Almost any of the blur options in Photoshop will do. Plus a near infinite variety of software filters from a number of providers. If you want to get fancy you can do things like frequency separation, etc. This question may see more responses if posted to the wedding forum.
iaphoto wrote:
I once read there is such a thing as a "softening" filter intended for portraits.
Has anyone had experience with these? I presume they're for when your lens is "too sharp".
Are they legit, or are they more gimmick?
You didn’t read very much about them. They have been around for well over 50 years, and used by both portrait photographers and cinematographers.
If you use it on a camera you are stuck with that blur forever. If you use a post-processing blur effect, you can apply the blur in numerous degrees of strength and always have the original kept sharp. You can also apply it to just specific areas of the image instead of the whole image.
No idea why anyone would opt for a blur filter on a lens instead of applying in post-processing in this day and age.
Nikon produced one of the nicest Soft filters around back in the early eighties. It was constructed of optical glass and silver particulates which diffused the light but retained sharpness. They made two versions in 52mm, Soft 1 and Soft 2, which I still own.
I also owned Hasselbald Softar I & II filters which were less appealing as their construction included small lenses to defocus the image in spots, they were also made of plastic which would scratch should you try to clean them with filter paper. They did produce the desired blur effect though.
Another option which I have used extensively is a sheer nylon stocking which is made up of very thin threads of material in a cross hatch. Black versions retain contrast while tan ones made a beautiful warm diffused image, looked great on film.
I agree it's just easier to adjust in post, but it's more fun to me to do it in camera.
There are a bunch of old tricks like smearing something on a Skylight filter, nylon, etc.
Cokin makes (or made) of bunch of special affects filters that I've played with quite a bit and liked.
Most lenses soften up when shot wide open or close to it. There were a few soft lenses specifically made for that purpose too. Nikon 105 and 135 DC lenses are 2 recent examples.
Also there's the 7Artisans and similar lenses that have a lot of abberations by design.
You can use Tiffen Black Diffusion FX or Schneider's Hollywood Blackmagic. I wouldn't go stronger than 1/4. Most DPs will use 1/8, just to even out tones a little and roll off the highlights some.
If you want to do in post,just use Luminar AI's portrait sliders, they are quite good. You can apply Orton effect at a lower softness to mimic the halation and softening effect.
I haven't found a software blur filter yet that does what a camera soft filter (or an enlarger soft filter) would do. Perhaps someone else has found one.
A good camera lens soft filter retained dark-tone detail (such as eyelashes) but creates a soft halation around highlights.
I've been playing around a bit in Photoshop to duplicate that by making a selection layer mask of the brightest range of tones, applying a substantial bit of Gaussian blur to it, and varying opacity over the normal layer. I haven't gotten what I remember from the film days, but I get closer the more I play with it (it's not a priority in the work I do).
My personal favorite is the Sailwind ProSoft (The #1 if you can find it). Makes the mother of the bride love your proofs like they were your finished work.
Never used, but it could be the Tiffen Black Pro-Mist Filters (never used personally). I'd imagine a similar effect could be achieved in Photoshop as well.
