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Thread: Contemporary soft-focus work

  1. #1

    Contemporary soft-focus work

    There seems to be considerable demand for soft-focus lenses, but I've seen fairly little work with them published. The only recent work I can think of that has found any critical notice was Linda Connor's work back in the late 70's/early 80's. Can anyone steer me towards fairly contemporary (post-photosecession) books, websites, etc. by photographers that make use of soft-focus lenses? Thanks!

  2. #2
    Ted Harris's Avatar
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    Contemporary soft-focus work

    Mark, did you see my article "Modern Soft Focus Lenses" in the current issue of View Camera magazine?

    Feel free to contact me offlist for any additional information/questions/etc.

  3. #3

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    Contemporary soft-focus work

    Hi Mark.

    I'm not sure we can correlate demand for any equipment to the publication or critical notice of any work. I think it's a mistake to overlook the effect that collectors have on demand, in favor of users, and very few users are published or critically reviewed. I own and use soft focus lenses, but don't have a website, let alone a book published. You might get a better response if you simply asked the contributors to this forum to post examples of SF work. That being said, I know of at least one website featuring SF work. Jim Galli has some SF work posted here:

    http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/

    In my experience, SF lenses are more demanding of patient experimentation than their tack-sharp counterparts. The technical challenges associated with SF work are much different than those associated with sharp work, and can seem foriegn and confusing to the uninitiated. I suspect many novices give up in frustration before glimpsing the potential of the technique.

    I think that a large part of the appeal of SF lenses is the mystique associated with them. Every lens seems to have its own personality, and to require unique handling to extract the qualities so lovingly ascribed to them by their accolytes, and the exotic beauty of the best Sf work.

    Jay

  4. #4

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    Contemporary soft-focus work

    "Can anyone steer me towards fairly contemporary (post-photosecession) books, websites, etc. by photographers that make use of soft-focus lenses? "

    Sally Mann's recent book about the South, sorry I can't remember the title, was done with very old, sometimes defective, lenses, not necessarily "soft focus" lenses as such but the images I've seen from the book had a soft focus effect because of the lenses used.
    Brian Ellis
    Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
    a mile away and you'll have their shoes.

  5. #5

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    Contemporary soft-focus work

    I don't know what equipment she uses, but Lynn Geesaman's gardenscapes are an interesting use of soft focus or darkroom blur. Some tend to the sweet and sickly, but the best (to me) have a engaging abstract combination of abstraction and looseness.

    http://www.edelmangallery.com/geesaman.htm

    http://www.aperture.org/store/books-detail.aspx?ID=255

  6. #6

    Contemporary soft-focus work

    LF soft focus lenses are financially out of reach for me atthe moment, but I experimented quite a bit with a Sima 100/f2 SF lens and a 35 mm camera this summer. Some pictures work, some other don't and while some "lessons" seem to emerge - SF lenses do better under hard light than under soft light, most of the time - just what aperture and what level of softness to use depending on the subject matter (close up portrait, head to feet portrait, small area landscape, for instance) is still rather mysterious to me, as I can't generalize my experience in some definite formula. The portrait is still hazy, if I dare say...

    I'd be glad to hear about how LF and other photographers use their SF lenses to maximum effect.

  7. #7

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    Contemporary soft-focus work

    Hi Mark

    You find some examples also on my website under portraits and under nude. Most of them with a dreamagon and under advertising one with a Imagon in 4x5: www.artfoto.ch

  8. #8
    Whatever David A. Goldfarb's Avatar
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    Contemporary soft-focus work

    Not a classic soft-focus lens, but there's Mark Tucker's plungercam--a Rodenstock loupe attached with a rubber bellows to a Hasselblad. You might think of it as a high end precursor (that's a $200 loupe!) to the Lensbaby. http://www.marktucker.com/plungercam

  9. #9

    Contemporary soft-focus work

    I know Mark Tucker's fascinating work with the plunger cam, but I wouldn't call it soft focus. Shift focus or selective plane of focus, perhaps, as it's a kind of mix between Diana photography and mad shift/tilts in LF. But it shares very little with soft focus in the classic sense of the phrase.

  10. #10

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    Contemporary soft-focus work

    The Texas Tintypes come to mind. Brooks just did a nice layout on those in Lenswork. I am nearly finished inflating the market buying different soft focus lenses having just picked up a Pinkham & Smith. That said, the task ahead is daunting. These lenses are unlike our normal plasmats where all you need to do is focus stop down and no surprises afterwards. Each one has a personality that at first glance hints that it could continue to surprise for half a lifetime. How does one approach the task at hand with so little time. My goal is to get proficient with every one, but for now I've barely scratched the surface. Being published isn't even a goal. Enjoyment is.

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