Small Format SOFT focus lenses

[goamules]

Great shots! That's what I like about small format - I can shoot a lot, and get instant feedback. Sometimes I try a shot on SF or digital (with adapted lenses that replicate what I have in LF). Then if I like what I'm doing, I'll set up a studio camera with the big lenses and film sheets. This shot is none of that, just a view from my desk where I sit each day. I put the Hugo Meyer Plasmat on a different camera (Fuji X) because I just got the adapter. Still looks soft to me, wide open. (Click for larger)

[Jim Galli]

I probably posted these somewhere here already. Not a classic, but easy to find is the Mamiya 150SF for the RB67 platform:



And the same lens mounted onto a modified 4x5 camera

Alan, I've got zero tolerance for color fringing. The lens baby shot is actually more pleasing than the Mamiya ones, but it's a subject that would naturally block a lot of it. Most of the cheap modern soft lenses for small cameras have color fringing that boogers the effect for me. And my other dumb rule is that small is for color and big is for black and white ~ brute force. So I'm limited to achromatic lenses that get their soft effect from something besides color planes.

[Bernice Loui]

Soft focus or selective focus lenses work by exploiting residual aberration of a given lens. As the format size shrinks, the negative effects of these residual lens aberrations tends to be magnified. This is why soft focus or selective focus lenses were not made in small formats historically as the soft focus image tradition stayed with photographers using large sheet film of 5x7 or larger. It was some time later that the soft focus style appeared with wedding photographers and related portrait photographers that favored medium format roll film cameras. This results in lenses like the 200 Imagon and such.

With all this digital and small format stuff, the fashion of having a lens produce effects has become a trendy thing, much like Instagram.

To really appreciate what soft focus or selective focus lenses can do for images, one needs to use a few of the classic soft focus lenses with a 8x10 camera and 8x10 sheet film then make a contact print from the resulting negative. Only then could the beauty of soft focus lenses be honestly appreciated.


Bernice

[goamules]

I guess I'm a dishonest appreciator then! Or sometimes honest?

[djdister]

To really appreciate what soft focus or selective focus lenses can do for images, one needs to use a few of the classic soft focus lenses with a 8x10 camera and 8x10 sheet film then make a contact print from the resulting negative. Only then could the beauty of soft focus lenses be honestly appreciated.
Bernice

I think this is a key observation. That is why enlarged (digitally or opticallly) soft focus shots often just don't look as good as contact or minimally enlarged prints. Just my opinion. There may be some scientific reason to explain it, but I don't have that...

[Jim Galli]

To really appreciate what soft focus or selective focus lenses can do for images, one needs to use a few of the classic soft focus lenses with a 8x10 camera and 8x10 sheet film then make a contact print from the resulting negative. Only then could the beauty of soft focus lenses be honestly appreciated.


Bernice

I think this is a key observation. That is why enlarged (digitally or opticallly) soft focus shots often just don't look as good as contact or minimally enlarged prints. Just my opinion. There may be some scientific reason to explain it, but I don't have that...

Soft focus was conceived when 8X10 and full plate were the normative size in a studio. The reason they work best in that size and contact printed is because of what I like to call "brute force". You can't afford to lose any tonality with the subtleties of soft focus.

[Bernice Loui]

This is often not appreciated until classic soft focus lens are used on 8x10 and contact print made.

Many of these classic soft focus lenses were "voice or tuned" to make contact prints on 8x10 format. Once this original design requirement is violated, the overall effect and real beauty of these soft focus images is lost or significantly discounted.



Bernice

Soft focus was conceived when 8X10 and full plate were the normative size in a studio. The reason they work best in that size and contact printed is because of what I like to call "brute force". You can't afford to lose any tonality with the subtleties of soft focus.

[Bernice Loui]

Not at all, more like looking for the easy, lower cost or least effort way to achieve the desired results.

Often this is good enough until one gains an deep appreciation of what the original expression and beauty of contact prints made using classic soft focus lenses on 8x10 format.

Kinda like hearing a Stradivarius or Guarneri violin played by a world class violinist live for the first time. Before that it was listening to poor recordings on poor play back systems daily.


Bernice

I guess I'm a dishonest appreciator then! Or sometimes honest?

[Emil Schildt]

Not at all, more like looking for the easy, lower cost or least effort way to achieve the desired results.

Often this is good enough until one gains an deep appreciation of what the original expression and beauty of contact prints made using classic soft focus lenses on 8x10 format.

Kinda like hearing a Stradivarius or Guarneri violin played by a world class violinist live for the first time. Before that it was listening to poor recordings on poor play back systems daily.


Bernice

I honestly like my enlarged SF images better then the same as contact prints...

[Tin Can]

I honestly like my enlarged SF images better then the same as contact prints...

Why would viewing distance NOT be applicable to enlarged SF negs?

Meaning, at a greater distance the effect would be the same.

I agree.