[rollei_list] Re: Scanner advice needed, please

  • From: Jerry Lehrer <jerryleh@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2006 14:54:17 -0700

Richard,

A number of years ago, a photographer friend of mine obtained
several dozen of Hurrel's LF negatives of  "unknown starlets".
They were extensively retouched.  Prints made from them were
beautiful.

I believe that the Imagon lens is the type of lens currently use
for controllable soft focus with a sharp basis.

Jerry


Richard Knoppow wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Don Williams" <dwilli10@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, July 29, 2006 12:52 PM
> Subject: [rollei_list] Re: Scanner advice needed, please
>
> > I was sure you and Slobodan  would be one among the
> > responders.
> >
> > I wanted to say something very similar but just couldn't
> > think of a
> > way of expressing it.
> >
> > With respect to PhotoShop, I am a complete failure at
> > defining an
> > area to mask, I suppose because I use a track ball.  I
> > would guess
> > that a mouse with a large range of physical travel would
> > help.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > DAW
> >
> >
> >
> > Don Williams
> > La Jolla, CA
> >
>   First of all, I am no expert with Photoshop. People who
> are experts make a very good living off of it. There are
> ways of getting the program to draw lines around things but
> it is something like chromakey where there must be a
> definite separation of brightness or color. I can sometimes
> make it work.
>   A mouse may help although a pen table is better. I hate
> trackballs. I have a very good friend who is a computer
> expert and loves them, I find them clumsy. To me the
> movements of a mouse with relation to the screen are
> completely intuitive.
>
>   I have been enthralled with Hollywood portrait technique,
> both still and motion picture, since I was a kid. The use of
> both soft focus and selective focus is fascinating. Some
> photographers, Hurrel is a well known example, made pictures
> which look very sharp but on close examination one can see
> where detail has been suppressed. Hurrel was supposed to
> have used mostly retouching to achieve his effects but I
> don't know if this is true or only myth.
>   Lighting has an important effect on soft focus effects.
> One must have fairly sharp, bright, highlights to get the
> effect of a "pearly" highlight. If done right brighter areas
> have a sort of glow without actually looking blurred.
>    There were lenses designed in the teens and twenties
> intended to reduce the amount of retouching necessary. To my
> eye they tend to be too soft, the sort of effect I like can
> be had with lenses like the Dagor which has enough residual
> spherical to give this effect when wide open or near it.
> Sometimes very soft focus can be interesting as in some of
> Edward Steichen's early work which has a dream like quality
> which I find intriguing. Probably this is partly due to the
> printing methods he used but the originals must have been
> diffused in some way.
>    The Rollei soft focus attachments are interesting. They
> are optical glass with rings of some other material, perhaps
> a different glass bonded to them. The effect is probably a
> combination of some spherical aberration and some diffusion.
> Diffusers of this sort can be made so that the effect
> changes very little with f/stop.
>    All sorts of things can be used as diffusers, both on the
> camera and on the enlarger. One can spend hours
> experimenting. Probably every Hollywood cinematographer had
> some secret diffusion technique or lens. Have a look at any
> of the Greta Garbo films on Turner Classic Movies. Many of
> the silents and all of her sound movies were photographed by
> William Daniels, one of the great masters. He was also
> assigned to photograph Norma Shearer, the boss's wife, so he
> must have been good. Note especially the closeups where the
> style of portrait lighting and use of soft focus and
> diffusion is appearent.
>
> ---
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles, CA, USA
> dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> ---
> Rollei List
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