I've seen some examples of photos taken with a piece of textured glass in placed in front of the lens. The effect may (or may not!) look similar to that of vaseline rubbed on a skylight filter. In any case, it looked really interesting. If anyone has any suggestions on what type of glass, placement of glass in relation to lens (and how it's kept there), where to focus, etc., I would appreciate it. Thank you!

-- regina hugo (reginahugo@aol.com), December 17, 1999

Answers

You can use almost everything to experiment... A Cokin, Lee or similar filter holder is very handy, it is easy to attach suitable pieces of glass in filter slots or use tape, bluetack or glue. Piece of cardboard put in the holder is fine for glueing other items. Pieces of plastic from CD- cassette- or whateverboxes work well. The usual way is to put some vaseline on clear filter. Occasionally it is better to leave the center clear and use the lens wide open - the effect is almost similar to soft focus lenses.

If you mean photos, where there is really texture in the picture it's another story. They are made (by way of an example) with a clear piece of (optical) glass hold in front of the lens in 45 degree angle, and the textured material (fabrics, wood, brick wall) is on the side. You get two pictures at the same time (without double exposure), the reflected texture and the item photographed through the glass. Of course you can do other double-exposurelike pictures the same way.

A Cokin holder, piece of clear glass and some strong tape will do the job for experiments.

Sakari

-- Sakari Makela (sakari.makela@koulut.vantaa.fi), December 29, 1999.

As for glass-

The stuff used for shower doors and bathroom windows is pretty good. Some of the plastic used for florescent lights also has interesting patterns.

Anyway, I'd recommend a trip to a home improvement store. I've been meaning to do this for quite some time, but never seem to find the time to get to it.

Paul

-- Paul D. Robertson (proberts@clark.net), January 14, 2000.