Printing diffusion material

[BetterSense]

I need a diffusion material to use while enlarging. I have a picture of a baby which is a good picture, but his mom's arm has goosebumps, which is distracting compared to the smooth baby skin. I'm looking for some material to use to soften out the goosebumpy skin. I tried using tissue paper, but it blocked too much light so it had too much dodging effect.

[Peter Mounier]

I've used wrinkled up cellophane, and held it under the light source for 1/3 the print time, plus or minus. Works great.

Peter

[chassis]

What about a thin layer of vaseline smeared on a piece of clear glass? Another one is to stretch a piece of women's nylon stocking in front of the enlarging lens.

[konakoa]

An empty Print File page held under the enlarging lens works. The effect is mild and you will have to add a little to the print exposure. I used this stunt when somebody wanted a soft-focus effect for portraits when I didn't have a soft-focus filter for the camera. It never made sense to me to buy an expensive and sharp lens only to slap something on it to make it blurry. Diffusing and softening the image at the printing stage technically blurs the darker areas of the image, not the highlights. It gives it a different if slightly muddied look in the midtones.

Edit: forgot to add in that you only put the page under the lens for 1/2 to 1/3 of the print exposure, like Peter says above.

[David Swinnard]

Last time I needed diffusion, I found the faintly textured/patterned plastic of an "Alligator Baggie" sandwich bag worked better (for me) than any of the other things I tried (smeared glass, nylon stocking, crinkled cellophane, and other items...) I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest we've all got different ideas of what's suitable diffusion so some testing is likely in order.

[Neal Chaves]

My favorite diffuser is a piece of ANR glass. I hold it close to the lens for about half the printing time.