Schneiders' New Radiant Soft Filters Hit the Sweet Spot

Schneider’s new diffusion filter line gives cinematographers the ability to give their subject’s skin a radiant, soft glow, while maintaining control over the contrast.

Engineers at Schneider had been asked time and time again to make a version of Tiffen’s Glimmer Glass, but never had the desire to recreate another company's filter. Instead, they developed a solution to answer the Glimmer Glass' faults.

They focused on negating over blooming of highlights and massive halation around light sources, which gives users a loss of contrast and color. This effect can be beautiful if that's the look you're going for, but Schneider set out to discover why Glimmer Glass acts that way and created their Radiant Soft Filters specifically to get rid of the effect.

The result tones down skin imperfections, gives operators better control of the contrast, maintains color and of course limits the blooming effects around the highlights. The filters are made from water white glass from a specially formulated laminate with geometric two-dimensional (planar) particles carefully classified to yield the most flattering result.

Radiant Soft filters are available in seven strengths in both 4X5.65 and 6.6X6.6 sizes. The seven strengths run from ¼ - 5 and don’t start to show any issues with highlights until the two of the heaviest densities, which is still significantly less problematic than the Glimmer Glass. Unlike traditional diffusion filters, where the ¼ & ½ strengths are the most commonly used, the Radiant Soft sweet spot is in the middle of the set with the 1, 2 & 3 strengths.  

The filters are available here now, and range in price from $365-$469 depending on the desired size.