I have a Omega b22 and would like a better diffussion look when printing my portraits. What are your favorites? Stockings? Clear plastic? What on the market these days. Thanks!

-- Garry Segal (bluesngr@ix.netcom.com), September 20, 1999

Answers

Others may differ, but I've never had good luck trying to diffuse when printing. The problem is that the light scatters the wrong way, ie; I think the shadows muck up the highlights. When you diffuse on the original shot, the highlights diffuse into the shadows, a very different effect. I'm somewhat hazy (pun intended) on this, so what's everybody think?

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), September 20, 1999.

It can work with some prints, though it is definitely not the same effect as diffusing during shooting. When I started printing some 20 years ago, I used a patch of a nylon stocking. It seemed to work well and was not too expensive. ;-)

You can sometimes use the effect to reduce the graininess of a print by exposing it through the diffuser for 1/3 of the total time. Some sharpness is also lost, but sometimes the overall effect is just more pleasing.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), September 21, 1999.

I was admiring a friend's soft nudes recently and asked him how he got the effect. He says he prints part of the exposure through onion- skin paper (tracing paper). I tried it and it works beautifully.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), September 23, 1999.

Ed, is the onion skin in contact with the paper or under the lens? Alan Ross' technique has fot me wondering.

-- Sean yates (yatescats@yahoo.com), September 26, 1999.

I got a diffused effect when I exposed a sheet of kentmere vc with the emusion side underneath, it worked well with nude photos. ( extend exposure time)

-- gari (gari_b@usa.net), October 07, 1999.

After trying everything under the sun to get the diffuse effect - spreading of the blacks - the problem is usually that the print contrast goes to pot - everything turns muddy -- of course as mentioned earlier, it does not work on all images. I have tried stockings, plastics, tissue paper etc. and have usually found they work *OK* with half exposure with and half without. I finally found the perfect solution that is repeatable. I bought a Tiffen (yes) ProMist filter - used on camera lens, it keeps the images pretty sharp, but spreads the highlights -- 0n the enlarger (under the lens the *entire* print exposure time) it spreads the blacks perfectly. Its pretty cheap ($25) and cinematographers seem to love it.

-- Rick Atwood (rcatwood@pacbell.net), October 11, 2000.