Soft Focus. Question re-visited.

cesarin wrote on 12/14/2004, 9:20 AM

Hello !
Is there a tangible way, i mean, a realistic way to reproduce the sought-after Soft Focus effect in Vegas Video. If so, would you please let me know how to achieve a realistic look of this effect ?
Otherwise, is there a pluging that can do that effect ?
Thanks a lot.

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 12/14/2004, 9:40 AM

I guess I'm not familiar with this effect by name. You mean like shooting through silks?
That is reasonably easily accomplished in Vegas using masks and blur, and a blend of color curves.

Grazie wrote on 12/14/2004, 10:12 AM

Spot? Glow softish . . ? The white glow is great for this . . G

JonnyMac wrote on 12/14/2004, 10:27 AM

You might consider reducing the sharpness setting in your camera.

Spot|DSE wrote on 12/14/2004, 10:36 AM

That's why I was asking, as this is a camera technique, not an editing one. However, you can repro certain glass filters in post. Vic Milt and I do a seminar together on this subject.
Grazie, glow is a post thing, and while it somewhat emulates the Black Mist, it's not quite the same, I find masking with generated media does a better job than using Glow, but hey! they're all just filters, and the one you want...might be just the filter chain/set you need.

Grazie wrote on 12/14/2004, 10:44 AM

Spot, of course your are correct . . .BUT! If anybody wants my ham-fisted atempts of the Plug I'm sending it off to Edward now - " GB Soft Focus 4a ". . Hello Edward! - It should be with JETEDITDV soooon .. .

... I can't write scripts but I do enjoy making plugs . . well at this level .. .

Grazie

jetdv wrote on 12/14/2004, 11:18 AM

It's there.

Grazie wrote on 12/14/2004, 12:20 PM

Thanks PAL! ! ! ! :)

Grazie

farss wrote on 12/14/2004, 12:28 PM

Shouldn't that read "Thanks NTSC!!!:)"
Bob.

Grazie wrote on 12/14/2004, 12:40 PM

LOL ! ! !

Bob, don't you EVER sleep ?

Grazie

Stonefield wrote on 12/14/2004, 9:00 PM

I did a little tutorial of a soft focus look you can get with Vegas.

http://www.vegasusers.com/vidshare/textdisp?stonefield-tutorial_1

Might want to have a look.

.

cesarin wrote on 12/15/2004, 5:54 AM

Thanks a lot guys. Great forum, this is.
I found a plugin, but it's more of tweaking the actual tools than anything else.
Really surprised why this great app. doesn't have this litlle basic filter.
Rgds to you all :-)

logiquem wrote on 12/15/2004, 2:19 PM

I know what you mean, i used this filter quit a lot with my precedent Premiere/Canopus setup. Very efficient to make edgy footage smoother. Did you play with "glow" effect in Vegas btw. You can acheive somewhat (no entirely) the same result with it.

farss wrote on 12/15/2004, 2:25 PM

Probably because as any decent still photographer will tell you the only way to get proper soft focus is in-camera. We used to try all sorts of tricks during printing (blow smoke in front of the enlarger etc) but nothing is as good as doing it in front of the lens.
If you just want to soften the image that's an entirely different matter, you'd need to stack some Vegas FXs, I'd look at the chroma smoothing and median FXs, throw in a little lens flare.
Bob