Focus is optional.

heartyfisher

So we talk like for pages and pages about how sharp a lense is on this forum.. The fact is an image doesn't need to be sharp to be great or even Awesome !

Let me challenge this forum. Post me images of your best UNSHARP or UNFOCUSSED images!

Some ground rules ? same as PAD ..
* its a discussion not only for pictures.
* Multiple photos allowed but be sensible and not post dozens at a time ! :-)
* Parts of the image can be sharp. but comments would be nice - on technique or reasons or conditions or circumstances etc.

PS: http://digital-photography-school.com/taking-unfocused-photos/

[Deleted User]

Made about 20 years ago with the Nikon 801, 50mm, very dark circumstances, some beams of light from high placed windows. Is is a scanned negative a little bit pushed in LR to make it visible, digital nothing special done. One of those so personal and rubbish photographs, that I'm the only one who love the scene I think.
After a Sunday morning training we let the horses go to relax and I took my camera to take some shots. It is the atmosphere.



I'm going to love this topic Hearty

heartyfisher

Taken in a luminarium.

The sharp photos just didnt capture the potential feel of the place.. so I went for 1-2 second shots while moving/walking around.

NSXTypeR

I barely caught the guy's camera. Looks like some old Leica film gear, but it's definitely not in focus.

This is a fairly special photograph for me, as this is just about right before my D40 died. I took this shot in Macao.

ThomasHorton

Like many of the "rules" of photography, they can be broken as long as it is deliberate.

Deliberately taking a photograph out of focus is art
Inadvertently taking a photograph out of focus is a mistake.

heartyfisher

Hi all ..sorry for not being clear enough .. but my intention was for this thread to show that purposely blured images can be a technique used to good effect. For example techniques like panning and tiltshift "miniaturisation" and yes "accidental" blur that adds to the image. defocussed via lensbaby. Camera movement like my first photo posts.. blurred focus "mistakes" can also be good if the content is strong enough. PP is also used these days etc etc.. There are many other examples of techniques .. hope to see some nice samples of them !

Here is a flickr search for blur for a few nice examples.( and a few bad ones ;-) ) https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=blur&sort=interestingness-desc

A quote from one of my forum friends in Australia. "'Misfocus' is abhorrent but 'devoid of focus' is sublime." -- Walter Glover.

Msmoto

Just a thought.....here is a link to Wiki's take on what I consider to be one of the greatest photo collections of all time. The Family of Man put together by Edward Steichen in the late 1950's. Of course, all are film images, the majority have soft focus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_of_Man

However, the technical attributes of today's equipment suggests we can overcome many of the issues of soft images primarily as a result of the incredible sensors we have now for image capture.
Here is my shot which shows the scene well, but is a bit soft.


And of course:

heartyfisher

LOL on the phone ?

Xmas day this deer was asking for "gifts" ..

Rx4Photo

You're so right @heartyfisher in that there is an abundance of talk of lens sharpness here. I think the major factor is that most posters here tend to focus (pun intended) on technical aspects of phogography instead of creative aspects. Lately I've been "Pinning" lots of intentionally OOF photos on Pinterest - mostly creative portraits ... and so many are totally cool. I've "warned" one of my daughters that I will start using her for some OOF creative portrait practice soon, haha!

heartyfisher

You're so right @heartyfisher in that there is an abundance of talk of lens sharpness here. I think the major factor is that most posters here tend to focus (pun intended) on technical aspects of phogography instead of creative aspects. Lately I've been "Pinning" lots of intentionally OOF photos on Pinterest - mostly creative portraits ... and so many are totally cool. I've "warned" one of my daughters that I will start using her for some OOF creative portrait practice soon, haha!

Look forward to seeing some images from your "Bad lenses" :-)

kenadams

BMW M3 in a showroom

NoXiN

it's only a mistake if you tell them it is...

proudgeek

Photobug

Never thought about leaving -1s on images until I started reading this thread. LoL ">
It's so good to see others take out of focus images.

Photobug

I was running out of daylight when shooting in Babcock State Park, WV. After taking pictures of the Grist Mill I started working the water. Out of focus and cold, about 10 degrees F. Needs contrast and daylight. Just a lousy image.

Rx4Photo

Here's one I did on purpose -- focused on the rocks instead.

donaldejose

To capture a mood.





To emulate French Impressionist painting style.





To emulate Modern Art painting style.

Vipmediastar_JZ

nice Job @donald

I was shooting clouds. On my way home I spotted the horse riders. I pulled over and framed the shot and timing. I forgot to change settings..



Almost all of the nikon 58mm 1.4G shots wide open 1.4-2.8

heartyfisher

Those are really nice @donaldejose especially like the foggy misty tree one.

NSXTypeR

I took this literally the second day I got my D40. I got it the day before I went to the NY Auto Show, played around with it for a while and took this shot leaving the NY Auto Show on the way to the subways.



There's a fair amount of motion blur, focus is questionable. I did get it completely by accident though, as I was in aperture mode so I wasn't really paying attention to the shutter speeds.

I also made a terrible noob mistake that day- I cranked up my ISO so high halfway through the event that all my photos looked terrible.

Tradewind35

Here's one I did on purpose -- focused on the rocks instead. - See more at: http://forum.nikonrumors.com/discussion/4084/focus-is-optional-#sthash.VETwtxr6.dpuf

RX4Photo - you may need some counselling or help of some sort - you had that image in front of your lens and you chose to focus on THE ROCKS........!

bland

I normally rip off at least 5 shots per pan in order to get one that is in focus.
Sometimes its the ones that are out of focus that reflect the most of what I'm trying to capture, which would be speed.

Msmoto

A 2.5 second exposure offers some motion blur:

DaveyJ

Some of these "out of focus" shots are actually really perfectly focused. Example Proud Geek's running horse. having shot a lot of running horse photos under similar lighting (mist, fog, evening, etc.) that one is right on so really does not qualify as being anything other than wire sharp. What most of these photos in fact illustrate is less than a really deep depth of field! Which is why some photographers want a very wide aperture lens. I tend to try to shoot wide depth of field almost all of the time and concede that is NOT going to produce the optimum photo all of the time. This topic is a VERY GOOD topic.

DaveyJ

Nice motion blur people and car shot fromMsmoto. Vip mediastar's photo of the little girl is one I almost cannot get due to heavy use of too much depth of field most of the time. The same photographer's horse seen shown immediately above the little girl photo is what I try to AVOID. This topic illustrates very nicely why several point so view can tell a story better than just one.