Impressionist art imitation?

[Stephen R. Morrison]

Several effective alternatives. On the computer, various Photoshop filters
will produce this effect (ie. Gallery Effects). Just as effective, and more
natural, however, is to shoot the original scene through a sheet of the kind
of pebbled glass used in some shower doors. With an SLR, you can get a very
good idea of how the finished print will look. I would use as high a
saturation film as possible to keep the colours rich despite the inevitable
diffusion. Finally, try printing a normal negative but move the same sort of
pebbled glass around under the enlarger lens during exposure. This will
require some experimentation and will not be as repeatable. Each print will
be a little different. A completely different effect, but also
impressionistic, can be achieved using a slightly out-of-focus mirror lens on
a scene with lots of specular highlights (ie. sunlight on water) The small
"circles of confusion" can produce a very pleasing effect and bring a new
perspective to an otherwise ordinary scene. That's what impressionism is
really about, isn't it! Let me know if I can be of any help.

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[Martin Tai]

Stephen R. Morrison wrote:

-> Several effective alternatives. On the computer, various Photoshop
-> filters will produce this effect (ie. Gallery Effects). Just as
-> effective, and more natural, however, is to shoot the original scene
-> through a sheet of the kind of pebbled glass used in some shower
-> doors. With an SLR, you can get a very good idea of how the finished
-> print will look. I would use as high a saturation film as possible
-> to keep the colours rich despite the inevitable diffusion. Finally,
-> try printing a normal negative but move the same sort of pebbled
-> glass around under the enlarger lens during exposure. This will
-> require some experimentation and will not be as repeatable. Each
-> print will be a little different. A completely different effect, but
-> also impressionistic, can be achieved using a slightly out-of-focus
-> mirror lens on a scene with lots of specular highlights (ie. sunlight
-> on water) The small "circles of confusion" can produce a very
-> pleasing effect and bring a new perspective to an otherwise ordinary
-> scene. That's what impressionism is really about, isn't it! Let me
-> know if I can be of any help.

Last year, touring Innsbruck, Austria, I tried a technicque
to produce impressionist style photos. In the quaint street
of Innsbruck, I took pictures with Contax T2,instead of
usually holding film, I pressed the shutter while walking briskly,
this delibrate camera shake created slightly blurred
pictures, as if shooting through uneven glass. The results
are quite interesting Renoir style pictures.