Venus as a Boy

[Charlotte Thompson]

soft focus- all crits and ideas very welcome!

 

[Asher Kelman]

soft focus- all crits and ideas very welcome!

Charlotte,

You should not love him/her so much! S/he's going to get spoiled!

The picture appears to have taken with a Nikon D40 at 105mm and 1/60 sec at f4.0. At f 4.0, the bokeh is about right but perhaps you added blur. I'm not sure whether Picasa can effect peripheral bokeh-like blur. However the neck does seem to have more than expected.

Also in the conversion to B&W, it might be better to remap hues as tones. It seems here that you might have just removed color information. So this makes the freckles a little harsh perhaps. I really would love to see the color, even though, as you know, I am a sucker for B&W!

Asher

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

For Asher- no soft blur- This is Parker-

 

[Asher Kelman]

soft focus- all crits and ideas very welcome!

For Asher- no soft blur- This is Parker-

Charlotte,

Thanks for the clarification, LOL! Now there's a much more enjoyable and vital experience.

That energy should not be harmed and sacrificed by a filter! One can craft the effect of a lens's natural softness at the periphery but that takes a lot of skill and patience. With the right focal length and aperture it's easy!

It's remarkable that hardly anything can really reproduce the natural effects of a soft focus lens. There are plugins and perhaps we could be fooled. When no tilt or swings are used of the focal plane, the lens usually will give a symmetrical blur maximum at the periphery although some lenses might even have a spiral or elliptical effect. It all depends on how the lens was constructed.

There are soft focus filters which are in higher demand now with HD TV and one can see that some stars seem to have the power to have these soft-effects protecting the pores and lines in their aging skin from being be broadcast!

The best soft effect looks like the face has been partially dipped in a delicate mist of angle dust. It has to be so very subtle. We try to keep the eyes and lips unaffected. Great examples of this effect are common with Jim Galli's LF photography work with old classic lenses. Some are very rare and valuable and others are inexpensive lantern projection lenses that you can pick up for a song and mount, as he does in a cut of piece of a plastic pipe, LOL! The shutter might be working or just Jim taking off the lens cap and counting and then putting the lens cap on again. For your work, the Nikon 85 mm 1.8 or 1.4 or 1.3 at f2.0 would be marvelous. To get the ISO low enough to use the widest aperture you may have to get a Neutral Density filter. I have one that takes away 4 stops of sunlight!

Use even a longer focal length, say 200mm and then at f4.00 you will have the softness you desire without filters. If you can shoot at f2.8 even better. It all depends on what lens you have. With the D40 you already have a x1.5 multiplier so you may have to step back to get the entire head in the frame.

Asher

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Asher

Picassa does have a soft foucus application- kinda cool to work with-

here is the color shot you requested- Too much gold light on the face I couldn't fix so that's why I made bandw- but I do like bandw too-

 

[fahim mohammed]

Charlotte, blur, no blur, soft, hard....someone you love is always lovely...

Parker is no exception. We love him too!

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Fahim

I agree! You are such a wonderful spirit! Thanks my friend

Charlotte-

 

[Asher Kelman]

Asher

Picassa does have a soft foucus application- kinda cool to work with-

here is the color shot you requested- Too much gold light on the face I couldn't fix so that's why I made bandw- but I do like bandw too-

Charlotte Thompson: Parker

Color Original​

Charlotte,

You are so honest! Still, I do like the color just the same. I can find "a nit to pick" if you wsh: there's a hardly noticeable thin rim with less well represented with color information on the left cheek that could be repaired. Apart from that, there's little to be unsatisfied about this picture.

For Asher- no soft blur- This is Parker-

Charlotte Thompson: Parker

B&W no blur​

This B&W version, seems too harsh. So, here's an alternate:

Charlotte Thompson: Parker

B&W edited from color original AK​

Here, we can now see the beautiful sparkle in the eyes and the pattern of the irises; one happy young man!

Asher

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Asher-

what one sees
isn't
what another can see
we are good friends-

Life Is-


Charlotte-