Originally posted by asloman When you use a glass filter over the lens you get a soft focus effect. (Nice bockeh)
When you use Photoshop, you get a blur. Photoshop does not recognize the difference between a white shirt, and a bright light, so you do not get the natural looking glare that you get with a glass filter. For example, the light coming through the leaves of a tree. I believe that there are plugins for Photoshop that attempt to simulate real out of focus effects.
Ah, this is a very good point, and something I hadn't even thought about. Thanks, asloman.
I'll have to do a complete test with all my soft-focus filters, and the in camera's digital filter and see what I like best.
As mentioned earlier, my favorite filters, in no particular order of preference are:
1.) Carl Zeiss Softar 2 or 3
2.) Tiffen Soft F/X 2 or 3. Either the regular or the warm version. The warm will give you creamy-smooth skin tones.
3.) Cokin Pastel filter #087. This filter is more like a heavy diffusuon filter, but mutes colors nicely. Think Robert Farber or David Hamilton. The flatter the lighting, the better the results with this filter, in my opinion.
The next two are not SF filters, but actual lenses:
The Sima Soft-Focus Lens. I don't know how many of you remember this odd, little gem from the 1980s, but I bought one. It cost about $35 at the time.
A 100mm simple plastic lens with one plastic, uncorrected element, with a fixed aperture of f2. It came with 3 extra Waterhouse disks (f4, f5.6 and neutral density) which were changed by unscrewing a ring on the front of the barrel. It gave images which I'd describe as halfway between photographs and watercolor paintings. Here are some very good examples:
Sima 100mm Soft Focus Lens Photo Gallery by Yu-Lin Chan at pbase.com (This guy's stuff is good!
)
I found that you couldn't rely on the in-camera meter with this lens, and had to overexpose by 2 stops with a handheld meter to get a correctly exposed image.
The Spiratone Portragon Lens.
Yes, I also bought one of these. This lens cost about $40.
Again, a simple, one element lens, only this time made of glass in a metal barrel with a fixed aperture of f4.
It had a clear center, which rapidly fell off to a blur at the edges. I was never really crazy about this lens, as you had to have the subject almost centered in the frame with too much space above their head. If you didn't do this, the eyes could fall into the lens' blur zone.
Thanks to all who replied, and if you have any more ideas or comments, please keep them coming.
Mike