have u faked ANAMORPHIC look and happy w results

[Jed I. Clampett]

I have software that fakes the anamorphic look of flares and obviously can put bars to crop, but wonder if you have faked the look of anamorphic and are happy with the result?

I use Canon Rebel Cameras and nikkor manual primes. The cheapest solution is the SLR Magic Anamorphic lens, but wonder how far I can get by faking it? I do believe it is about the story, but esp if I move up to a camera with higher resolution, then I can afford to crop without notice. I can do this with the Canon Rebels by outputting it in post at 720P which for my purposes is fine. I am going to test it anyway, but am interested in your experience cropping in post and adding flares if you are happy with the result?

[Tito Ferradans]

it depends on your taste, not ours! if you are happy, then it works, dude!

i don't like cropping and adding flares, because this is not anamorphic. Sometimes anamorphic lenses don't create flares, sometimes the flares are different, there's oval bokeh, there's a general softness, there's much more to the anamorphic aesthetic than just 'wider frame' and 'lens flares'.

[Jed I. Clampett]

Well Tito, I am asking about your taste, that is why I posted the subject. However the issue has not been addressed and I would be interested in responses by people who have experience with this.

 

[Tito Ferradans]

Ok, about my taste, I like flares, not too much - star trek like - but the normal ones, I like a wider frame that comes from stretching pixels. I don't agree with cropping because it's somewhat like burning money. You're making the whole frame look good, and then burning away something close to 30% of that. 

Oval bokeh is important. It's usually the first thing that you can spot in a movie in order to say if it's anamorphic or spherical.

Texture, usually anamorphic stuff is softer than spherical. Many people see this is a downside, I think it's a positive thing. It makes the footage look organic and not so perfect as a Canon L lens would do.

About being happy with the results of faking, if we were happy with it, I think this forum would not exist. Also, if you're interested in more elaborate ways to fake the look that are not only post-production based, check this: http://www.tferradans.com/blog/?p=7283

[Nikkor]

Real anamorphic lenses give this moody unreal feeling, spherical doesn't give you that particular mood.

[Jed I. Clampett]

good observation, so I conclude that it is all or nothing, meaning for most that to get an anamorphic lens

[Nikkor]

You can try to look for an ultra low contrast lens and some oval aperture insert. It's not the same but it's like using a normal lens without spending tons of money and all the pain in the ass of double focus (because the SLR magic one doesn't give the real anamorphic feeling).

Just take a piece of black cardboard cut a 52mm diameter circle (you said nikkors), now cut an oval shaped hole in the middle. Take that and put it infront of one of your fast nikkors. Fake oval aperture

[Tim McC]

The best way to "fake" the oval aperture is to have an actual oval aperture, one of the options for DSO's FF58 lens.  

Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_MZDAgkR_4

And that's just the 1.5x squeeze.  Also available in 2x. 

[Gabriel Che]

I am playing around with vintage glass I have and building different effects, something in the style of DSO, plus my own ideas - this is three samples from a modified Helios 44M with built in imitation of the anamorphic flare. Everything depends of course of the light source, making the flare aggressive, or just present.... but the results are ok I think. As for the oval aperture bo-ke - I don't really like it, prefer the round one. However, I think there is a way to make a normal variable oval aperture, it's tricky but not impossible....