44LC 3

The 4 x 4" Low Contrast Filter 3 from Tiffen is valuable when the lighting ratio between highlight and shadow in your shot is too extreme for the medium you are working with to record. Normally, if you expose for the shadows, your highlights will blow out while if you expose for the highlights, your shadows will lose all detail.

Low Contrast filters work by taking some light from your highlights and adding - sharing it with the shadowed areas of your shot. The bright areas of the image will remain bright while displaying minimal flare that, in some cases, may add mood to the overall image. The resulting effect of this filter is that the dark areas become lighter with more visible detail. As there is no f-stop compensation required for use with this filter, you will not overexpose any portion of the image.

Examples for the use of a Low Contrast filter would be shooting under the covered porch of an old house or on a tree shaded country road where your model is in deep shade yet the surrounding venue is highlight-heavy. By adding more detail to the dark areas without blowing out your highlights, you achieve a more balanced, pleasing shot. For people shooting video who prefer more of a traditional film look, this filter provides a workable solution.

It should be noted that the Low Contrast filter differs from Tiffen''s Ultra Contrast filter. Whereas the Low Contrast filter takes light from your highlights to open the shadows, the Ultra Contrast will take ambient light from the surrounding venue the shot is taken in and not just use the highlights within the frame.

With a #1 Low Contrast filter, the shadows show even more detail than the 1/2 version while your highlights continue to hold their value with minimal flare generated.

Tiffen''s ColorCore glass is produced through a process that entails permanently laminating the filter material in between two pieces of optical glass that are ground flat to tolerances of a ten-thousandth of an inch, then mounting them in precision aluminum rings.

Helps create a pleasing balance between highlight and shadow areas

Works by sharing light from the surrounding highlight areas and adding some of it to your shadow areas

This filter also creates a very slight flare around the hot spots

The more light there is for the filter to work with the greater the effect

This filter is very popular with people who shoot video but who want to achieve more of a traditional film look to their images

This filter is available in various grades to suit your shooting and lighting requirements

Tiffen''s ColorCore glass is sealed between two optical glass sheets. In this way, Tiffen can better control the various densities of their filters and thereby create more exact degrees of filtration. This process makes for greater accuracy of color as opposed to glass that is simply dyed and becomes subject to deviation during the dye process