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M
odern lens design has been relentlessly oriented towards high resolution and high contrast. This is so pervasive that many photographers now evaluate image quantity solely on sharpness. Razor sharp fast lenses are wonderful tools that can create fabulous images, but there are other ways to make equally evocative visual statements. One of those ways is to employ a soft focus lens.
Almost certainly the simplest and oldest variety of a soft focus lens is the one-element meniscus lens. Sometimes referred to as a monocle, this is a throwback to an earlier aesthetic – a pure pictorial instrument. It creates a very elastic luminous image, simultaneously concealing and revealing fine details. By preserving the image contour, the true monocle is sharp and at the same time very low contrast. This characteristic is a function of uncorrected spherical and chromatic aberrations, which can be dynamically controlled by changing aperture size. The characteristics of the effect can also be established by the location of the aperture relative to the objective, focal plane and subject. If you are interested in exploring this opportunity, you must be willing to fabricate your own lens, as currently no monocles are in commercial production. So far I have made about a half dozen of different focal lengths, each possessing its own unique signature.
“The facts of art are abstract. They are nothing more solid than mere appearances, and equally as elusive. They have their being only in feeling and emotion, and any fact that has its being anywhere else belongs not to art but to science.” - F.C. Tilney
