The American annual of photography . ight be a case where a diffusedpicture of the same engine surrounded by a cloud of seamand smoke might lend itself beautifully to the requirementsof an intelligent and trained pictorialist. It would be poorjudgment, in my opinion, to decide in favor of either type oflens without first determining which would do the best workfor the subject in hand. Remember that these lenses aretools to use, at will, to help us get the best possible photographer who can afford it should have both—notone or the other. The soft-focus and anastigmat lens maybe ma
The American annual of photography . ight be a case where a diffusedpicture of the same engine surrounded by a cloud of seamand smoke might lend itself beautifully to the requirementsof an intelligent and trained pictorialist. It would be poorjudgment, in my opinion, to decide in favor of either type oflens without first determining which would do the best workfor the subject in hand. Remember that these lenses aretools to use, at will, to help us get the best possible photographer who can afford it should have both—notone or the other. The soft-focus and anastigmat lens maybe made to work together harmoniously and to the bettermentof photography. The day should be passed when thephotographer is compelled to choose one or the other becauseof his mistaken allegiance to any school, or clique of amateuror professional photographers. It is possible to make a picture with an anastigmat lensand to enlarge it with a soft-focus lens or vice versa. Whyshould it be considered photographically unethical to do so? 26. MRS. SIDNEY V. WEBB. 27 It is the result that we are after. The lens that helps usmost to obtain the result is the lens to use either for the originalnegative or the enlargement. The trouble with many of usis that we lean too heavily upon the opinions and experiencesof others. In a way, Camera Clubs are to blame for thedesire to ask some one else before making a decision withregard to a lens or a printing-process. Mind you, I believethoroughly in photographic comradeship as it is found in somany Camera Clubs today; but although I would advise anyamateur or professional photographer to consider carefullythe opinions and experiences of others, nevertheless, I wouldsuggest that final decisions be made by the man most con-cerned, viz.: the photographer himself. Let him stand firmlyon his own photographic feet. Let him use the lens orprocess that will enable him to express best the pictorial ideawithin him. If it be a soft-focus lens, well and good. If
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