What makes professional photos softer?

Question

There is a huge difference in some photograph's.. for example there is a big difference between these 2 photos: http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/wedding-photography.jpg

http://www.envisionphoto.com/Wedding_Photography.jpg

http://www.furiousphotographers.com/images/thumbs/index/ad1.jpg

http://www.edge-photo.co.uk/portfolio/weddings01.jpg

Is it the film, lens, photoshop? I am not talking about the composition but the quality and softness of the pictures. Please help..!! Thanks!

Answer 1

For the wedding pics the photog probably used a filter to soften the images.  

Answer 2

It's a bit of everything.  I would tend to say it is photoshop for the first one listed, however most anything can be done with the correct lens.  Some one who can afford an expensive lens can do more things.  For one, a lens like a prime 50mm f / 1.4 is going to have sharp images.  However the depth of field is shallow, and can soften images in the areas not in focus.  

The professionals will tend to buy expensive lenses that will help eliminate post processing.  It saves time to get it right the first time rather than editing it later.

I can tell you for sure that if you want great images you need a prime lens, like the 50, or if you can opt to afford something in the range of a 24-70 mm f / 2.8.  They are very sharp, and make your images pop.

You can of course do a lot in photoshop.  You can bump the contrast, play with the levels, distort colors etc.  Something you might want to look into is the Ortan effect.  Many photographers use it in post processing to make softer images.  Add that with a sepia filter, and you can get the quality of the one you said comes out of a magazine.

The first photo listed was probably one that was never post edited, and using a cheap lens, and possibly not even the correct exposure.

Answer 3

This is usually done in post processing. I think you're talking about the glow effect.

http://www.photoshopcosmetics.com/tutori...

Answer 4

I think the asker was talking about the "softness" of the light, and not the background blur.

Did you mean the first photo-the couple look "harsh" because of direct sunlight with horrible shadow on their faces, v.s. the second one where the light illuminated this scene from the left?

But if I understood wrongly, then it's the depth of field which made the background fuzzy, which basically what some answers already given here. Sample, http://www.flickr.com/photos/little_pook...  

Answer 5

IF in the first pair of images you are talking about the quality of the background, the difference is in the lenses.

The first shot is taken with a wider angle lens in daylight (notice the high sun angle) which means greater depth of field (DOF) -- ie the mountains are also in focus.

The second shot looks like it was taken in the evening (notice the low sun angle, with the sides lit) with perhaps a longer (compression with the background) and likely faster (perhaps an 85mm f/1.4) lens to achieve the shallow DOF (trees are out of focus).

This is one reason why pros spend huge amounts of money on large, super fast lenses -- to have creative control over the DOF.

In the other examples you posted, for the most part again it is the lenses, some of them being both wide and fast like Nikon's ultra sharp but expensive 14-24/2.8 AF-S G zoom.

You can achieve some of those looks with post processing, but mainly those are lens effects you are asking about.

HTH

Answer 6

Photographers have many different tools at their disposal. Lenses, lighting effects, camera orientation, film quality, color, focus and the ability to touch the photo up. Black and white photos automatically look softer. For advertising photos, touch ups and photo-shopping is a given. There are lots of tricks of the trade that you learn as you go along.

Answer 7

It's the lens and the filters.......BUT this look can also be achieved during editing. I use Picasa2 to edit my pictures and there is a fantastic "glow" effect that adds that softness.

Here's an example: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WHDz1GCoGpo/SL... I used the "glow" effect for that picture.....pretty awesome :)

You can download Picasa2 here: http://picasa.google.com/