التركيز الضعيف soft focus لصور فنية مميزة .. مجلة فن التصوير اللبنانية _ ع١٩

SOFT FOCUS for distinctive artistic images

Weak focus in photographs is a distinctive style. It gives important artistic impressions to the image. This method has been recognized by photographers for a long time
- The beginning of the current century - and they presented a lot of innovations in this field, and the new photographers are still seeking to adopt it in their artistic images... Hence, it is necessary to study the details related to this method in order to avoid misuse of it.

Clear and sharp images remain the traditional type that most people want for their images, and from here the focus is on making perfect lenses to show the best and most accurate details. From this point of view, most modern cameras include a prismatic lens that splits the light into its origins, in addition to other means that help in achieving focus with a high degree of accuracy.
But despite all that, it sometimes requires working in a different way. A different way to deal with the photographed subject.. The simple distraction of a part of the photo or the image as a whole is one of the different ways. This is achieved by adopting weak focus to obtain different artistic impressions.

In order to avoid abuse in the breadth of this method, especially in terms of exaggeration in weak focus, or its use in a wrong place, more lights are thrown on this wonderful artistic method, lest its purpose be reflected negatively on the image.

The quality of subjects valid for this method.

At the beginning of the current century, the weak focus method appeared to be used in photographs seeking to imitate the popular oil paintings at that time, but after a while photographers realized the possibility of benefiting more from this method in photographing famous women at the time. This is still prevalent to this day, as photographers have begun to adopt it
Weak focus whenever they want to give the subject a distinctive attraction, hence the widespread use of this method in the fields of fashion and advertisements more, while amateurs tend to use this method in portraying existence. And they ignore the other broad areas of it and depicting landscapes as one of them, as the scene becomes more generalized by the absence of some fine details in it, which helps to emphasize the aesthetics of the scene, instead of providing an accurate description of it.

This method can also be adopted in photographing a city lit up at night, as it increases the appearance of the colors scattered in the city scene.

Means, purpose and caveats
There are many ways to achieve weak focus through the camera, except for the lens or the special filter for that, as it can be replaced with a transparent material, soft gauze, nylon stockings, or glass wiped with Vaseline.
All these means allow us to focus weakly on the subject, by dispersing the light in the way that fog disperses the light emitted from street lamps, and the matter here is not limited to merging the details of the scene. Rather, it diffused the light from the areas of radiance, giving the weak luster around it.
This type of dispersion reduces the level of color contrast of the image, compared to the main scene, hence it is advisable to test subjects with strong color contrast. While in subjects that lack this contrast, we must get superficial images.
Before talking about the other details of this method, it must be emphasized first that it is not necessary to try to wipe Vaseline directly on the lens, as it is the easiest way. In the event that it is removed by the effect of Vaseline wipe, then here it is necessary to use a separate bottle or a filter (UV) that will be allocated for this purpose later.

It also emphasizes the adoption of a light and thin layer of Vaseline, while wiping in a soft manner that does not leave a thick trace of the fingers, i.e. not to wipe in random ways, because this will lead to highlighting a chaotic group of scattering lines that multiply as the image increases in magnification.

Total and partial dispersion

At a later stage, the photographer began to think about whether he wanted to completely or partially disperse the image.
Accordingly, he has to wipe the bottle completely or partially with Vaseline, depending on the sites he wants to be sharp and the ones he wants to disperse.

This method is desirable in a single image, in order to draw attention to one place in the image
And in a sexy way.
And in order to obtain distinct types of these images, and in an elaborate manner in terms of the importance of what can be highlighted and what can be dispersed, or the ratio of each of them, and the good required for them in the image, as well as the extent of exaggeration in the weak focus of the dispersed part. These things the photographer comes to through his own experiences
And depending on the camera he uses and the quality of the dispersant used as well. Special effects can also be obtained by controlling the thickness of the dispersant used, and this also means the thickness of the Vaseline layer with which the filter or glass slide is wiped.

The distance between the scatterer and the lens

If the scatterer used is a UV filter covered with Vaseline, then this is what settles the issue of the distance between it and the lens, as it is screw-mounted in its location at the front of the lens, and this also helps to get rid of the problems of holding the scatterer and determining its location relative to the lens, but here the photographer loses the ability to control many One of the effects stems from the different dimensions of the location of the scatterer relative to the lens, but when rubbing Vaseline on a piece of glass and it is often larger than the circle of the lens, this can be moved away from the lens to change the resulting effect, and here it is necessary to work accurately and carefully to avoid capturing the reflections that are reflected on The background of the glass piece, which affects the image, and a tube of black paper can be used to be placed between the scatterer
And the lens to get rid of these reflections.

Notes on the use of textile materials

For those wishing to use textile pieces such as soft gauze and nylon stockings as distractions for the image, it is advisable to use white strips.
Color, and there is no objection to using a scarf from it, as long as dark-colored materials are used on the basis that they scatter light, and as for absorbing this light.
Textile materials and nylon stockings can be easily identified in front of the lens and then focus it in the required place, but what suits us more is to install it on a filter holder like those used by Cokin systems, and the like. When using nylon stockings, the dispersion rate can be controlled by tightening the slide to a greater level or Smaller as it can pierce some sites that we do not want to be dispersed.

Aperture and exposure

And as long as we are in the field of talking about the degree of dispersion, we point out that the dependent aperture scale has an effect on that.
And if the photographer desires a greater degree of dispersion, then he has only to work with an obtuse aperture as wide as it can, and vice versa.
As for the issue of exposure, it can be said that with the adoption of improvised methods for focusing, as we previously explained, the weak, the need may not call for adjustments in the exposure, but for those working with cameras with expression systems through the lens, or automatic adjustment of exposure, they will find themselves facing fallacies in reading the meter. From here, the amount of light should be increased by increasing one stop in case of obtaining an insufficient exposure when working in a weak focus manner.

Low focus filters

The benefit of low concentration filters is almost limited to their suitability for use and the possibility of installing them in the front of the lens or by means of a separate holder, but it deprives the user of the aforementioned control by other means and prevents him from creating what can be created, although with Vaseline and fabric some filter systems allow them to mix more than one filter together and thus Allows you to control the degree of weak focus in the image.

In general, it can be said that the effects of these filters are similar to the effects of improvised means, and what affects these affects those, for example, exposure, aperture, and the like.

special lenses
These lenses were widely available in the past, and now their presence is almost confined to the used parts market. Among the major producers, we find that only “Fuji” and “Minolina” still manufacture these lenses for 35 mm cameras.
The level of poor focus in these lenses can be controlled by the aperture. The more we decrease the aperture, the more we work to reduce the resulting dispersion. It should be noted here that the Vari Soft lens - which is produced by Minolta, works in a different way. The relative positions of the glass elements inside the lens are changed by means of a special bad ring. These lenses are At its cost, which is much greater than the benefits it may achieve, especially since it does not offer more than what cheaper filters or even improvised methods offer.

last word

Whatever the method that the photographer will use in the field of weak focus, it is necessary first to emphasize not to exaggerate this method, lest it lose the desired effect and the photographs turn into dull subjects that lack the required artistic and aesthetic vision.