I spent most of my years during college in the early two thousands trying to make film look like most high end digital cameras look pretty much straight out of the back now. Super sharp, super clean, punchy. I am pretty sure I am not the only person now constantly trying to make my digital images look like most of my film work back then, the stupid irony is that whatever people are doing en-mass as a professional photographer we have to provide something different, something separate with its own identity. Even if it means sabotaging our own work. Back in the day your average persons pictures were soft, they had aberrations and light leaks, colours were odd and un-uniform, so we tried to provide sharp clear images that stood out, had clean uniform colour and crisp lighting. Now that this is achievable out of most peoples smart phones.
Increasingly I seem to prefer slightly soft digital images, since the advent of digital imaging, we have become increasingly obsessed with sharpness in images, and I am only just starting to wonder, why?
Understandably if you are shooting a product, or if there is a brand or logo that need attention sharpen the hell out of it until it makes you eyes bleed from simply looking. But when we look at portraits why does it have to be sharp? why do the eyes need to look as though the are made from cubic zircons? If a softness helps the image then why not? if the overall appearance is better for the approachability and sensitivity that softness can add then why have we made it so unacceptable to use it? Sharpness seems to have become a rule that we all abide by for the simple reason that it is a rule. As a professional photographer I know I am capable of getting an image sharp in (most) circumstances that are within my control. I am now reaching the point that it does not hurt my professional dignity to allow softness in my images, a slower shutter or a impossibly large aperture, sometimes even physical tools to create aberrations that add rather than take away from an image.
It has never ceased to be used in fashion photography, whether willfully or not. Fashion on most levels has always had the benefit of being able to cross the art - product boundary, and despite all of its misgivings often in the fashion world you are allowed an amount of artistic license over functionality.
Below is a shot I did for a fashion Magazine last week, it will not make the edit partly because it is soft and partly for other reasons, but it was by far my favorite image from this outfit, and probably the shoot. The softness adds to this image. I don't look at it and think 'the photographer fucked that up' I look at it and think that I see a lovely image. Maybe it is because I took it, or it might just be that I am going soft.
| LA |
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