Large Format Landscapes

[MAubrey]

at Beech Hill preserve, Rockport Maine. December 2016. 4x5 preanniversary speed graphic with 7.25" Verito soft focus lens. Fp4+ film in pyrocat hdc.


img481 by Jason Philbrook, on Flickr
[/center]

I like this second one. There's enough acuity in the tree branches to see that it's in focus, while the softness creates an ethereal quality.

[jp]

I thought sf lenses were normally used for portraits.

I don't like them for landscapes. It just looks like you forgot to focus the camera.
Personal opinion.

- Leigh

Good to hear. I like your honesty. (It was Julia Margaret Cameron who didn't focus her camera well.)

I like this second one. There's enough acuity in the tree branches to see that it's in focus, while the softness creates an ethereal quality.

Thanks. The blending of sharpness and softness is what makes the soft focus different than pinhole for example. This is about the ethereal quality and shapes and tones. Sharp landscapes need shapes and tones too.

img487 by Jason Philbrook, on Flickr

7.25" verito at the Ice Pond on Seguinland road, Georgetown Maine. This pond actually feeds the creek that goes past F Holland Day's chalet on the other side of the street where he, Clarence White, Gertrude Kasabier, et.al. summered more than a hundred years ago. http://www.afanews.com/articles/item...n#.WIANOfkrIUF http://www.leegallery.com/f-holland-day/photography/ I'd like to one day find the rocky piece of beach where Kasabier's "Heritage of Motherhood" was made.

img478 by Jason Philbrook, on Flickr

9" gundlach hyperion lens. Hanging this film up to dry I wondered if I made a double exposure. After scanning, I decided it wasn't. Just a complex composition I was trying out. This shows the blend of softness and sharpness SF is good for. Beech Hill in Rockport Maine.

[stawastawa]

I like those second two better. more variety in tones and I think I need the straight lines (of trunks or stems) not just bent bending forms of the first two. =)

[Roger Cole]

I thought sf lenses were normally used for portraits.

I don't like them for landscapes. It just looks like you forgot to focus the camera.
Personal opinion.

- Leigh

I might have agreed with that as a general statement absent an example to discuss, but I really like that second one. Soft focus for some landscapes lends a "dreamscape" kind of quality that I find very appealing for some images.

[Roger Cole]

Good to hear. I like your honesty. (It was Julia Margaret Cameron who didn't focus her camera well.)




Thanks. The blending of sharpness and softness is what makes the soft focus different than pinhole for example. This is about the ethereal quality and shapes and tones. Sharp landscapes need shapes and tones too.

[center]




7.25" verito at the Ice Pond on Seguinland road, Georgetown Maine. This pond actually feeds the creek that goes past F Holland Day's chalet on the other side of the street where he, Clarence White, Gertrude Kasabier, et.al. summered more than a hundred years ago. http://www.afanews.com/articles/item...n#.WIANOfkrIUF http://www.leegallery.com/f-holland-day/photography/ I'd like to one day find the rocky piece of beach where Kasabier's "Heritage of Motherhood" was made.

I love this one. I can almost imagine some water spirit nymph rising out of the water.

[David Hedley]

at Beech Hill preserve, Rockport Maine. December 2016. 4x5 preanniversary speed graphic with 7.25" Verito soft focus lens. Fp4+ film in pyrocat hdc.

The second is lovely. The sense of perspective from the snowy lane and hedgerow, and the softer focus, have a dreamy, transfigured effect.

[David Hedley]

Fee-Vispe, Saas-Fee

Sinar F, Rodenstock Grandagon-N 75mm, Fuji Acros / Xtol 1:1

[jp]

Thanks. I appreciate the discussion and comments

[Dirk Rösler]

Am Von-Sandt-Ufer

Kodak TMax 100, Rodinal, Fujinon 180/5.6, Canham 5x7 MQC

[civich]

Fee-Vispe, Saas-Fee

Sinar F, Rodenstock Grandagon-N 75mm, Fuji Acros / Xtol 1:1

Wow. After viewing and reading the soft focus landscape posts previous to this post this photo came as a shock - you oughta have a sign: WARNING!! Intensely sharp, focused photo ahead!!