Millions of dollars are spent every year on cosmetics by women who want their skin to appear smoother. The portrait of themselves that they like the best will make their skin smooth and silky, their eyes shining in gem like clarity and their hair glowing with natural shine. Unfortunately, the camera lens sometimes portrays them in merciless detail, every blemish and pore etched in clarity. Their hair lies dark and dank and their eyes dull and shaded.

But all is not lost. The proper soft focus application can solve most of these problems. There are many ways to soften a portrait. Soft filters fall into three categories. The simplest is the diffusion filter. Examples of these are a filter made of stretched nylon stocking, a glass filter with raised rings or a randomly etched pattern on lucite. A second category is the soft focus lens or the Hasselblad Softar filter. A new type is often included in digital imaging software.

The advantage of the diffusion filter