[LargeFormat] Wollensak Velostigmat Series II Soft Focus Lens

[Clive Warren]

At 9:58 pm -0600 9/7/02, Marco Milazzo wrote:
>Other than being variable, how does the look of the Velostigmat soft focus
>compare to the Wollensak Verito?  (It's variable by stopping down) I
>recently acquired a couple of them, (14 and 18-inch lengths), and am looking
>forward to trying them.
>
>Marco

Marco,

Seems as though you are the only one on the list to have these 
lenses! You may be interested to know that the famous Hollywood 
glamour photographer George Hurrell used a Wolly Verito for much of 
his early work - stopped down to f22! When employed by MGM studios he 
took the lens with him and made use of the excellent lighting 
facilities that he found there.

The Verito as you say becomes sharper as you stop down, however 
because of its design there are still aberrations even at f22 when 
the softness has all but disappeared. This is one element of the 
"Hurrell look" portraiture. He also used diffusion screens under the 
enlarger lens which would have had a very different effect to the 
lens ie the shadows would bleed into the highlights rather than the 
other way around. Shooting at f22 he would also probably not have the 
light halos around the highlights.

Hurrell used arc lights before joining MGM to light his subjects as 
he was using such small apertures and slow film in those days. He was 
known to remove the protective screens from the lights thus putting 
his subject's retinas at risk!

So, with modern strobes you may like to experiment a little with your 
Veritos and perhaps post some photos in the f32 Discussion Forum at 
http://www.f32.net/discus/

The Wolly Velo is a very different lens - you have probably already 
seen the demo. photos posted in the Forum. Essentially you set the 
amount of soft focus desired, then stop down to obtain the desired 
depth of field.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,
        Clive