Just experimenting to see how to get a good Verito look with a landscape. I don't often use red filters, but I think that along with the strong evening light it works well with the Verito, which reduces the contrast that would be excessive with a sharp lens.
David,
Very interesting, I like the way you managed this image. I do not have an 11.5 Varito
so am not familiar with it's speed, is f. 6 wide open or are you stopped down a bit?
I am sure enjoying seeing the results of the softer lenses.
Thanks guys. It's f:4 wide open, and most of the glowing effect happens between f:4 and f:8. Past f:8 you still get a smooth effect and some diffusion resulting from chromatic aberration (which would be eliminated by the red filter anyway), but not as much of the spherical aberration glow. I focus usually at f:8, adjust the aperture while looking at the groundglass and refocus until it looks right, and just about every time, I end up right at f:6, and then I adjust the exposure with 4" ND filters. 1/4 sec. is about as fast as I can click the Studio shutter, which only has an open setting and a B setting.
For portraits the Verito seems to look best with hard light, so I think I'm discovering that the key to making it work for landscapes is a combination of hard light and other methods of increasing the contrast range (filtration, development time, etc.).
The Verito doesn't have a SF control ring. Softness is controlled by aperture. f:4 (wide open) produces the most diffusion, and after f:8 it sharpens up. This is in between f:4 and f:8.