How effective is the Soft Focus on the D80 (or any of the Nikon DSLR's)?

[ronald_smith2]

I am doing a photos shoot in a few days for a friend who wants to use a local pumpkin patch as the background, a

very appropriate place to match her colorful personality. I want to experiment a bit with my new D80, and perhaps

try out the SF mode. I also have a 67mm-threaded Tiffen SF filter to use with the 16-85mm VR - has anyone here

used the Soft Focus setting with regularity? Is it effective enough that i don't even need to try the Tiffen filter?

[costas_h]

Can D80 create Soft Focus Effect in-camera?

 

Anyway, if I were you I wouldn´t use soft filters at all and replicate the effect in PS.

There are several plugins to do this if you can´t do it manually, like Tiffen DFX(which is excellent) and Nik Color Efex.

 

With Tiffen DFX you can replicate almost all of their filters, so why limit your possibilities by using a specific filter?

 

If you really need a top quality soft filter you should go for a Zeiss softar if you can find one. It has to be the best filter

available and the way it diffuses the highlights is unique and rather difficult to replicate digitally.

[ronald_moravec1]

Agree with above.

 

If you are talking selective focus, then use a tele lens 50mm+ and open it fully. It is possible to blur a background in

photoshop.

[tri-x1]

To the best of my knowledge my D300 (or my previous D100) doesn't have a "soft focus mode." You can throw foregrounds or backgrounds out of focus by changing f-stops and manually focusing but I know of no "mode" for doing it.

[ronald_smith2]

The D80 does have a SOFT mode in the menu, along with the other usual parameters - VIVID, MORE VIVID, POTRAIT,

CUSTOM and BLACK AND WHITE.

 

I think I'll just try a few shots with Clara on Monday, I may take the Tiffen filter with me, too.

[joseph_wisniewski]

What you're talking about sounds more like you want a soft background and sharp subject, and that's something that can only be done with a "fast" lens or some "heroic" PhotoShop, masking out the subject and blurring just the background. That is a lot of work.

 

But, if you're looking for a pleasant "over all" soft focus that covers the subject and the background, you've got the situation pretty much reversed. The Tiffen SF is "effective enough" that you don't need any soft focus processing in the camera or in PhotoShop.

 

I shoot D3 and D2X (and before that, D100) so I've never owned a camera with a "soft focus mode". But I've played with several different ways of achieving soft focus in PhotoShop and various plugins (although not the Tiffen one) and have never been as satisfied as with a real "fast" lens, soft focus filter, or soft focus lens (I own a Nikon 135mm f2.0 DC, a rather pricey way of getting soft focus).

 

I've used soft focus filters (including Softars), own a couple of Tiffen soft focus, and basically, I prefer the look of any "hardware" soft focus method to the software ones. As Constantinos pointed out, you just can't duplicate those looks in software. Here's an excerpt from my filter FAQ that explains why...

 

--- begin quote ---

 

Using a Gaussian blur can only make a good-looking soft focus effect on things that are not overexposed. For my own soft focus work (and the majority that I see from other photographers) the "prettiest" soft focusing is the glow surrounding blown highlights: candle flames, sparkling dew on flowers, the catch-lights in a woman’s eyes, the glint of jewelry. You can't get that right in PhotoShop.

 

A soft focus filter in front of the lens gives you a glow with size and density that are proportional to how “blown” the blown area really is. So the glow around candles, specular reflections, water drops, etc varies with the brightness and the size of the blown area. And the transition from blown to not-blown on skin is much more natural with a filter or lens than with a PS blur.

 

--- end quote ---

 

For background blur, I like the look of a wide open 50mm (as Ron suggested) or an 85mm, 105mm, or 135mm. This can be a bit difficult to do, sometimes. The D80 has a lowest ISO of 200. If your scene is lit by direct sunlight, you will get overexposure at f2.8, where you hit a shutter speed of 1/8000 sec. To go to f2 or f1.8, you need to "kill" a stop of two of light. A polarizer is just enough "light killer" to allow you to do that. I use them frequently outdoors for soft focus portrait use...

[Ray House]

The base ISO for a D80 is 100. The "softer" by Nikons discription, softens edges and reduces contrast. In my experience, it is not applying as much sharpening and has nothing to do with soft focus. I think for the effect you want post processing is the way to go along with a slightly long and wide open lens.