soft focus lens

The groups favored pictorial style soft focus lenses, and deep shadows in prints.

Unlike many pictorialists, Hinton preferred sharp focus to soft focus lenses.

He developed the "Perscheid lens", a soft focus lens for large-format portrait photography.

He was talented at pictorialist (art) photography and took many photographs using a soft focus lens and deformation and "wipe-out" techniques.

Soft focus lenses introduce spherical aberration deliberately into the optical formula for an ethereal effect considered pleasing, and flattering to subjects with less than perfect complexions.

Some antique lenses, and some modern SLR soft focus lenses, provide a lever that controls the softening effect by altering the optical formula.

Rolleisoft: A soft focus lens for the taking lens only available in two grades, "0" and "1", which softens the definition and produce striking halo effects, particularly when used with back lighting.

Nikon produces a series of DC ("Defocus Control") lenses which are sometimes confused with the soft focus effect, but these are not soft focus lenses, as they do not introduce spherical aberration over the whole field.

A soft focus lens deliberately introduces spherical aberration in order to give the appearance of blurring the image while retaining sharp edges; it is not the same as an out-of-focus image, and the effect cannot be achieved simply by defocusing a sharp lens.

The effect of a soft focus lens is sometimes approximated by the use of diffusion filter or other method, such as stretching a nylon stocking over the front of the lens, or smearing petroleum jelly on a clear filter or on the front element of the lens itself.