Photography and the Creative Process

Homemade Soft Focus Lens

A soft focus lens allows a picture to be in focus, but the lens blurs the subject, some would say for a more pleasing effect. There are specialized soft focus lenses to achieve this effect, and there are home spun methods to achieve the same result. One such method is to rub vaseline on the outer lens element (or a lens filter) and shoot the photo using that lens. Another method is to place one or two layers of clear plastic wrap over the lens and secure it tightly with a rubber band before taking the photograph. I used this latter method to take the photograph on the right. The image on the left is made using the lens without the plastic sandwich bag over the lens.