Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/12/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 09:41 PM 01/12/97 -0700, you wrote: >On 1 Dec 97, ted grant wrote: ><snip> >>The bottom line is the 90mm Summicron is just too sharp >> and fantastic a lens to use on older women portraits! :) And not have >> them want to remove part of your anatomy! Your head, your head! :) > Sharp lenses didn't >bother them, but I often wondered what the difference would be between >the various softening devices compared to purposefully defocusing the >lens a bit? > With a critical grain focuser, you can check to see if the grain goes slightly out of focus if the enlarger lens aperture setting is changed. One trick that works well for me, is to expose the print for 1/2 of the base exposure time, stop the lens down one stop, then expose again for the full base exposure time. This softens the grain ever so slightly. The problem with racking the lens out of focus during the exposure is that is changes the image magnification slightly. You soften the edges too much which separate strong regions separating highlight and shadow. Instead of softening the image, you get blurring. Admittedly, for portraits of some old hags, an out of focus image may be most flattering <bg>. This aperture adjustment trick will not work though if your enlarger lens holds its focus at different apertures. - -GH