I found a picture on here that really explains what im talking about but i cant find it. So ill try to explain. I guess its called soft light. But basically you take a picture of say...someone sitting at a window. And they have these white hot light spots on different parts of their face and arms where the light is hitting. In the picture the white light spots are soft and diffused, glowing almost, and the rest of the picture is in focus. Is this effect achieved with an fstop around 5 or so. Or is it a filter.

My guess is that the effect can be achieved with a filter; I used to do much the same thing by stretching a nylon stocking over the lens, or rubbing petrolium jelly on a clear filter (NOT ON THE LENS!!!). This tends to scatter the highlights, while keeping the midtones and shadows relatively unchanged. The effect varies with f/stop.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=410162&Start=37&Artist=zhounder&ByArtist=Yes

the effect can also be done with a technique called Painting With Light. A poor example is at the link above. The effect you are speaking of can be done with long exposures and flashlights along with dark, but not lightless backgrounds. Magick Michael

Try playing around with the diffuse glow filter in Photoshop. That probably does what you want if I read you correctly.
Here's an example, one of my sisters (she'll kill me :P)

Left is original, right is diffuseglow. You'll have to play around with the settings to get what you like though. This is ofcourse postwork.
This image was shot with my old crappy point 'n shoot digicam.

Message edited on: 06/24/2004 11:42

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yea, ive got mystical lighting from autofx, which does it, i was just going for natural.

Attached Link: http://http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/filter/filter-diffusion.html

There are a number of ways I know how to do this. Ignoring doing it in the computer: 1) Easiest way, get a filter for your lens. Haven't used one in a while, but I liked the look of Cokin's 084 for portraits. The 083 was a bit too subtle for me. Check the above link for a discussion on this type of filter. 2) Black scarf, sandwiched between 2 filter rings. I bought a couple beat up filters at a garage sale that were the right size for my lens. I then removed the glass so I only had a ring. I then stretched some black scarf over one of the filters and screwed the second filter down on top of it to secure the scarf (make sure the scarf is smooth without wrinkles or puckering). Then I cut the excess scarf away. This gives a subtle diffusion (it's great for shooting portraits of women as it softens the skin). 3) Use a special lens. Canon has a really nice 135mm f/2.8 soft focus lens. The combination of the softness of the lens combined with overexposing a bit would get you the effect you want. 4) Another, somewhat more radical look, is using infrared film (if your camera can use it) or if you have digital, your camera may be sensetive to IR. Usefilm.com has a section for Infrared photos. Need to join in order to see the images at a good size. -=>Donald