Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
If you're looking for a soft focus look. It's not really what I wanted though.
Ben,
I really don't know what a "soft focus look: really is. I do recognize pictures where soft focus, like HDR or super-saturation is a gimmick. So let's exclude these obvious uses. Let's also contemplate the proposal that uniform lighting and sharp focus, a rigorous documentary style in police work, is hardly a requirement for great photography for social or artistic purposes. Here, allocation of importance is what is being accomplished by an array of techniques we have at our disposal. Just one of them is varied focus. That's where the lensbaby is so useful, adaptable and valued.
There's all sorts of "soft focus". With the classic Large format camera lens, some have perfectly sharp focus with just the periphery in subtle defocus. Other times there's an addition of glow, as from an "angel's brush", to the highlights in the sharply focussed subject. When one uses such techniques expertly and with careful forethought, it's easy to get taken away by the beauty imparted.
Asher