black version, as it still seems to keep a bit of the digital look.

[@joonajks]

If you were shooting a make up commercial for women of color, which filter would you more likely use between black pro mist, black satin 3, glimmer or any other type filter? Thanks for everything!!!

[@atdavidlee]

Thanks for the question Joon! I’d lean towards black satin but if you wanted a little more “glow “ to their skin id go with glimmerglass

[@joonajks]

atdavidlee okay thanks a million!!!

[@fredriksvard2603]

warm bpm 1/8

[@joonajks]

@@fredriksvard2603 thank you!

[@fredriksvard2603]

@@joonajks just a suggestion, i dont have experience with all of them. I have this one though and it may not be an "always on" filter but it does some cool things in certain scenarios. Check out tiffen's diffusion comparison video, it includes dark skin and i think the warm bpm gives it a very pleasing look.

[@Webrisernl]

you think better then the black promist?

[@RaidOctober]

I already have the Glimmer Glass (1 & 3) and the Black Pro mist(1/4 & 1/2). I was looking for something that didn't 'milk' the shadows too much but still give some halation hence I settled on the the Black Satins a while back after watching your video talking about them. Before this I was looking at the Black GlimmerGlass but Tiffen don't make circular ones for that series... One thing though when using GlimmerGlass is that many subjects have commented that I have some 'dust' on my lense(due to the specks lol).

[@atdavidlee]

Black satin is a great filter to have for many applications, I think Tiffen offers their non black glimmerglass in circular format last time I checked. Haha I could see that happening

[@joonajks]

Do you think Glimmer glass 1 is a little too strong for a 35mm lens in your opinion?

[@atdavidlee]

The 1 doesn’t get too strong in any focal length for me which is why I like it but it does depend what F Stop you’re using. Anything around a 2.8 is fine but if you go wider than that it can get a little too bloomy in the highlights

[@joonajks]

@@atdavidlee thank you again as always!!!

[@atdavidlee]

My pleasure man!

[@simoncoca]

So nice and cinematic, why it does not exist for drones !?

[@atdavidlee]

I think I saw Tiffen or Polar Pro working on something for the future

[@massivfilms]

It isnt the sensor that makes the Image sharp, its the Lens. But good Vid thx👐

[@noahwebb9134]

Liked. Subbed. Thanks

[@atdavidlee]

Appreciate the sub but hope the video brought you more value 🙏

[@ImagenStudios]

Great Video, very informative as well, I went with the 77mm Black Pro Mist 1/8, my lenses are 77mm I was hoping to get the 4x5 version like you said so I don't have to worry about changing the filter when changing lenses, my concern is that if there are any apparitions in the glass that will be noticeable because it is the same diameter of my lens as oppose to having an 82mm and stepping down to my lens. Thank you for sharing and keep up the great work.

[@williamevans6142]

Are people running these filters with variable ND filters at the same time?

[@atdavidlee]

You can, ND will go in front of diffusion filters unless you have internal ND.

[@martinohesse]

Thanks for video! I have a black pro mist 1/4, I checked the "triangle" of specs that tiffen site shares and I see that glimmerglass doesn't low contrast as much as the black pro mist. Do you think I may use the black pro mist and rise the contrast in post in order toget the same effect that glimmerglass?

[@atdavidlee]

It’s different when you’re raising contrast in post since now you’re affecting the tonal curve of a captured image. That being said if you want to get it in camera I’d probably go with a 1/8 promist filter instead of the 1/4

[@bluefilmsltd]

Remember that you can increase your contrast in camera if you find that the pro mist is too lower contrast heavy.

[@ahmedhashmi3584]

Is this the black glimmerglass or just glimmerglass?

[@atdavidlee]

Black 👍

[@ahmedhashmi3584]

@@atdavidlee Thanks! I saw both Black Glimmerglass and glimmer glass, so I got confused for a second..

[@joonajks]

Have you ever used a Tiffen pearlescent diffusion filter? If so, is a big difference between glimmer glass?

[@atdavidlee]

I haven’t but I know it was used quite a lot back in the day. I think as far as modern diffusion goes it’s usually promist, Glimmerglass or Hollywood blackmagic

[@joonajks]

@@atdavidlee 👍🏿