Diffusion

If you've spent much time watching old movies then you're probably used to seeing…actresses shot with this diffuse hazy glow around their faces, so they would…sit perfectly still on a particular pool of light and have this wonderful…softness about them.…And that's because very often they insisted that the cinematographer shoot…them through some gauze, or a pair of pantyhose, or smear Vaseline on the lens, or…something to ensure that they had this soft glow that made their skin look much better.…That type of diffusion is an effective technique to apply to any type of photo,…but it's very often particularly effective on black-and-white images.…

Black and white, as we discussed, is already an abstraction. Adding diffusion…can make the image even more abstract which can often create atmosphere and draw…the viewer more in, emotionally.…So we're going to do that to this image.…I've got this horse ears here that were shot in this nice bright light, and it's…already kind of a really soft, hazy luminous image.…