Roses and Petroleum Jelly
A simple trick to soft focus photography, Vaseline. Years ago when Catherine and I were shooting film a little trick we learned, and had fun with was to add {smear} some vaseline on a spare UV or clear filter. DO NOT do this on your lens!! You smear the petroleum jelly around the outer edges of the glass and try to leave the center of the filter clean and without the vaseline on it. A little alcohol on a paper towel can be used to clean the center should you get some of the jelly where you don't want it. Two other tricks to try that will give you a soft focus look is hair spray sprayed around the out perimeter of the filter, and you also can try shooting through a nylon stocking (with your wife's leg out of it) :) I haven't done this in years and I just thought about it again, found myself an unused filter, smeared the vaseline on it, and had some fun shooting the above images. Now you can buy soft focus filters, or for a much higher cost a LensBaby, and both will yield similar, but not quite the same results. But save yourself some money, smear 15 cents worth of vaseline on that filter and have some fun with it!
Roses and Petroleum Jelly
A simple trick to soft focus photography, Vaseline. Years ago when Catherine and I were shooting film a little trick we learned, and had fun with was to add {smear} some vaseline on a spare UV or clear filter. DO NOT do this on your lens!! You smear the petroleum jelly around the outer edges of the glass and try to leave the center of the filter clean and without the vaseline on it. A little alcohol on a paper towel can be used to clean the center should you get some of the jelly where you don't want it. Two other tricks to try that will give you a soft focus look is hair spray sprayed around the out perimeter of the filter, and you also can try shooting through a nylon stocking (with your wife's leg out of it) :) I haven't done this in years and I just thought about it again, found myself an unused filter, smeared the vaseline on it, and had some fun shooting the above images. Now you can buy soft focus filters, or for a much higher cost a LensBaby, and both will yield similar, but not quite the same results. But save yourself some money, smear 15 cents worth of vaseline on that filter and have some fun with it!