Thursday, July 25, 2013

Treasure In The Mist



Day 297: Back in the Good Old Days when cameras used film or plates coated in emulsions, photographers created special effects both in and out of the darkroom. One of my favorite techiques was the use of filters, specifically what I call "creative filters," i.e., homemade devices placed between the lens and the subject. These creative filters could be anything from a piece of window screen, sheer fabric, cellophane to glass coated with a thin film of petroleum jelly or other oily substance. The latter was often used to give a soft, romantic atmosphere to wedding photos. Nowadays, of course, special effects are something many of us add during post-processing, however I have yet to find any program which can duplicate the unique appearance created by shooting through a piece of Vaselined glass.

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