New toy

[Ed Shapiro]

Hi Pop W!

That image was scanned from an old print so that I could post the image quickly- ergo- the scratch! The original negative and the print are in good shape.

All of the soft focus lenses have their own personality so to speak. I have an Imagon fitted to my Hasselblad system and the instructions that came with the lenses said more or less- thanks for buying this thing and good luck. They all work (various brands) differently at various f/stops or h/stops and with the various "inserts" that come with the lenses. The 135 Canon is a great little lens. I can give you a few tips on SF lenses in general.

The is a rule in classic portraiture; Soft lens- hard light and sharp lens- soft light. Here's how it works: Many of the prime SF lenses work on the principle of zonal aberrations, that is there are purposely uncorrected zone sin the lenses that cause soft imagining. The zones "live" on the edge of the lenses and as the aperture is reduced either by the diaphragm or the inserts, the soft zones become invisible to the film or sensor and the images become sharper. Some of the older classics such as the Taylor. Hobson and Cooke Universal Portrait Lens have floating elements as well that control the degree of softness. Some of this glass it tack sharp on the other side of f/11. Minolta even made an SF lens that was quite nice for their X700 type SLRs.

One of the functions in soft focus lenses that create the "optical retouching" effect is that the aberrations cause the highlights to flare into the shadows, Flat lighting or very soft lighting does not create enough highlight intensity to work with theses lenses- sort of mushy images result. Kicker lights, spot light and lighting commin in at a steep angle of incidence work well because the produce better diffused and specular highlights. A higher lighting ratio works well because some contrast is lost in soft focus work as compared to standard results from corrected lenses.

The Sekor 150 for the RZ works easily and quickly in portrait situations where you have to work quickly as with active children. Some of the other lenses are a bit more difficult to focus- they seem to have enormus "depth of focus".

Set up you lighting as suggested and try various apertures and make notes so that you will have repeatability of each effect.

I hope this helps, Ed

[xxloverxx]

Ed, what's an h/stop? Seems to be something that only comes up in SF lenses