Here's a scan of a print I made from a sharp 6X9cm negative. Neg was made in a funny little Contessa I used to have that had a 155mm Turner Reich lens on it and was converted to American 2X3 film holders. I made the enlargement with the rear group of a 135mm Xenotar. Just the rear doublet as enlarger lens.
here's the original
here's the soft enlargement
Yes.
Now it's a Galli.
A really pictorial idea!
Ritchie
With diffusion under an enlarger, the blacks will glow. With diffusion on the taking lens, the whites will glow. Both can be effective!
“You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know
I'm sure some of our motion picture professionals can tell us about black dot filters.
http://www.manray.net/images/man-ray-photo.jpg
I am wondering if the glow around Man Ray here is from soft focus enlarging, or if its a normal soft focus glow that is solarized, or what the special combination is? (Also curious about any guesses of the lens pictured)
I'd say solarized...Originally Posted by jp
Perhaps it's a soft negative enlarged with a soft enlarging lens giving the black glow? Not enough definition left on the lens to make much of a guess. Looks like it could be an ordinary Velostigmat. 15" would have a flange with that screw pattern. But that's just a guess.
My hope is that other folks will give us some examples of softness achieved at the enlarger. Mine was just to get us started.
This is a great idea for a thread. We keep trying to achieve pictorial effects in camera, but it is my understanding that much of what was done after the widespread adoption of enlargers was done in the darkroom. It would be interesting to shoot two identical images with an adjustable lens, one full sharp and one full soft, then use the same lens to enlarge the sharp negative at full soft and compare that to the in camera version. Unfortunately, I don't have a soft focus lens small enough to mount on my graflarger!
The image is solarized, but I think the phenomenon you're referring to is the Sabattier effect, which creates a line along edges between light and dark, called a "Mackie Line".
True soft lenses (those with spherical aberration) always make the lights glow, as light spreads, while dark doesn't. But in the enlarging phase, it's the darks that are light!
"I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."
Does anyone have some excamples of a "Pictrol" enlargement?
And have you ever seen a real "Flout Net" softener , created by Misonne?
I am really interested.
Thanks,
Ritchie
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