Ask Cinevate: Why a Mattebox?



Published by Cinevate




Why use a mattebox on your cine rig? It all boils down to controlling your image by manipulating the light coming into the lens. Learn about the modifiers and filters a mattebox will allow you to work with.

Why would I need a mattebox?

It all boils down to control—control over your image by manipulating the light coming into the lens. Now, we’re certainly not the first to write on the subject but what we’ve collected here is a sample platter of video (above) and stills (below) to show images with and without control methods the mattebox provides. Naturally, we’re using our Titan Swing Away Mattebox and our DSLR Core Package in the video. And free hugs to anyone who catches our attempt to reference (parody?) a recent car film.

I didn’t speak specifically to the filters, so to clarify, we used the following in the video: Tiffen Ultra Linear 4×4 Polarizer, Tiffen Clear/ND.6 Soft Edge 4×4 Gradient, and Tiffen ND.9 Neutral Density 4×4.  So to recap, here’s a breakdown of the methods used to control and/or manipulate light (thus controlling your image).

Flags
Flags will allow you to block direct light sources that may cause undesired effects. Of course, a lens flare can be a desired effect but we’re talking about having complete control over you image, so in cases when this is unwanted, flags allow you to correct as such.

Neutral Density or ND Filters
These guys are used to cut down on light coming into the lens. They don’t otherwise change the look of the image. They commonly come in 3,6, and 9 and block 1, 2, and 3 stops of light respectively, so you’d use these filters if you wanted to shoot at a lower f-stop and have shallower depth of field.

Gradient Filters
Gradients come in the Hard edge and Soft edge variety. Basically half of the filter is of neutral density (in the common 3, 6, 9 values) while the rest of the filter is just clear glass. In most cases you’d see these used on exterior shots on bright sunny days when your sky would be blown out. The gradient blocks light only from the sky, bringing it into a range that you can expose properly for while still properly exposing your subject(s) on the ground (in your mids and shadows). In my samples we didn’t have bright sun, but you can see how it brings out detail in my clouds while leaving the city exposure unchanged.

Polarizer
This filter is a common favorite among exterior shooters. Without getting too technical, a polarizer allows some waves of light through the filter while blocking waves of other polarizations. Because you can rotate your polarizer you control which polarized waves of light you’re letting through the lens. You’ll see these filters used to cut down on glare (or glares as I refer to them for some reason . . . lol) and reflections.

So there you have it. Hopefully if you came into this pondering the titular topic you have left with a better understanding of how or why you would use a mattebox.

 

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Featured photographer:

Featured gear:
TITAN Swing Away Matte Box
DSLR Core Package

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