The Heliopan 49mm Sand (Soft) Spot Filter offers you the opportunity to make a standard portrait into something more endearing and meaningful. This filter is only sharp in the center part of the image. The rest is soft/blurred heading out towards the edge thereby creating a kind of "aura" around your subject. The circular center of the shot draws the attention of the viewer while the softened surroundings create a mood of serenity. It must be noted that the degree of the blurred effect varies with lens focal length and aperture opening.
For portraits this is a great choice since it accents your subject in a very flattering way by setting it off from the rest of the frame. It also adds a dreamy, ethereal quality to the image even though the center of the image stay sharp.
Heliopan has been a leader in the filter industry since 1949. They are known for their high quality and production standards. Their slim mounts facilitate using them with wider angle lenses. Heliopan offers most of their filters with either their standard hard coating or with their industry leading SH-PMC 16 layer multi-coating that transmits over 99.5% of the light striking it on to the image plane for the lowest flare and greatest color saturation.
