cinematography That dreamy soft focus look, i.e. Big Fish

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I just got finished watching the Tim Burton film Big Fish. I love so much about that movie, and on this most recent rewatch I was taking notice of several night scenes where things are a bit surreal. The characters have this beautiful soft focus look to their faces.

Does anyone on this board know whether that was a lens filter, post production effect or perhaps a combination of both? If so, what creates that look?
 
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Haven't seen it in a while, but there are probably a number of factors, most likely a Soft FX filter from Tiffen.

Most DP"s still utilize softening or haze filters ritually, especially as Digital becomes a mainstay. I know BF was shot on film, just mentioning.

The other contributing factor is heavily diffused light. Depending on who lit, that's probably also the case.
 
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I rewatched the trailer in full cinematographer mode, and I see what you're referring to, but I just don't know enough to be sure how they did it.

I suspect that they produced this in-camera--this look reminds me of the close ups of female characters in '40s films, so it's quite possible that they used the same methods.

Actually, I remember that for many years, cinematographers sought out old lenses (from the 40's or before) because their lower-quality build produced a soft-focus effect.

According to Wikipedia, nowadays special lenses are built to produce soft-focus. If I had to guess, I'd say they used a soft-focus lens.
 
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SiCurious said:
Vaseline on the lens? lol, I have a twenty-year old photography book that recommends this, but I've never had the guts to try it. Does anyone still do this? :D
Click to expand...

To see this Vaseline technique in great effect, buy/rent a copy of The Saddest Music In The World. :cool:

Regards to OP, haven't watched Big Fish in a long while, but diffusion filters were very common on many older shows & movies where women always had to have that "softer" look. Heck, even Star Trek TOS would break out the diffusers for them.
 
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"To see this Vaseline technique in great effect, buy/rent a copy of The Saddest Music In The World"

Or a copy of Penthouse magazine from the 70's!

I actually bought a couple of diffusion filters mostly because softening can reduce moire and aliasing, but probably use them other times as well.
 
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