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PCA196 - Soft focus
Sunday, February 20 - Sunday, March 4, 2012
Image Tag: pca196

First, a little bit of history that I was just introduced to. :)

Back in the late 1800's, there were photographers known as Pictorialists who wanted to prove they were artists and not weekend snapshooters. Kodak had come out with the first amateur camera and everybody seemed to have one. It was no longer so difficult to achieve focus. The art community considered photographs to be documents of life and not art in any way. These photographers set out to show the world differently. They concerned themselves with creating a photograph that was more like a painting with strong aesthetics and an emotional impact. One that was more about visual beauty than about the subject itself. One of the ways they achieved this was through the use of soft focus. They also used a lot of post processing only in those days it was, of course, negatives that were being manipulated and combined along with various printing techniques to create rather than take photographs.

So.. for this assignment the goal is to use soft focus and whatever processing you like to create an aesthetically pleasing photograph that is no longer a true representation of what you see.

Pictorialism: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictorialism
Alfred Stieglitz: www.google.com/search?q=Alfred+Stieglitz&hl=en&cl...
Anne Brigman: www.google.com/search?q=Anne+Brigman&hl=en&client...
Edward Steichen: www.google.com/search?q=Edward+Steichen&hl=en&cli...
Clarence Hudson White: www.google.com/search?q=Clarence+Hudson+White&hl=en&a....

WIT
At our local camera club this past week we were treated to a talk on "expressionist" photography where the idea is to convey some sort of emotion in the image rather than keep it true.

A lot of soft focus effects and manipulation with symmetry made up the content of the presentation.

One of the techniques (which I believe is called the Orton effect) involved making two exposures of the same negative on the photo paper - one with a very soft focus and one in sharp focus. In photoshop you achieve this by making a duplicate layer of an image, apply a gaussian blur and then using the "multiply" blend mode to blend the two.

To prevent the final image from being too dark, you need to lighten both images before blending them and you can adjust the soft focus effect with a levels adjustment layer on each.

So this is the sunset through the trees at my house Ortonized.... blended with levels adjustments to blend till I felt good about the "expression" of my sunset experience.

An informal settlement on the edge of a Johannesburg suburb. No electricity and water for the shacks so people line up to get water at municipal supplied taps. The long pole in the middle is for flood lights that light the settlement at night.

A South African "Diner"

Ever wonder where your clothing donations go? The vendor told me that these clothes come from Europe and America. I noticed on the Goodwill box near where I live that they said that they sell the clothes donated to various countries and the proceeds go to charity. The clothing goes to promote small businesses like this one.

Another roadside stall in Mokopane.