Diffusion...what is your technique?

[Helen B]

Most of the classic soft filters and lenses produced a perfectly sharp image with a softer secondary image. The Rodenstock Imagon lens and Zeiss Softar filter were like that. In the case of the Softar a plain glass was overlain with small lenslets, so there was a combination of a sharp image through the plain glass and the softer image through the lenslets. You can make such a filter by putting drops of a clear-drying glue onto a plain resin or glass filter. Nets, particularly black nets, were quite popular and were usually made from black stockings. As Derrel says, there's a difference between doing it in camera and doing it in post.

I don't do much diffused/soft focus work, but when I do I use a Cooke PS945 lens (that link has a good summary article on soft lenses and diffusion filters). This lens is an update of an old Pinkham & Smith design. It is very sharp, but at wide apertures it has a secondary soft image as well as the sharp image, unlike many lenses which are simply soft wide open. Stopped down it is sharp.