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The Joy Of Unfocus


akochanowski

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No "personal" offense intended, but focus is important. Nothing you posted does anything for me. I simply do Not know what your are trying to say with your photos.

 

Now then,sharpness is not always everything....I did a triptic with a Holga of views of a church. Using the Holga I new what I was getting and what I wanted.

 

You need to think about your objectives rather than just randomly take out-of focu photos.

 

I am attaching a series of my St. Mary's church triptick using the holga.<div>006Y1I-15360584.jpg.b68bcbb355f68ec1c26c114a1c98bc18.jpg</div>

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I'm not sure about totally out of focus images. I suppose it depends on what you are

trying to accomplish. I've seen a few that were cool in context to an objective, but not

many.

 

I do love very narrow DOF images, and try to get some where appropriate at

weddings. Here's one that's dangerously close to being 0 depth of field. However, in

the 8X10 print the petals in the basket are sharp and easy to see.<div>006Y2J-15361484.jpg.584157818d76c333112c08c156463d70.jpg</div>

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>Now then,sharpness is not always everything....I did a triptic with a >Holga of views of a church. Using the Holga I new what I was getting >and what I wanted.

 

These don't even look very 'Holgaish' to me at all. Just very plain.

And, by the way, it is 'triptych'...

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I've got Miller's book, it's excellent. <p>

 

I sometimes shoot with the camera on a tripod and turn the focus ring to defocus during a long exposure. This gives an interesting result occasionally, much more so than this same trick with a zoom.<p>

 

<center>

<img src="http://www.spirer.com/colorport/images/halluc.jpg"><br>

<i>Hallucination in the Pink City, Copyright 1999 Jeff Spirer</i>

</center></center></i>

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The gushing over out of focus has to be a joke, right? Totally OOF photos generally don't work, looking mainly more like poor technique than considered effort. OOF portions as a part of shallow DOF does work because it can isolate and enhance a particular element. I think part of the reason for the positive responses is that the sample OOF pictures might remind some of super grainy photos, and it is the grain which causes that gritty feel of realism that some might find intriguing.

 

The New York and Techno pictures don't work for me - they don't seem very dynamic to me. Cigarette and Road work a bit better, the latter because the inclusion of the rear of the car seems to give the road a feeling of loneliness, which we can probably all relate to from our own experiences with road trips. Cigarette I can't quite put a handle on. Again a feeling perhaps of isolation. But would these photos have been stronger with one or another element in focus?

 

The Richard Copeland Miller photos work better but the blur is of a different quality, more akin to impressionist paintings, which I would assume was his objective.

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