Flowers with intentional soft focus- advice?

[Peeb]

Took this shot razor-sharp and tried to soften in post. Not entirely please but not sure how to achieve the effect. Is it more of a lens thing?

flower in the front yard by peeb, on Flickr

 

[WesternGuy]

Flowers - one of my favourite subjects. A lot depends on what you are trying to soften. If it is the flower, then one approach is to get everything in sharp focus, put the lens into Manual mode and just back the focus off a very small amount to give you the effect you want. You do have to be careful with this approach as you don't want your image to look like a complete out of focus picture. One way around this is to focus on the part of the flower closest to you, in this case, the petal closest to you and adjust the aperture so only this part of the flower is in focus. This approach is often done using a macro lens.

Another approach is to use a specialty lens like the ones produced by LensBaby which provide the user with all types of differential focusing possibilities. Kathleen Clemons makes extensive use of the LensBaby equipment in some of her photography - Flowers , or Lensbaby | Award Winning Creative Effect Lenses & More .

One other approach is what is called the Orton Effect - Orton (photography) - Wikipedia . This was originally developed for use with 35mm film, but it can be done using Photoshop or PS Elements - The Easy Guide To Creating The Orton Effect .

I hope this helps. If you have any questions, post back and I am sure someone here will be able to answer your question(s).

WesternGuy

 

[deeky]

Not sure how kosher it is, but I'll shoot sharp and then back off the clarity slider in Lightroom to soften things up a little. From there, there is usually a little adjustment to saturation depending on how I want it to turn out.

 

[john.margetts]

Or add a small amount of blur using Photoshop filters.

Sent from my A1-840 using Tapatalk

 

[smoke665]

Don't see these used much anymore but they work really well HOYA | The Difference is Clear in addition to an overall soft, you can get them with an open center spot. Or you can really go old school, take an old UV filter and judiciously apply Vaseline to it, for a soft dreamy look.

 

[Derrel]

Don't see these used much anymore but they work really well HOYA | The Difference is Clear in addition to an overall soft, you can get them with an open center spot. Or you can really go old school, take an old UV filter and judiciously apply Vaseline to it, for a soft dreamy look.

Yes, diffusion, fog, haze, mist, pastel filters from Cokin and other makers, all can be used. The effect is often somewhat focal length dependent, with longer focal lengths producting a better,more-pronounced, and overall more-pleasing look. Since filters are in such low demand, these are often available used for low prices at pawn shops, pohoto rersale stores, etc. Many are in junk bins these days.

 

[smoke665]

@Derrel there was another one, For Hasselblad Adjustable Soft Focus Filter & Instruction Excellent+++ | eBay that was popular at one time. I've still got one in a drawer somewhere. It was a plastic affair that clamped onto to the end of your lens. It had plastic blades that you could open or close like an aperture that would give a soft focus effect with a variable center spot.