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Filed under: Cameras •Production •Tips •Training •

Diffusion Confusion

ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEES

Ira Tiffen was literally born into the industry in 1951. His father and two uncles owned a thriving business that made photographic accessories. “Dad started at 17 as an airplane mechanic,” says Tiffen, “and by 19 he was foreman of a machine shop. At 21 he owned his own machine shop and started making lens caps, lens shades, adapter rings and other camera accessories, including filter rings. At the request of his customers he sourced filter glass from then available vendors to supply complete filters. Soon after, though, he realized that this glass was not up to his customers’ requirements, so he began the development of of what became his unique method of laminating filter glass.”

Tiffen watched his father formalize the FLB and FLD camera filters under flourescent lights in the family basement, and when he was old enough he came to work summers at the family business. He graduated from NYU with a degree in Chemical Engineering and started work full-time shortly thereafter. He left Tiffen, Inc. to pursue his own interests in May, 2004.

Bob Zupka spent 12 years in the reconnaissance industry building high-altitude surveillance systems, and remembers when the industry went from film capture to high definition imaging in 1985. “A lot of the same issues came up then that we are dealing with today,” he says. “Which one is easier to manipulate, things that you can and can’t do with each one, etc.”

In 1996 Zulpka took a job at Schneider Optics, a company with a thriving business in manufacturing projection lenses for screening rooms, but that had also been making still photography lenses and filters since 1913. Schneider wanted to break into the film industry, but the German-based company wasn’t set up to build the large filters required for film work. Zulpka started a U.S. factory from scratch to built 6x6 and 5x5 filters.

Art Adams is a DP who no longer confuses diffusion when he uses it in profusion. His web site is at www.artadams.net.

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Tremendous explanation regarding the arcania of Lens Filters.I spent the first ten years of my Grip career wondering what these cats were doing putting extra glass, pantyhose, and or facial grease in front of perfectly good lenses.

Posted by mitch reeves  on  06/29  at  08:05 AM

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Glad you liked it. There are so many ways to affect the image that don’t have obvious explanations, and it’s wonderful when a couple of people come along who can make it seem so clear and simple.

Posted by Art Adams  on  06/29  at  08:44 AM

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What exactly is the difference between the Digicon and Ultra Contrast filters? The UCs are marketed to increase shadow detail, but after having tested them they certainly reduce the highlight levels as well.
Thanks for another great article- I swear I’ve learned more from your articles in the last 2 days than I have in the last year.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  07/10  at  02:46 PM

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