Vaseline & Pantyhose...

ChristopherCoy

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What are some of your favorite tricks for pushing the artistic boundaries of your images? Drinking glasses? Water? Mirrors? Nose grease? Reversed lenses? Cracked filters?

What about tricks during the enlarging stage?
 

wiltw

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Vaseline helps keep the leg hair from sticking thur the nylons
 

wiltw

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I find it interesting that in the days of film, there were countless methods to soften the image
  • net filters of various types and densities and colors
  • filters with 'lenslets' to soften the image (e.g. Softar)
  • vaseline smeared differently around a filter
  • in-darkroom printing using any of the above
  • soft focus lenses
and today evenone has seemed to ignore/dismiss any idea of using them, as if complexions have gotten better over the decade (not!). Tiffen had a software disk that allowed digital photographers to mimic the various Tiffen soft filters, and they discontinued that because there was so little interest! The standard response is, "I can do it during postprocessing"....as if blur could really mimic the effects of the various kinds of soft effect filters.
 
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ChristopherCoy

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ChristopherCoy

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Pieter12 said:
You could grind your own lenses.
Click to expand...

I’ve thought about buying some “ugly” lenses and kicking them around in the gravel a bit.
 
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ChristopherCoy

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wiltw said:
and today evenone has seemed to ignore/dismiss any idea of using them, as if complexions have gotten better over the decade (not!)
Click to expand...

I’m not even worried about complexions. I know there’s ways to blur things and distort views without buying some kind of thousand dollar shift lens. If they made a lensbaby for the RB that would just be nifty.
 

cjbecker

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How about using a modern triplet at wide apertures for portraits? Gives a sharp but soft glow to the images.
 

Down Under

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From the title of this thread, I expected something else entirely... ha!

At my age, I will make do with my Zeiss Softar filters. 'Diffusion' most likely means a growing cataract in my eye.
 
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ChristopherCoy

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Horatio said:
Did you see the recent gallery image shot through a magnifying glass?
Click to expand...

yes. Talking with the creator a bit yesterday made me start wondering about all the things I’ve never heard of, which started this thread.
 
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ChristopherCoy

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cjbecker said:
How about using a modern triplet at wide apertures for portraits? Gives a sharp but soft glow to the images.
Click to expand...

what’s a triplet?
 

tokam

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Vaseline was messy to clean from a filter. A layer or two of clingwrap over the lens made a good diffuser. If you wanted a clear centre spot for portraits then carefully burn a hole with the end of a lit cigarette, (also works with pantyhose).

I have several of these filters from Hoya which date to the late '70s. Worst of all I have a six-point star filter which I think has been used twice.
 

foc

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How about one of these?


Or this old trick?


This one can get a bit messy !


Maybe a homemade one?


Or a cheap one of these?



Or if you have deep pockets?
 
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ChristopherCoy

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That shower drain thing on the end of the lens looks cool. What does that do?
 
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ChristopherCoy

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Sweet!! I just scored a pictoral control for $11 on eBay, shipped!
 

VinceInMT

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Weren’t the old Spiratone ads full of stuff like this? I always thought the were the JC Whitney of the photography world.
 

wiltw

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VinceInMT said:
Weren’t the old Spiratone ads full of stuff like this? I always thought the were the JC Whitney of the photography world.
Click to expand...

Not 'full of'...I just checked a 1968 and a 1972 issue of Modern Photography, and the Spiratone ads both had a very small mention of a 'Spiri\atone coated diffusion filter', and there was a 'soft focus 100mm Portragon' f/4 available in a number of mounts.
 
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