This months challenge will be soft focus....!

Soft focus can be accomplished in a number of ways:

In camera:

1. Using depth of field, to severly narrow the area in front of and behind the focus point.

2. Smearing vaseline on a filter placed in front of your lens, or using diffusion filters created for this reason.

3. In the same vein you can also use pantyhose, tulle, or any other kind of material that has some sort of transparecy through it... how about a clear plastic baggie?

4. Or you can delibrately use the lens to not focus sharply on the subject...

5. How about a combination of any of these?

Using your image editing filters (as in Photoshop or PSP) will not be prohibited, but personally I feel this limits the learning experience and satisfaction one gets from being able to get that capture in camera. shrug So use your method of choice but I encourage everyone to experiment with in camera methods if you can.

Misha and I had a conversation and he had a wonderful suggestion. We both feel that somewhere along the line the challenge has drifted away from it's original purpose of trying to encourage learning. He came up with a couple of questions that will make you think about your photography and this months idea of soft focus.

So if and when you do try this months challenge please take a moment to answer these questions...

a) How do you think the blurring in this photo contribute to what you were trying to show?

b) How did you implement and control the blurring?

c) Did you plan the blurring from the camera (even if you may have actually implemented the effect in postwork)?

d) Do you think you've achieved what you were trying to do? What would you do better?

I shall have the Challenge Page updated within the next few days.

Message edited on: 06/01/2004 18:00

Message edited on: 06/01/2004 18:01

Good questions, excellent challenge :)

Ohh, this will be fun =)

I use Pantyhose all the time for a soft effect.....I had no idea it could be used for Photography....somehow, I now feel less Kinky :]

great challenge and thank you for the suggestions :)