Portrait Lens Advice

[Garbz]

To hide the "ugly" supersharpness in photoshop...... Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur > radius 3 pixels

Also yes ANY focal length would work, but with a longer focal length, you have a more shallow depth of field, and with a 1.4 aperture, you have even less. Making beautiful bokeh shots. Hell flip it to manual and focus a centimeter in front of the subject for "soft focus"

Actually the real definition of soft focus I have heard is that you get a mixture of edge detail AND blurry effect at the same time.
You can try this in photoshop and I have done this for my wedding shots and it worked wonderfully.

Duplicate the layer.
Grab the new layer and Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur > radius 30 pixels (yes you read right). Then grab the blurry layer (on top) and take the opacy down to 20% or something. It makes a very nice effect.

 

[fmw]

Chromatic aberration manifests itself in an overall softness, not to be confused with blur or with out-of-focus. You can't get the same effect with a filter and I don't think you can do it with software either. These types of lenses haven't been made for a long, long time, however, so it is no suprise that modern day photographers don't know about them. I wasn't trying to suggest anything to anybody. I was just commenting as I sometimes do about the changes I've experienced over the years in photography.

 

[Don Simon]

These types of lenses haven't been made for a long, long time

:scratch: Wouldn't these three lenses qualify? Although the Canon and Minolta are 'variable softness' which I'm guessing is not quite the same.

 

[fmw]

:scratch: Wouldn't these three lenses qualify? Although the Canon and Minolta are 'variable softness' which I'm guessing is not quite the same.

I don't know. I'm not familiar with the Canon line. Nikon has some DC lenses. DC stands for defocus control and the lenses have a way of adjusting the appearance of out-of-focus areas in the image. The DC lenses are certainly not soft focus. The areas that are in focus are sharp with no softness at all. This one may be soft focus or it may be something like the Nikkors.

The old portrait lenses had no control. You couldn't turn softness on or off. Modern ones like this Canon may indeed do that. If it engages a setting that incorporates chromatic aberration then I would say it is a modern version of the oldies. I just don't know. Sorry.

 

[Alpha]

For a while mamiya made "selective focus" portrait lenses for the RB cameras. They were like lensbabies, but good.

 

[table1349]

I don't know. I'm not familiar with the Canon line. Nikon has some DC lenses. DC stands for defocus control and the lenses have a way of adjusting the appearance of out-of-focus areas in the image. The DC lenses are certainly not soft focus. The areas that are in focus are sharp with no softness at all. This one may be soft focus or it may be something like the Nikkors.

The old portrait lenses had no control. You couldn't turn softness on or off. Modern ones like this Canon may indeed do that. If it engages a setting that incorporates chromatic aberration then I would say it is a modern version of the oldies. I just don't know. Sorry.

Mine you could.

Turn softness on = rub index finger on side of nose & transfer nose grease to lens. Adjust the center pattern as desired. Also adjust softness by amount of grease.

Turn softness off = lens cleaning fluid and lens tissue. Make front optical squeaky clean again.

 

[fmw]

Mine you could.

Turn softness on = rub index finger on side of nose & transfer nose grease to lens. Adjust the center pattern as desired. Also adjust softness by amount of grease.

Turn softness off = lens cleaning fluid and lens tissue. Make front optical squeaky clean again.

There you go. Where would modern photography be without nose grease?

 

[table1349]

There you go. Where would modern photography be without nose grease?

Gosh,
I thought everbody knew that one. When you are trying to be creative for the yearbook (I'm not saying what year, but disco was not even thought of yet) with very little budget you learn all kind of neat little tricks.

 

[fmw]

I used to use vaseline, but I put it on a filter, not on the front element.

 

[table1349]

I used to use vaseline, but I put it on a filter, not on the front element.

You know, I'm thinking you are right. Not about the vaseline, but I do believe It was on a filter. My rememberer is getting a little old and it has been a few years since I needed to do that trick.