Many new photographers are interested in "that swirly look" or "that old fashioned look" but don't know it's often due to the petzval lens design. There are a lot of great posts on this board showing petzval shots. If you'd like to see more, in a thumbnailed collection, there is a new group on flickr called Petzval Lens Photographs.
I encourage you to add more if you like! It's fun to compare the different ways petzvals are used: with swirl, without, sharp overall, sharp center only, soft, ....
Re: Petzval Lens Photographs link - swirls and not
Sure thing Dan. We've got nice example shots taken with petzvals in film, wetplate, and even daguerreotype. I hope we can point people to concrete examples when they ask about "an old look" on a photo they've seen. And it's a good place to show your work with petzvals too!
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