Soft Focus

I'm going to a wedding on saturday, and I was thinking it would be nice to use a soft-focus effect with the camera to get some really nice pictures

I don't have a soft focus lense, but is there some cheap and easy way to introduce the soft focus effect?

Just out of general interest, how little could I pay for a reasonable soft-focus lense?

I have a (brilliant! BRILLIANT, SAMNOOSHKA!) Nikon D60

Matt

[the_lone_wolf]

Vasaline???...

[fizzwheel]

I believe you could use some sort of fine mesh to give you the effect that you want, as to what exactly I am not sure...

Do it post production, that way if you don't like it you're fine. Potatoeshop or any of it's cheaper and easier clones will do something like that.

Jessops camera shops will have them, make sure you've noted the thread diameter on your lenses first (or take them into the shop). Decent quality one should still be no more than a tenner or so. If it's a bright sunny day try a polarising filter tho - they make the clouds whiter and fluffier and the sky deeper blue, work quite nice.

EDIT: you don't buy a soft focus lense, you get a filter that screws over the end of your lense (hence needing to know the thread diameter - like 52mm or something). Jessops etc will sort you out.

Originally Posted by the_lone_wolf

Vasaline???...

saw that trick on top gear on Dave last night

wasnt impressed

I guess though it might work.

Fizz, could work, maybe tights or something? I'll see what maria has in her drawer

Minimatt - I could just get a screw-on lense thing? As for the polarising filter, I've been meaning to get one of those for a while anyway

yarr, just a screw on jobby (ooh-err)

oh and while your sat buying filters, pick up a red/green/blue set, then go find yourself a pretty fast flowing stream, setup on a tripod and take a triple exposure, one shot on red, one on green, one on blue. You get the blur of fast flowing motion coupled with sharpness of individual splashes. All quite purdy.

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by Alpinestarhero

saw that trick on top gear on Dave last night

wasnt impressed

I didn't see that, which episode was it?


I'd probably do it in photoshop or GIMP after taking the pictures tbh, much easier to hit Ctrl+Z than un-take a photo

I have post-processing, takes tooo long, I just want to do it all with the camera

I'll be getting some colour filters aswell

Oooo looks like I'll be going shopping tomorrow when I gets me monies

Thanks guys!

BTW, minimatt, have you got an example of such a photo you describe?

Couldn't you just switch to manual focus and de-focus slightly?