Tag Archive for: KF concept

My K&F Concept filter pack for beautiful lens flares

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I’ve been using the K&F concept filters for a while now and although I never really used filters I was blown away from the start by the extra possibilities the black diffusion filters give. As you know I love to play with moods in my work. Color evokes emotion but just adding colors or extra lights is often cool and eye-catching. But for me adding some subtle or over-the-top lens flares,  just adds the final piece of magic so to say ;). So I was over the moon with distributor Movidis making a special K&F Concept filter pack.  The official name is K&F Concept Frank Doorhof edition Filter Kit

Why do you need a filter?

The problem with most modern lenses is that they are trying to prevent lens flares from happening. And in most cases that is great. But sometimes… Well, not. It can still be done but it is not that nice glowing and smooth lens flare we all love from movies and older photos.

A great alternative is to use old vintage lenses or lenses like Lensbaby or TTartisan but you also sacrifice a lot in normal usage when using those lenses. They are primarily primes and manual focus.

Having a filter like the black diffusion gives you the opportunity to work with your normal lenses and just leave the filter on all the time (unless you work with strong backlight and you don’t want the effect at that moment). In normal lighting situations, you don’t see the filter. But as you use strong backlighting it seems to jump into action.

The thing I like the most about the filters is exactly that fact. You can just leave it on the camera and it doesn’t make everything look soft or glowing. As you can see in the examples everything is razor sharp except the smoothness and strength of the lens flare. It’s an insanely usable filter.

The other thing I love about their system is that it’s all magnetic. We all know the problems with screw-on filters. If you are not careful (even when you are) putting them on slightly angled or with just a dust speck on the thread it can be a pain to take them off.

With this system, you mount the main ring and just leave that on all the time. When you want to use a filter just click it on there and you’re good to go. You can even stack filters.

K&F Concept Frank Doorhof edition Filter Kit

Because I was pretty enthusiastic about the filters (understatement) we worked together with the Dutch distributor Movides to create a special bundle.

The bundle contains the 1/4 and 1/8 black diffusion filters, which you can use separately or stacked. But we also included a variable ND filter (also magnetic) for those moments you want to have smooth water or skies or… When you shoot with strobes outside they don’t support HSS and you still want to be able to shoot wide open and fight the sun.

All the filters are stored in a limited edition recycled leather pouch, hand-made in the Netherlands.

Currently, the K&F filter pack is only sold via our webshop and dealers in the Benelux that sell K&F Concept.

Of course, I couldn’t resist taking some fun shots with Claudia and Nadine 😉

A quick tip about stacking filters

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In todays blogpost a quick tip about stacking filters.
I’m using the Frank Doorhof K&F Concept kit which contains the 1/4 and 1/8 Black Diffusion filters with a magnetic connector for super fast and easy switching, but you can of course also…. well combine filters this way, so let’s take a look at how that looks.

you can order the kit from frankdoorhof.com/shop or in your favourite camera store that sells K&F concept.

A new Frank Doorhof allround filter pack

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Filters come in many shapes and sizes (literally).
Personally, I’m not really a filter fan, but since I started using the Black Diffusion filters from K&F concept I have literally fallen in love with those filters.

The Black Diffusion filters from K&F concept give a fantastic “glow” effect on highlights, but do not “ruin” the photo due to loss of sharpness, photos remain razor-sharp, but as soon as some backlight falls on the lens, you see the highlights really “glow” fantastic. “. but that’s not all, I mainly use the filters for the impact they have on lens flares.

Where normally a lens flare can be a bit “harsh”, the filters provide a fantastic smooth rendering of the flare.

The Black diffusion is available in different strengths, but I mainly use the 1/8 and 1/4.
It will therefore come as no surprise that you will find these 2 in the package.
But there’s more…

You probably see them sometimes, those shots where the water is really super smooth, in case you’re wondering how they do that…. a really long shutter speed. Normally, however, this will not work because you would then get a totally overexposed photo, so you have to ensure that less light falls on the sensor. And for that we use so-called ND (Neutral Density) filters, which are available in different values ​​(stops) which indicate how much light is lowered.

Now you may be wondering what I do with an ND filter?
Well… with outdoor flash we have a similar problem.
Many flashes that are a bit more powerful have a limitation on the shutter speed that you can use (often this is max 1/125-1/200, called the X-sync). If you shoot faster, you will be treated to a “nice” black bar (the shutter curtain). This often means that if you work with flash outside, you get photos with a depth of field from here to eternity, and that’s not always what you aim for of course.

By using an ND filter, we are able to block part of the light so less light falls on the sensor, this means we can now open the aperture, resulting in less depth of field. Awesome.

Now the question that we all want to ask “what strength should I buy?”
Well, that’s not so easy to answer.
Sometimes you want a little less and sometimes a little more…. luckily we have a solution for that too.

In addition to the 1/4 and 1/8 Black Diffusion filters, the Frank Doorhof package also includes a variable ND filter from 8-128, a very useful range for both model photography with flash on location and landscapes. The variable ND filter has clear indications for the stops and is also fully adjustable. More flexibility is almost impossible.

If you’re already getting excited…. just wait

One of the major drawbacks of filters is that they are sometimes impossible to get off your lens.
There only needs to be a small grain of sand on the ring or maybe you don’t pay attention when mounting the filter and it’s not aligned perfectly, drama, drama, drama 😀
Well…. we solved that too.

frank doorhof K&F kit

All filters are magnetic
This means that you only have to place the magnetic ring on your lens, my advise is to do this in a clean environment and also, just to be sure, clean everything with a blower so that there is nothing on the lens mount where the ring is placed. Once the ring is on, you can change the filters with lighting speed.

Happy yet?
Again this is not all, when we do something… we do it the right way.

Due to the design of the filters and the ring, you can also combine the filters.
For example, if you want more diffusion than 1/4, you just click the 1/8 on top of the 1/4 and you get a heavier effect.

Of course, the variable ND filter is also fully magnetic and has no protruding parts, so you can still use the lens hood if necessary.

Almost done
Ok, in terms of filters we are done now, but there is more.
Of course we can just give you the filters in a box, but that is not really convenient on location and doesn’t look cool/special, so we opted for a beautiful handmade leather pouch, and they are all unique (handmade). We have a few of them in the studio and they are indeed all slightly different, so you really buy something unique.

In this video I introduce the package to you and show you what it contains and what you can do with it.

The filterpack is now available via www.frankdoorhof.com/shop (for the Benelux) or in the stores that sell K&F Concept.