UK Lockdown (3) day 74, Soft focus.
In photography, soft focus is a lens flaw, in which the lens forms images that are blurred due to spherical aberration. A soft focus lens deliberately introduces spherical aberration in order to give the appearance of blurring the image while retaining sharp edges; it is not the same as an out-of-focus image, and the effect cannot be achieved simply by defocusing a sharp lens. Soft focus is also the name of the style of photograph produced by such a lens.
Because soft focus results from what are considered technical flaws, typically spherical and chromatic aberration, many older lenses had soft focus built in as a side effect of their construction. Some lens makers, such as Pinkham-Smith and Busch Nicola Perscheid (see Nicola Perscheid), intentionally designed lenses to take advantage of these flaws and, as colour became available, chromatic aberration was less desirable, but well-managed spherical aberration was desirable. Newer lenses are optimized to minimize optical aberrations, but there are lenses such as the Canon EF 135mm lens f/2.8 with Softfocus, Pentax SMC 28mm f2.8 FA Soft Lens, Mamiya 180mm f/4.0 Soft Focus Lens for RZ67 Cameras, and the Lensbaby Velvet 56mm lens, which have adjustable levels of spherical aberration at wide apertures. The effect can be disabled entirely as well, in which case the lens is sharp.
My lens is by no means the sharpest available but this still had to be "de-focused" considerably in lightroom.
Stay home, stay safe, get vaccinated when you can.
(The ends in sight but its not over yet).
UK Lockdown (3) day 74, Soft focus.
In photography, soft focus is a lens flaw, in which the lens forms images that are blurred due to spherical aberration. A soft focus lens deliberately introduces spherical aberration in order to give the appearance of blurring the image while retaining sharp edges; it is not the same as an out-of-focus image, and the effect cannot be achieved simply by defocusing a sharp lens. Soft focus is also the name of the style of photograph produced by such a lens.
Because soft focus results from what are considered technical flaws, typically spherical and chromatic aberration, many older lenses had soft focus built in as a side effect of their construction. Some lens makers, such as Pinkham-Smith and Busch Nicola Perscheid (see Nicola Perscheid), intentionally designed lenses to take advantage of these flaws and, as colour became available, chromatic aberration was less desirable, but well-managed spherical aberration was desirable. Newer lenses are optimized to minimize optical aberrations, but there are lenses such as the Canon EF 135mm lens f/2.8 with Softfocus, Pentax SMC 28mm f2.8 FA Soft Lens, Mamiya 180mm f/4.0 Soft Focus Lens for RZ67 Cameras, and the Lensbaby Velvet 56mm lens, which have adjustable levels of spherical aberration at wide apertures. The effect can be disabled entirely as well, in which case the lens is sharp.
My lens is by no means the sharpest available but this still had to be "de-focused" considerably in lightroom.
Stay home, stay safe, get vaccinated when you can.
(The ends in sight but its not over yet).