Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Let me tell you a secret: You don’t always want or need tack sharp images, even for photographs of cars. Sometimes a soft focus image is just what the doctor or photographer ordered and the use of blur or selective blur can be used add a film noir touch to an otherwise ordinary photograph.
But first, the distinction between soft focus and creative blur are often confused, so let’s look at the differences:
When all or part of a photograph lacks sharpness, it can be blurry. Blur can be caused by camera or subject motion and it can be accidentally or deliberately created by an object moving while the camera’s shutter is open, by you moving the camera or both. Digital blurring is typically accomplished through software averaging of pixel values to soften edge detail but there are other ways to accomplish this, such as by using Photoshop’s Motion Blur.
A lens that isn’t corrected for spherical aberrations produces soft focus and creates a diffused look by bending light away from the subject so that parts of the photograph are defocused while the rest of it remains in focus. Highlights are dispersed onto adjacent areas and the image looks focused but some of its components are just enough out-of-focus so they’re softened. In addition, sharp lines and edges are slightly fuzzy and small details disappear.
How I made this shot: While many photographers, including myself, traditionally use soft focus techniques for portraiture, I also use if for vintage automobiles to add to that “old car look” as in the above photograph of a classic Chevrolet thata was made at San Diego’s Automotive Museum.
For this photograph I used a Canon EOS 50D with EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens at 14mm. Exposure was 1/40 sec at f/4 and ISO 400 for the original color JPEG file that was converted to monochrome using Silver Efex Pro with the Glamour Glow filter, that’s part of Color Efex Pro, added for the final soft focus effect.
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f you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat Joe to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.75, Starbucks raised the price of Earl Grey), click here.
Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photograph that’s now out-of-print but new copies are available from Amazon for $21.49 with used copies selling for four bucks. For some reason, the Kindle price is really high.