Convert normal lenses to soft focus?

[Jac@stafford.net]

An old thread on how the Velostigmat works:

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...nfo-and-Images

Great article! I have a 14" Velostigmat Series II in barrel and just made the modification you documented. Like yours, the front ring unscrewed easily. Will try it this weekend!

[IanG]

The best of the macro converters are doublets so achromatic. The one I linked to is particularly nice, multi-coated, and a fine length for 8X10, f8 40cm. There are lots of others. Any doublet with a diopter will do the trick.

I tried a macro/wide angle (quasi fish-eye) converter about 10 years ago on my Mamiya 645 and the results were rather similar to soft focus lenses great abberations I had planned to use it on my LF cameras but have yet to try it. It needs using in front of another lens so is different to Jim's suggestion.

Ian

[Ken Lee]

There have been many different soft focus lens types - a few scientifically well founded designed ones, and a much higher number "invented" by amateurs by playing around with spare lenses. All of them boil down to leaving some optical error uncorrected - and most optical errors can be created with trivial filters just as well as in a lens.

With lenses whose optical errors diminish gradually as the aperture is closed (or which employ a dial or other control mechanism), is there a factor of convenience ? Can we quickly adjust the effect to taste, with repeatability and control ?

You might find this article interesting: it's on the Cooke Optics Limited web site:

Soft Focus Lenses versus Diffusion Filters

Using a soft focus lens is not the same as using a diffusion filter on a conventional lens, nor is it the same as stopping down a conventional lens. A diffusion filter causes a random scattering of the rays at all points across the aperture. The image obtained with a soft-focus lens retains all of the subject detail over a wider depth of field than with a conventional lens set to the same aperture, but the emphasis on the fine detail or the bolder elements of the image can be distributed as the photographer wishes.

The original Pinkham & Smith lenses achieve their distinctive soft focus in a manner different from other lenses. Using the traditional glass available at the time, craftsmen hand-corrected multiple surfaces of the lenses to achieve their unique soft focus look. The introduction of aspherical surfaces gave Pinkham & Smith lenses a higher-order spherical aberration that results (when the lens was used fully open) in an image with both very high resolution and a self-luminescent quality. Cooke has reproduced the unique performance of these hand aspherized lenses using modern design techniques that duplicate this unique soft yet high-resolution performance exactly.

[Ken Lee]

Here's a photo I made with a vintage 9-inch Kershaw Soft Focus lens that was lent to me by Eddie Gunks. I may be mistaken but it appears that the blur effect is complex, and related to depth or distance.

I'm not sure how this effect could be attained with a filter alone - but I'm no expert.

[Brian Ellis]

This seems so obvious I hesitate to mention it but why not just buy a soft focus filter in the appropriate size? Nikon makes several, Hasselblad used to make the Softar, not sure if it's still made or not. Those two brands supposedly were the best though others make soft focus filters too. Seems like a good way to experiment for not much money. I think I paid about $100 for my Nikon 67mm.

[jp]

The blur depth as Ken talks about two posts above is a bit complex. It's like a pre-calculus sequence or series of infinitely small steps where numbers are replaced with images and they converge to what's in focus rather than an asymptote in a graph. This variety of images getting stacked into the same capture come from imperfect optics like magnifying glasses, meniscus lenses, poorly optimized lenses.

DIY would be a magnifying glass on an old leaf shutter or speed graphic.

Low budget would be something built by Galli or Reinhold.

Don't think you're getting out of it cheap; it takes a lot of film and use to learn how to make the lenses sing.

Big budget is the classic stuff.

[Mark Woods]

I made a lens out of a magnifying glass. It's really borderline -- in terms of knowing what you're looking at. Cool look, but one needs to understand what one is using and looking at.

[Alan Gales]

I have used soft filters since the 1980's for smoothing women's faces so my lens doesn't show every pore.

A true soft focus lens is different. It exhibits a beautiful glow.

At one time I owned an RZ67 with both 180 and 180SF lenses. I never used the 180SF enough to really get the hang of it but the effect was definitely different then using a soft filter.

Like jp498 advises, mastering a true soft focus lens will take a lot of practice and burning a lot of film but the effect is definitely unique.

[Brian C. Miller]

I have seen some pretty interesting work here from soft focus lenses and would like to experiment with the effect. But the price of some of the premier soft focus lenses, like the Veritas Veritatums, Vertigos, Pickhimup Smiths, and of course the famous Hugo Chevalier Doppel Pretzel, are more than I want to pay to experiment.

IIRC, didn't Richard Rankin have a loaner program going?

Anyways, you don't need the most expensive lenses on the planet to have some fun. There's the Wollaston Meniscus, made by forum member Reinhold Schable for a very affordable price. Other lenses will start to cost you a few bucks, like the Fuji soft focus 250mm. I think the Imagon is next in the price step-up. I've spent a few bucks bringing a Wollensak Vesta Portrait into a usable state (lens, shutter, mounting), and other lenses are catch-as-catch-can.

Have you actually tried anything yourself, like the soft focus filters?

[Mark Woods]

I have more than 160 filters of all types with an emphasis on diffussions, colored NDs, NDs, and CC filters. There are ways to get that "glow" with the use of filters, but that means that the photographer has control of the lighting and contrast ratio. For my large format work, I do like my funky lenses and not so funky Imagons.