Soft Focus Photography

[williamkazak]

This is a great discussion. I have had my share of soft focus lenses and filters. Still do. Maybe it is easy to try soft focus but it is harder to know exactly what to do with it. Keep it coming.

[chriswalter]

In Lightroom there are now brushes which allow negative clatity and/or lower sharpness values to be added to areas which require softening. This works to produce the softened areas which would usually be created by added layers in Photoshop (gaussian blur or whatver) but without creating massive file sizes.
Another method is to globally reduce clarity and sharpness and then paint back in higher sharpness and clarity onto the eyes, mouth, hair or whatever,
It's a lot quicker than using programmes like Portrait Pro/Imagenomic if you don't need to re-sculpure the face and adjust pupil colour and so on, and more natural looking!
You can do a lot in Lightroom - 20081015 Petra? Before and After.jpg | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
I also do tuition in the London area - M25 ring if anyone is interested!

[Ed Shapiro]

Post production softening can be very nice as well but using a lens that is primarily designed for soft focus results is, to my mind, the gold standard. On some lenses such as the Rodenstock Imagon there is a glow that is caused by blending the highlights into the shadows or a soft images almost superimposed over a sharp image.

If you have any of the classic soft focus lenses you might have a problem using them on you DSLR. Lucky me- I have digitized my Mamiya RZ67 for which I have adapters for my old soft focus glass. For Canon users- there is a 135mm SF Lens that just pops on the camera- the results I have seen are first rate.

I hope this helps! Ed

[Rense]

Great idea to start this thread Ed.
Here are some photo's made with Tamron Adaptall SF 70-150mm f/2.8 lens:


World Statues 2011 Arnhem


World Statues 2011 Arnhem


World Statues 2011 Arnhem .

[Ed Shapiro]

Rense! Yes! If you look at you second image you will notice the flare or sort of aura coming off the young ladle's shoulder- this is part of this soft focus effect. Surprisingly enough, the essence of soft focus lens engineering is to utilize the otherwise undesirable affects of optical defects know as aberrations. Theses are the gremlins that have driven lens designers to drink since the beginnings of modern photography. Some of the intrinsic defects are spherical aberrations, astigmatism, chromatic aberrations, and a raft of others. Some of theses problems are termed ZONAL aberrations because the only exist in certain areas of the lens- usually on the edges. As we cover the edges of the lens with the aperture control, the edges play a lesser part in the total sharpness or lack thereof in the performance. Many classic soft focus lenses have not only diaphragms but other contraptions that resemble kitchen sink strainers with variable holes that control the degree of softness. Some of the great old portrait lenses can become tack sharp at smaller apertures or sentimentally soft and painterly when all the stops are pulled out. Some of us old guys called it OPTICAL RETOUCHING!

Many of the currently available soft lenses are made with one element or two cemented back to back- this is why the have purposeful aberrations in their makeup. Lenses with multiple elements are designed to eliminate as many and as much of theses intrinsic defects as possible.

Ed

[Rense]

Ed,
Did you ever work with Nicola-Perscheid lens?

[chriswalter]

I have a 77mm Zeiss Softar which works well with my Leica M3 and 80mm Summichron f/2.
Also used with Nikon 85mm f/1.4 gives a gentle softening effect.

[Ed Shapiro]

Rense- One would think that some of theses old lenses were very rare birds but surprisingly enough the do show up in small camera stores, photo flea markets and pawn shops with goodly stocks of old photo equipment. I suppose that in the day of some of this gear, theses lenses were very popular among photographic portraitists of that era and were actually manufactured is reasonable quantities. I have indeed come across that lens and a friend of mine scooped it up for about 50 U.S. dollars.

At that time I was making the transition from 8x10 and 4x5 equipment in my portrait studio and was inventing lots of money in new medium format equipment. I never was a camera or lens COLLECTOR per se but I did have quite a stash of soft focus glass for actual use.

I had adapted some of my old SF lenses to my medium format cameras via custom made adapters and bellows extensions but the results were not all that great. The problem is that in using a smaller format film I was only using the center of the circle of coverage of those lenses which were designed for the 8x10 and 4x5 formats. Those great little zonal aberrations that I longed for were living in the edges of the format and the lenses and were literally out of the picture.

Te only one that works well is my 20Omm Imagon on my Mamiya RZ67.

There is also a sub culture of photographers/user -collectors/dealers who like to connect some of their oldies to the great photographers, living or dead, who ostensibly use or have used them in their old or current legendary work. One guy was trying to sell me a old Cook soft focus lens that Harry Garfield purportedly used in his glorious portraits of children. Problem with this dealer was he did not know that Harry was still alive and well, living and working in the Bronx (NYC) and despite his failing vision was shooting suburb image with the assistance of his wife (to focus the camera). Harry was a fine man a great photographer and one of my early mentors. I dropped in at his studio on the Grand Concourse and asked hm about the lens- he laughed! The he escorted me into his camera room and there "IT" was- a beat up old Mamiyaflex TLR circa 1958 with a 135mm lens that was in equally bad condition with a piece of black netting held on the lens by the world's oldest rubber band. Go figure!

Chris- The Zeiss Softar is the only supplementary soft focus attachment that closely mimics the classic Rodnestock Imagon. It to superimposes a soft image over a sharp image and bleeds the highlights into the shadows. Older Zeiss diffusion attachments had concentric circles etched into the glass and as the aperture was stopped down, the softness would decrease. The Softars have little "micro" lenses spread across their entire surface therefore the degree of softness remains uniform regardless of the f/stop in use. I have numbers 1,2, and 3. I love them for weddings because you can rapidly put the on and take the off so that you can get different interpretations of the same pose.

Those lenses you have sometimes call for bit of softness when used in portraiture. I have a 90mm Summichron which seems to find wrinkles and blemishes that I can't see- I used to call it the"pimple finder". I was thinking that I should offer my services to dermatologists so they can find blemishes before the erupt! Another thing I like about the Softars is that they add a romantic or intimate mood to an image even if blemishes are not the issue.

[richpilot35]

When I was using a 180mm on my RB 67 ProS, I would also use a Sailwind Pro-Soft Soft Focus Filter that was magnificent when the lens was stopped down to 5.6. It requires a 1/2 stop increase in exposure and I would adjust the shutter speed to handle that. Portraits and Bridals shot outdoors would have a lovely glow, subtle but so effective. It has a 77mm thread, so I still use it on some of my Nikon digital lenses with the correct stepdown rings.

[richpilot35]

I also used some black thread soft focus filters made by Image Maker of Cookeville, TN. They would drop into filter slot of the bellows lens hood for my RB67 lenses. These filters came in 3 densities and were just incredible. I don't know if the company still exists but finding them on E-bay would be a great addition for use on location, and not in post.