释义 |
soft-ˈfocus, a. and n. Also soft focus. [f. soft a. + focus n.] A. adj. a. Photogr. Characterized by or producing a deliberate slight lack of clarity and definition in a photograph.
1917P. L. Anderson Pictorial Photogr. ii. 42 It should be noted that the soft-focus lens..has greater apparent depth, both of field and of focus. 1940A. L. M. Sowerby Wall's Dict. Photogr. (ed. 15) 600 It is generally considered that the most pleasing soft-focus effects are obtained by superposing a diffused image upon a more sharply-defined one, this giving a kind of ‘halo’ round the lights. 1958[see sense B]. 1975Publishers Weekly 13 Jan. 58/1 Aided by lovely soft-focus photographs.., Miss Bailey tells the story of a little seedling blown away from its mother tree too soon. 1977J. Hedgecoe Photographer's Handbk. 31 The design of soft focus lenses leaves one pronounced optical error, ‘spherical aberration’. This gives halos to highlights and a general softness of outline. 1978P. Theroux Picture Palace ix. 71 Photographs looked freckled and corpse-like, soft-focus poses that might have been painters' instant fossils. b. fig. Diffuse, blurred, unclear, imprecise.
1961W. T. Jones Romantic Syndrome viii. 227 We might begin..by making a count of soft-focus imagery in the works of various poets. 1965Punch 17 Nov. 712 You will see the advantage of reviewing single instalments. It allows elbow-room to savour the glittering detail. Handle the whole book and you fall back on soft⁓focus generalities, the tiny individual flavours lost. 1975New Yorker 24 Feb. 127/1 The voice is soft-focus, not keenly projected, but of pleasant quality in the middle ranges. 1979Listener 16 Aug. 214/4 This [play]..was full of winsome Irishness and soft-focus sentimentality. B. n. A deliberate slight lack of clarity and definition in a photograph. Also fig.
1958P. Pollack Picture Hist. Photogr. xx. 261 Dr. P. H. Emerson held that soft focus corresponded to natural vision and that soft-focus photography was an art superior to all other graphic arts. 1961W. T. Jones Romantic Syndrome viii. 235 Once the critic replaces a vague liking for ‘romantic qualities’ with a preference for ‘soft-focus’..he is much more likely to make an adequate assessment of the work of the poets and painters. 1977Practical Photogr. Jan. 23/4 To suggest that this method of obtaining soft-focus costs 1p is ridiculous. Hence soft-ˈfocus v. trans., soft-ˈfocused ppl. a. (both fig. in the examples).
1957Archit. Rev. CXXI. 319 The whole effect is to blur and ‘soft-focus’ the precision-made look which has been one of the chief qualities of the curtain wall. 1977New Yorker 27 June 35/1 Rose did not like to look at them, at their soft-focussed meekly smiling gratitude. |