Diffusion and Softening of Digital Photography Images
By Tom Ray
The nature of the media has changed. What worked with film doesn't
achieve the same results in the digital realm. Photographers who've
discovered this are either abandoning their old filters and using
nothing or using whatever software comes standard with their Photoshop
or similar program. If you're interested in getting the same quality
for your portrait photography that you used to get with film and
filters, you need to know that it can be done!
Like many people who’ve made the switch from film cameras
to
digital, I’ve discovered that the lens tools I once used so
effectively
on my cameras to soften, diffuse and vignette my images for quality “finished” professional
results won’t do for digital what
they
did for film.
I’m sure it’s arguable by some that their diffusers
still work
fine, and I too have discovered that some tools still work okay
under some circumstances; my Ziess Softar #1 seemed to offer decent
results when photographing a single subject in the studio but
I knew that the black netting diffuser that I used with my Lindahl
Bell-o-shade no longer worked on the Nikon D70 zoom lens at the
wider angles without showing lines in the image. Not a risk I
was willing to take professionally so I just stopped using the
Lindahl shade and drop-down filters for a while.
Then it happened. A savvy carriage trade-minded customer brought
in a wall portrait that she had purchased several years ago by
a photographer obviously using medium format lens tools like I
was used to using in the past with my film camera. She wanted
her new wall portraits to have that same “softened” look.
So
I arrived at the portrait session armed with my digital camera
equipped with the very mild Softar Filter that works at any aperture
on any lens thinking that this was good insurance at getting the
kind of “softness” she could live with.
Understand that I knew any diffusion used on an entire family
group portrait would be more exaggerated by their relative head
sizes but I had explained that to her and she assured me she liked
her portrait images “very soft”.
While the images looked good on the small camera monitor, once
I opened them up in Photoshop and printed them out as proofs I
knew they were too soft. I called a colleague who is a digital
expert and explained to him what I had done. He told me that
you simply cannot use on-lens filters anymore for professional
softening and diffusion without creating mush on 35mm type digital
camera images. This leaves the special effects job now to the
computer and not the camera. “But I’ve tried using Photoshop
CS for their diffusion tools and what I get doesn’t look like
real photography,” I complained, “The results are terrible.” He agreed that Photoshop’s filters weren’t
the right tools either
to mimic the professional photography filters of the past but
told me that there is a company that has a software program that
is a plug-in for my Photoshop and has filter tools to recreate
believable results for various levels of softening and diffusion.
The software is called “PhotoKit” and is available from
Pixel
Genius for only $49.95. I bought the Mac version and it is wonderful.
I have played around with it now and have found that you can
get varying degrees of whatever you want that looks similar to
what you used to be able to do with your old lens filters and
drop-down tools. Even more possibilities are now available to
you. One of my favorites is the ability to lasso areas and “clear” the results of diffusion keeping eyes and teeth sparkly and sharp.
If there is a downside to doing your diffusion this way it’s
that the customer can’t really see the results on the proof,
so
they have to “trust” your artistic license. But it was
like this
with retouching too so there will be a short new education curve
for your clientele to learn, or to save yourself from disaster
you might offer a second proof appointment to show the customer
a proof of their selected images with the added softening or diffusion.
It’s going to take more time and you’ll end up with having to
rework some things more than you want so I’d only recommend this
for customers like mine who’s initial concern was the diffusion
issue.
In summary, softening and diffusion can be done effectively and
professionally but it’s not as easy as it used to be when you’d
just pick the filter you wanted and pop it over the lens. Your
old on-camera lens filters will often turn your digital images
to “mush” or images of weak contrast that may or may
not be salvageable. •
About the Author
Tom Ray is a Certified Professional Photographer through the
Professional Photographers of America. If you are interested
in his full story please go to: Professional
Photography:
Success Without School.
07/21/05
|
