Soft Focus

[martinsmith99]

I've been reading this article by our friend and I'm interested in making something like it.

I'm nor sure what "Fixing the front cell focus at 1m" means. Is this some setting on the lens or does this mean lens surgery?

Are there any old folder lenses out there which are particularly good for this project?

[kds315*]

well there are other real soft focus lenses also, use the search engine here and you'll find some entries!

[martinsmith99]

Unfortunately the search for soft focus brings up 4717 entries, most of which are irrelevant except for one that leads here.

I'm looking more for a cheap project rather than to spend a fortune on a lens which has limited uses. And also what is meant by "Fixing the front cell focus at 1m".

[Nesster]

I have a recollection of the article you are asking about... You know folding cameras, how you focus most of them: turn the front element (front cell).... the instruction is to focus the lens to approx 1m and then to compensate for this by adjusting the bellows.

[martinsmith99]

[olesku.pl]

[martinsmith99]

Yes, I've heard of that technique. I'm really looking at making something permanent though.

[kds315*]

I used a meniscus lens, built into an empty enlarger lens barrel plus a helicoid, so now I have a nice f4.5/120mm adjustable softness soft focus lens. Works pretty well.

I like the "real stuff", no soft focus filters or vaseline or scratched front elements etc. to be honest. Nothing gives the glow a real soft focus lens has IMHO.

[martinsmith99]

Got the VPK lens out but run out of time so I'll try when I get more of a chance to figure out how to get something semi permanent.

[Jeff Zen]

Softar filters are the next best thing to a dedicated soft focus lens. They are pricey and do not work on all lenses though.

[RioRico]

Some ways to get a soft-focus lens:

* Get a lens that is filled with fungus. Darn, I already threw some away.
* I already sold (for parts) my Vivitar 24/2 with rear element separation and the iris stuck wide open. It was pretty damn soft.
* Put a magnifier lens or a meniscus from a trashed box camera onto a bellows.
* There is the old smear-sweat-onto-the rear-element trick. Sweat= nose grease. Never wipe it off, and it becomes permanent.
* Use sandpaper on the objective. If you have no lens you wish to sacrifice, get a wrecked Polaroid Swinger or equivalent from a thrift shop, extract the lens, mount it in a body cap (to put onto bellows) and sandpaper it.
* Almost anything around f/1.0 will be soft.

[Nesster]

I recently read an article in an old Pop Photo - I mean, from like 1941 or something - about how to use a telephoto attachment to make yourself a soft focus lens. The process has 3 ingredients: 1. your main lens wide open, 2. an aperture with teardrop shape cut outs plus a center hole made out of craft paper between your main lens and 3. the telephoto aux lens.

This makes a lot of sense to me - remembering how an auxiliary lens works to 'improve' bokeh due to its throwing off all those sharpness calculations... and the paper aperture letting through random edge aberrations... and your main lens wide open at its softest.

I have a Yashica GSN aux lens set, and plan to try this out soon with whatever SLR lens I have with the right thread size. Oh, and I have to find the aux lens set, couldn't lay my hands on it last night

[RioRico]

A quick gargle reveals many possibilities, and reminds me of the cheap fast Sima 100/2 soft-focus lens. Some of the other gargled links point to pages describing LF lenses built for soft focus, how it's done. I should gargle more often.

[martinsmith99]

Well since starting this thread I've dabbled on and off with this technique. I hate it so far for portraits as it just looks like mis-focusing. Flowers in spring/summer time look good as does some architecture.

I have the VPK lens on a helicoid which is pretty good, as well as a Canon EF 135 Sof Focus lens. I actually prefer the VPK lens for its character; even if it is hard to focus.

[kds315*]

What again is a "VPK" lens??

Got a GRAF 4.5/75mm soft focus cine lens, ca 1930 I would guess.





SF always needs strong contrast and/or some edges in the object(s) to make that "glow" appear.

[martinsmith99]

VPK= Vest Pocket Kodak.

It's a really old, small folder.