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Small Format SOFT focus lenses
The title is a little bit of a challenge, because I've been looking for small classic era soft focus lenses for years, and they are very, very hard to find. Something like a Verito, or one of the many meniscus soft focus lenses like a Struss, Portrait Plastigmat, Cooke Semi-achromat in 1 to 3 inch focal length, for around a 35mm film size, is almost non-existent. I say almost, because I know Hollywood used a few soft focus lenses, during the silent through the classic eras. You see them often when you watch old movies, when the scene flashes to a closeup of the beautiful girl. How do they do that, it looks great! It's been discussed a little on other threads.
Isn't the paradox interesting, that small format people (35mm Leica, Digital mirrorless, and now Black Magic Pocket Cine Camera users) all want extreme sharpness, edge to edge, with no vignetting, field curve, or aberrations at all? I mean, they're shooting lenses the size of your thumb to the size of a juice can. Tiny glass, has to be worked VERY intensively to get those results on a postage stamp sized format. Meanwhile, a lot of Large Format people WANT aberrations, swirl, soft focus. Yet their format is 5, 10, or more inches across! Trying to get sharp on a thumbnail sized frame, and soft on a frame the size of a window. Just seems funny.
Anyway, through a lucky purchase, I finally got one of the lenses reputed to be soft. I've been looking for one for years, but didn't want to pay the high prices from some of the Buy It Now venders that seem to have everything. So I waited. Months became years. The children grew up, and went to college....that type of time frame. Is this a Holy Grail lens? Not really, they are pretty much unknown or forgotten by 99.9% of the small format photographers. But that's the things I like! If anything, the C-mount lens craze is tapering off. But I think it will continue in spurts, as people continue shooting micro 4/3 cameras and movie cameras.
This is a rebranded Kino Plasmat 1" F1.5 by Hugo Meyer. Dr. Paul Rudolph invented the first Anastigmats, the Protars in the 1890s. He came out of retirement after WWI to build a fast cinema camera lens at Hugo Meyer. The F1.5 version came out in 1922, and many are engraved with his name around the front glass. Studying the design, basically a Dagor derivative, you wouldn't think they would be soft. And looking at a lot of people's shots who owned them, I couldn't be sure if they were soft either. But it was on my list of "small format, possibly soft" lenses to try. I got the lens last night, very worn, very stiff focus, but it has potential. Shot was taken of another rare lens I got at the same time (early Christmas!), a Cooke Ivotal, and another innocuous lens.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8672/...4fd0d4ce_b.jpg
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
I think that for the early years of 35mm photography they were still struggling to make lenses sharp enough for decent enlargements, so intentionally soft focus wasn't much of an issue. In any case, soft focus was (and is?) a portrait thing and studios stuck with LF for a very long time. Here's a list of 35mm and MF soft focus lenses from the post war era (mostly from the seventies onward).
35mm
Canon (new) FD: 85mm f/2.8 Soft Focus
Canon EOS: EF 135 f2.8 Soft Focus
Fuji M42: EBC Fujinon SF 85/4
Leica: 9cm F2.2 Thambar
Minolta MD: Minolta 85mm f/2.8 Varisoft
Minolta AF: Minolta AF 100 F2.8 Soft
Nikon F: nothing that I could find
Nikon AF: AF DC-Nikkor 105mm f/2, AF DC-Nikkor135 f/2
Olympus: nothing that I could find
Pentax K: SMC Pentax Soft 85/2.2,
Pentax K (AF): SMC Pentax-F 85/2.8 Soft, SMC Pentax-FA 28/2.8 Soft, SMC Pentax-FA 85/2.8 Soft
Sony AF: Sony AF 100 F2.8 Soft
Tamron Adpatall: Tamron SP 70-150mm f2.8 Soft
Medium Format
Fuji GX: EBC Fujinon GX SF190/8, EBC Fujinon GXM SF190/8
Mamiya 645: Mamiya-Sekor SF C 145/4
Mamiya RB67: Mamiya 150 mm f/4.0 C Variable Soft Focus
Mamiya RZ67: Mamiya 180 mm f/4.0 D/L Variable Soft Focus
Pentax 6x7: SMC Pentax 67 120/3.5
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
In "New York to Hollywood" book, the author describes Struss as having made some small Struss Pictorials for films he worked in.
The Nikon AF-DC nikkor isn't soft. It can unbalance the spherical aberration sweet spot as soft focus lenses often were, but I still wouldn't call the lens soft. The feature helps with smoothness of OOF areas. It is a very nice lens.
Popular current options are Brownies with reversed meniscus and Holgas. I think the Holgas suffer in contrast, but can do nice results often enough to be viable and worth messing with.
There have also been imagon adaptors/bellows for MF system cameras. I haven't used them, but have seen some really nice work other photographers have done.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
I know Karl Struss used soft focus lenses, but I'm trying to figure out any others in the classic period of Hollywood. I think William Russell Young's thesis talks a little about this, I need to go back and read it. I also know the studios often just veiled a conventional lens with gauze, etc. But some cinema soft shots are so beautiful, and I can see the affect I see with a Verito.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
goamules
I know Karl Struss used soft focus lenses, but I'm trying to figure out any others in the classic period of Hollywood. I think William Russell Young's thesis talks a little about this, I need to go back and read it. I also know the studios often just veiled a conventional lens with gauze, etc. But some cinema soft shots are so beautiful, and I can see the affect I see with a Verito.
pre code hollywood cinematic books seem to have quite a number of references. Albeit i am not patient enough
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
That Kino Plasmat has a wonderful soft look to it, Garret! I wouldn't have even suspected it was a soft lens, never having heardf of a soft plasmat for any format. (Can anyone think of another?)
A quick reminder of this old article on soft cine lenses:
http://books.google.com/books?id=S08...0brown&f=false
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Schmactenburg and Rodenstock teamed up to bring back the 120mm and 150mm 4.5 Imagon lenses in T-2 mounts for any 35mm interchangeable lens camera as well as in mounts for Rollei SL66, 6XXX, Hasselblad 500 and 2000, Pentax 645 and 67 and Mamiya 645 and RB and RZ cameras.
Zörkendorfer and Rodenstock teamed up to bring the 200mm 5.8 Imagon in mounts for the same cameras above.
These were available into the 90's new.
And, today, the new Petzval is now availble in both Nikon and Canon mount. It is an 85mm.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
This book has a lot about the early Soft Focus techniques: The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960 - By David Bordwell, Janet Staiger, Kristin Thompson. There are about 8-10 pages discussing the techniques from 1919 onward, with a lot of discussion of the 1920s. Lenses are mentioned, but not many names (Struss, Verito, Kalostat I believe only) as well as gauze, and Kodak diffusion filters and other techniques. Struss and others are quoted. Mark, I think the authors quote your journal article.
I need to buy this book.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Here is the Kino Plasmat. Note the inner "free" elements are facing the opposite way of a conventional Plasmat. Kingslake says this better corrected the spherical aberration (implying softness is inherent in the design). It seems both Plasmats and Dagors had some difficulty with SA, wide open. People have talked about Dagor "glow" when shot wide.
I need to find where or why I originally thought Dr. Paul Rudolph F1.5 Kino Plasmats were soft. Somewhere....I read that, so started searching. But I see some of them are not soft, on photo sharing sites. This one is.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8614/...4333486f_o.jpg
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
I'm getting an "Invalid Attachment" on that one, Garrett.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Lucky enough to have a Plastigmat Portrait 75mm f4.5 with a cobbled Nikon mount. Don't use it often enough.
I'm a big fan of Bruce Hemingway's work. He has a Pinkham 75mm. Probably the only one on earth.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Here's another with the lens, a little larger so you can see it.
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8567/...6587d969_b.jpg
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jim Galli
Lucky enough to have a Plastigmat Portrait 75mm f4.5 with a cobbled Nikon mount. Don't use it often enough.
I'm a big fan of
Bruce Hemingway's work. He has a Pinkham 75mm. Probably the only one on earth.
Is it a B&L and is it soft? Wow, I forgot about his 75mm Pinkham, fantastically small. I see he's using it on the APS-C size sensor, I've got an adapter being shipped to try this Plasmat on my Fuji XE-1 too.
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3 Attachment(s)
Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
don't know whether these counts?
Small Lancaster landscape uncorced on my Rolleiflex SL66...
City of Prague..
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Wonderful! They're soft, it's small format, works for me!
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Small Format SOFT focus lenses
If there is a need for a small format soft lens then I could probably design it.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Yes, the Plastigmat is B&L and yes it's soft. The above was done with Nikon D200, my digi workhorse.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Nodda Duma
If there is a need for a small format soft lens then I could probably design it.
What would be fun would be to take a common Nikkor, like the 50mm f1.8 and study the current design to see if you could take one of the elements and purposely introduce some aberration. They'd sell like hot cakes.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Nice shot, I like color with soft focus. I keep wanting to try my struss with some Fuji transparency film, but I'm afraid I'll blow the exposure with a barrel lens! I think "hot cakes" is too strong a metaphor. I'd say they'd sell like anchovy ice cream.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Garret; you could use a ND filter to get to a comfortable manual shutter speed.
My m39 Helios 44 (58mm f2) is a bit softish wide open. It doesn't focus past 5' on my nikon either since it was made for a different flange distance.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jim Galli
What would be fun would be to take a common Nikkor, like the 50mm f1.8 and study the current design to see if you could take one of the elements and purposely introduce some aberration. They'd sell like hot cakes.
Don't have to study it. It's a double gauss design. Just pull the front element away from the rest of the lenses. That'll really screw up the spheri--..er um, well I mean.. give you nice soft focus.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Nodda Duma
Don't have to study it. It's a double gauss design. Just pull the front element away from the rest of the lenses. That'll really screw up the spheri--..er um, well I mean.. give you nice soft focus.
I'll get my set of hammers out and start on one tomorrow. ;~'))
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
I have the 90mm Dreamagon from Seibold and the 120 mm Imagon from Rodenstock with a T2 Adapter for my Nikon including my digital Nikons! I'm a lucky guy;--)))
Cheers Armin
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Then there's the Sima 100mm f2 soft focus/macro. Very inexpensive (cheap) single element plastic, sliding tube focusing, kinda like a Lensbaby, uses a T mount, so it can be made to fit most 35mm or dslr's.
Wide open it's too soft for most subjects, f5.6 or f8 (they use aperture discs) is more to my liking.
Keh currently has one listed for $35... with a Nikon T mount.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
I have the Canon 135mm telephoto lens with softfocus settings, and I will try to post some examples later. But one thing to think about - I also have the Canon 135mm f/2L lens, which of course is not a soft focus lens. But when used wide open, it gives a beautifully short depth of field and out of focus bokeh, which is sometimes a better effect than an overall softfocus lens.
In the image sharing forum there is a thread (called "Wide f***ing open" or something like that) which demostrates how that can work effectively for LF work as well.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Nodda Duma
Don't have to study it. It's a double gauss design. Just pull the front element away from the rest of the lenses. That'll really screw up the spheri--..er um, well I mean.. give you nice soft focus.
Some lenses should be really easy to modify, like the late canon fd 50/1.8, where the front element is simply held on with 3 screws. Easy to experiment with spacers and longer screws as needed. How much of a spacer would you suggest?
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
From the OP; I've been looking for small classic era soft focus lenses
Old Cine soft focus lenses are like hens teeth. The modern non-achromatic simple meniscii don't get the job done (imesho)
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
I probably posted these somewhere here already. Not a classic, but easy to find is the Mamiya 150SF for the RB67 platform:
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7296/...f97e488c_c.jpg
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2939/...798dce1c_c.jpg
And the same lens mounted onto a modified 4x5 camera
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7414/...68597d8f_c.jpg
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Alan, I like 2 and 3. I have a 'hard' time with mine. Never happy.
Great images.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Thanks Randy,
I don't shoot this lens enough to get really consistent. All too often I tend to backfocus just slightly, especially using it on the 4x5. I think I've exposed 3 or 4 negatives and got the one keeper above. As most people have written, I like it better wide open with no disc (center image) than w. disk.
Here's a digital capture with a Lensbaby. I've had it for many years but just haven't played much with it.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7562/...6665351d_c.jpg
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
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)
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7481/...a21b187e_c.jpg
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
alanbutler57
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.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
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
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
I guess I'm a dishonest appreciator then! Or sometimes honest?
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bernice Loui
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...
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bernice Loui
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
Quote:
Originally Posted by
djdister
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.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
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
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jim Galli
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.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
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
Quote:
Originally Posted by
goamules
I guess I'm a dishonest appreciator then! Or sometimes honest?
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
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 honestly like my enlarged SF images better then the same as contact prints...
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
gandolfi
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.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Randy Moe
Why would viewing distance NOT be applicable to enlarged SF negs?
Meaning, at a greater distance the effect would be the same.
I agree.
I'd respectfully disagree. Part of it is that we do walk up to a print, especially a fine print, to really appreciate the finer points. That's where you might notice the halation spreads a subtle 1/8 of an inch. Blow it up to mural size and it's a garish inch wide, with it's grain hanging out like underwear from saggy jeans. (Simile of the day! :rolleyes: )
Jim and Bernice are right, the 8x10 contact print (especially on gelatin silver) is special; it has a richness of tone and detail even slight enlargements can't quite match. You can't just stand back and look at a bigger print from a distance, anymore than you could run live acoustic music through amplifiers, turn it up, and back up to a distance where the decibels match. It's been through an imperfect intermediate system, and it doesn't come out the same...
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mark Sawyer
I'd respectfully disagree. Part of it is that we do walk up to a print, especially a fine print, to really appreciate the finer points. That's where you might notice the halation spreads a subtle 1/8 of an inch. Blow it up to mural size and it's a garish inch wide, with it's grain hanging out like underwear from saggy jeans. (Simile of the day! :rolleyes: )
Jim and Bernice are right, the 8x10 contact print (especially on gelatin silver) is special; it has a richness of tone and detail even slight enlargements can't quite match. You can't just stand back and look at a bigger print from a distance, anymore than you could run live acoustic music through amplifiers, turn it up, and back up to a distance where the decibels match. It's been through an imperfect intermediate system, and it doesn't come out the same...
gotta sell all my SF lenses then... ah well...
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
gandolfi
gotta sell all my SF lenses then... ah well...
Or put your masterpieces behind Mona Lisa protection and viewing distance. :)
I do run up and peer closely at most prints, but just as I judge a large screen TV, I move back and look far more at the 'correct' viewing distance.
ymmv
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
gandolfi
gotta sell all my SF lenses then... ah well...
Yes, there's nothing you can do, sell them all...
Seriously, I think any of your lenses work well for you because you so often use alternative processes with rougher hand-coated papers that have a very different voice. I think the very strong signature of these printing processes usually overwhelms the signature of any lens. I feel the same way about using soft lenses on wet plate.
To me, the air-dried glossy surface of a gelatin silver contact print is the perfect carrier for showing what a lens can do, be it sharp or soft. Of course, the funny thing is, in the golden days of Pictorialism, photographers preferred the rougher papers, and glossy gelatin silver prints were the signature look for the f/64 photographers who were denigrating the soft look...
So yeah, it's just my own strange logic, but at least I can rationalize it! :)
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Good simile Mark!
Bernice, you do realize I also shoot Large Format soft focus don't you? I mean, I said in my post I like doing a little SF to test ideas for shots, to play around with little lenses, to have fun. I didn't mean for this thread to become a debate on which is better. You may not know it, but I shoot a lot of LF Soft Focus lenses, including a Karl Stuss Pictorial, B&L Portrait Plastigmat, Taylor Hobson RVP, Kodak 305 and 405 Portrait....shall I go on?!
I like the idea of little soft focus lenses for the learning. Not to put something in a gallery or even on the wall.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
??
Does not alter the fact traditional/classic soft focus lenses were designed/tweaked/tuned for 8x10 or similar contact prints.
Tinkering is great, but does not alter the realities and facts of the design origins and intent of traditional soft focus lenses.
This should not be a debate, this is a point of fact.
Having fun and tinkering with small format soft focus lenses is great, do know and understand the limitations and realities of small format soft focus lenses.
I'm pretty much a purist and tries to keep in mind how these lenses were to be used along with their intended results.
Bernice
Quote:
Originally Posted by
goamules
Good simile Mark!
Bernice, you do realize I also shoot Large Format soft focus don't you? I mean, I said in my post I like doing a little SF to test ideas for shots, to play around with little lenses, to have fun. I didn't mean for this thread to become a debate on which is better. You may not know it, but I shoot a lot of LF Soft Focus lenses, including a
Karl Stuss Pictorial, B&L Portrait Plastigmat, Taylor Hobson RVP, Kodak 305 and 405 Portrait....shall I go on?!
I like the idea of little soft focus lenses for the learning. Not to put something in a gallery or even on the wall.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bernice Loui
??
Does not alter the fact traditional/classic soft focus lenses were designed/tweaked/tuned for 8x10 or similar contact prints.
Tinkering is great, but does not alter the realities and facts of the design origins and intent of traditional soft focus lenses.
This should not be a debate, this is a point of fact.
Having fun and tinkering with small format soft focus lenses is great, do know and understand the limitations and realities of small format soft focus lenses.
I'm pretty much a purist and tries to keep in mind how these lenses were to be used along with their intended results.
Bernice
Hollywood movies are small format. Hollywood movies shot soft focus. Chew on those realities.
Thank you for authorizing my photographic decisions, and explaining the limitations to me. You may now go off and be a purist somewhere else.
To everyone else, let's get back to the intent of this thread.
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Back to the thread. I was thinking the Nicca 50mm 1.4 would get a mention here. there's a lens we share and like
Regards
Bill
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Re: Small Format SOFT focus lenses
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dsphotog
Then there's the Sima 100mm f2 soft focus/macro. Very inexpensive (cheap) single element plastic, sliding tube focusing, kinda like a Lensbaby, uses a T mount, so it can be made to fit most 35mm or DSLRs.
Wide open it's too soft for most subjects, f5.6 or f8 (they use aperture discs) is more to my liking.
KEH currently has one listed for $35... with a Nikon T mount.
Having been a soft focus nut for a long time, I own two of the Sima SF lenses! Yes, with no Waterhouse disc installed, they are quite soft. My favorite portrait was created with one on a Nikon SLR body and Kodacolor film at a wedding reception that I was covering. My portrait of the four year old flower girl looks amazing as a framed 16x20 print.
I have a couple other no-name soft focus lenses that I've picked up over the years along with a Nikkor 105mm f/2 DC and a Lens Baby as well. I also have a bunch of screw-in soft focus filters in my kit. One day, I will get a Mamiya 150 mm f/4.0 C Variable Soft Focus lens to round out my RB-67 system.
I make my own SF filters by having my local glass shop cut 4x4" glass squares that are thin enough to fit in my Lindahl double adjustable lens shade. It has both a 4" filter slot and 3". I apply clear fingernail polish that when dries breaks up the light. Small dots of fingernail polish will create tiny lenses. By varying the size and arrangement of dots one can create various effects.
Like old time Hollywood cinematographers, I use black mesh and nylon stocking material stretched over blank Lindahl frames.
The nice thing about the Lindahl compendium is that I can use adapters to attach it to any lens fitting cameras from 35mm to RB-67 to 4x5" to video and movie.
Back in the '70s and '80s I used to put black mesh or nylon stocking fabric under my enlarging lens when making my own color prints. One technique I remember was to establish the time to make an enlargement. Then I would divide that in half. I would make half of the enlargement without any diffusion then I would use a diffusion fabric for the second exposure of the paper. But since the fabric absorbed some of the light I had to double the duration back to the original time. The final images were quite interesting and my clients loved them.
At a recent New Year's Eve party, the host showed me his camera collection. It included many cameras including a very early Leica and a huge brass knuckler that was attached to a large box. He told me his father had removed the knuckler from a lantern slide projector and installed it on the box to make a post card projector. Evidently back in the '50s Popular Mechanics Magazine had a DIY project to do this. I would love to look closer at the knuckler to see who made it, the focal length, etc. Maybe even take some test photos with it! If I do, I will be sure to post them on this website.