Soft focus... not out of focus
Another thing that should be understood... "soft-focus" is not the same as "out-of-focus." Think about it and you'll understand what I'm getting at... soft-focus is subtle and deliberate whereas out-of-focus is an unacceptable mistake. The image above of Montbretia or Crocosmia in our previous Welsh garden were taken at a wide aperture allowing the soft focus to be effective. The wine glasses on the following page were taken at a smaller aperture and therefore appear sharper than soft, but certainly not out of focus.

Soft-focus has a long history and many old photographs demonstrate the effect wonderfully... although many of these were the result of equipment of the period. Nowadays, lens manufacturers have to consider sharpness before most things else in the battle for sales. So apart from a few specialized lenses it is left to photographers to alter the optical characteristics of their lenses to produce the soft, dreamy and romantic images that can be applied to so many subjects including portraits, nudes, landscapes and still-life.

The current trend towards soft-focus and romantic imagery is due in some measure to the "innocently adolescent" subject matter published and popularized by David Hamilton in books, calendars, posters and postcards (and a film) in the past 30 years... as well as the nostalgic joie de vivre advertising photographs of fashion model turned photographer Sarah Moon. Their work has more than influenced photographers... it has become recognizable as poster "wall art" to the general public, even if the creators themselves are not household names.

A Cheap Approach
Soft-focus images can be produced in a variety of ways. You can spend heavily to the tune several hundred dollars on a specialist lens or simply breathe heavily on the front element of whatever lens mounted on the camera. The results can be remarkably similar at times, except that with the first method you can always accurately control the effect... whereas the latter trick occasionally produces if you're in luck.

The one advantage of using your own breath on a lens is that it's an instant effect... and as the condensation slowly evaporates it offers several different soft-focus options. This makeshift technique can be applied to any lens - which saves on filters if you own lenses with different attachment sizes - but it is not so successful in hot, dry weather when you may run out of huff or puff!

Another cheap soft-focus option is to dip into the household jar of Vaseline. A dab of petroleum jelly smeared onto a protective Skylight filter, not onto the front element itself, will produce reasonable results - but best to leave a clear center spot for some visual reality. Not much Vaseline is required either... only the slightest trace on your finger to start with!

Les bleus
Whilst on the search for household products look for bits cellophane or cling-film food wrapping which can be crumpled then stretched across the front of the lens to act as a softener. Rumor has it that Sarah Moon started her trend with the screwed-up wrappings from her packets of French "Gauloises" cigarettes.

If fact there appears to be a strong "French Connection" with all soft-focus effects... Hamilton takes after the Impressionists by living and working in the French Mediterranean light. Sarah Moon is French and works in Paris, the "City of Light"... and then there is the "Master of Special Effects Filters" Monsieur Cokin, who has explored every image manipulation possibility with neutral and colored Center Spot, Diffractor, Diffuser, Varnish and Vaseline, Dream, Fog and Pastel filters... and could peut-être eventually come up with spray cans of mist? What Monsieur Cokin has done is bring a multiplicity of visual effects to the enthusiast photographer, at minimal expense, via a simple modular filter system... which many other manufacturers have since copied but never quite emulated