There is soft and then there is out-of-focus unusable. Back in the day, we spoke of soft images as “not tack sharp.” There are certain styles of images that work slightly soft and others that certainly do not. Knowing when one works or doesn’t can be tricky and might require a second opinion. What can substitute for sharpness is mood and the image I break down has enough to carry the frame, at least in my mind. But, I’ll let you be the judge.
Comments 4
I’ll watch this later. I’ve seen this image a few times now – soft focus, out of focus, blurry, not tack sharp? Who cares. It’s a fantastic image. I know I’m not alone in developing a dislike (wrong word, but my brain is misfiring) for the digital era’s super sharp imagery. I’ll take life with a little grit, please.
Author
Scott,
Thanks for that. I do love a good, sharp snap especially when I see a long lens image of some guy in the barrel at Pipeline but for doc work anything goes.
The overall shape of the garment(?) dragged by the main matador has a “life” on it’s own, it almost exists seperately from the rest of the photograph yet is part of it. I really like this image.
Author
Thanks Herbert. I got lucky on that bit.