SOFT FOCUS PHOTOGRAPHY with RUSS YOUNG

May 20 – 23, 2010
Camden, Maine
Tuition: $850

Explore the world of the Pictorialist photographers using historic lenses of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This will be a shooting workshop in which you will be able use and compare Russ and Tillman’s combined eight cameras and nine historic soft focus lenses. Dr. Young, an authority on the Pictorialist photographic movement, also brings years of personal experience working with these lenses. Join us for this outstanding opportunity to compare and contrast these lenses, which bridge the historical and modern world.

Soft Focus work is neither “out of focus” nor “shallow depth of field”. A brief history helps explain the difference. In the mid-1800’s design went beyond the Petzval and meniscus lens to the rectilinear lens, which gives an image sharp in the middle even when the aperture is wide open. Lens evolution continued, resulting in the anastigmatic lens or fully corrected lens, which yields a sharp focus across the entire flat plane of film. Lenses were now capable of high resolution. In the late 19th century, Impressionism was the rage in the art world and influenced a large group of photographers. They began to seek lenses that had qualities other than just resolving power, lenses that made reality less sharp, more diffuse, less literal, more poetic if you will. The results were “Soft Focus” lenses, designed to give softly defined images at large apertures, with a variable and controllable degree and type of softness. This results in gentle transitions of tonal values, massing of lights and darks and pleasing blacks in the image. Soft focus lenses create their effect by using both chromatic and spherical aberrations, or both in combination.

There were many different types of soft focus lenses on the market a century ago, each with a different formula for creating just the right amount of softness. Working with these lenses requires the photographer to be aware of the elements of his composition and tonal values in a way that is completely different than the later F64 School movement. (The F64 School was a direct reaction to the soft focus aesthetic.) Soft focus work was very popular from 1900 – 1935 although there seems to have been many poor images created with these lenses, especially after 1920. Nonetheless, the work of Alvin Langdon Coburn, Heinrich Kuhn, Edward Steichen, Clarence White and others have stood the test of time. In recent years soft focus work has undergone a revival from both an historic and aesthetic point of view.

During this workshop you will have the chance to become familiar with outstanding examples of early soft focus work, to learn about the soft focus aesthetic and to make photographs with a representative group of different styles of soft focus lenses. You will learn about the evolution of soft focus lenses and evaluate which lenses make the best choice for your type of work and camera. This is a rare opportunity to revisit the working styles of the Pictorialists, with the advantage of knowledgeable guides to speed you on your way in the world of soft focus.

Transportation, Lodging

Airports:

Portland, ME (PWM) served by several major airlines
Rockland, ME (RKD) served by Continental Express

Rental Car:

Portland has most major Rental Companies available.
Rockland has Budget, Enterprise

Lodging:

Camden has many lovely B&B’s, hotels and motels of varying price ranges. Visit the Chamber of Commerce web site for details: www.visitcamden.com.

Meals:

Breakfast - On your own.
Lunch - Ordered out or on the road.
Dinner - Most evenings out to a restaurant as a group; one evening at my home.

Field Trips:

Several will be made locally.

Film Processing:

We will develop some film each evening depending on the number of participating photographers and the amount of film shot. I cannot promise that all film shot during the workshop will be processed but everyone will be able to process some. We will make prints using the Cyanotype process, favored by early 20th century Pictorialists, in order to evaluate our work.

Registration

Call 207-230-0199 or contact tillman@tillmancrane.com for more information. To register for workshop please contact donna@tillmancrane.com.