Soft focus effect

PP
Posted By
Philip Procter
May 3, 2005
Views
393
Replies
5
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Closed
What is the best (or your best recommended) process for adding a soft focus effect to a portrait without having to buy a plug-in?

Philip
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C
Corey
May 3, 2005
Try duplicating the layer, adding a bit of Gaussian blur to the new layer and then adjusting the opacity to blend with the original layer.

Peadge 😉

"Philip Procter" wrote in message
What is the best (or your best recommended) process for adding a soft focus effect to a portrait without having to buy a plug-in?
Philip
J
jenelisepasceci
May 3, 2005
Philip Procter wrote:

What is the best (or your best recommended) process for adding a soft focus effect to a portrait without having to buy a plug-in?
Philip

Try the following:
Duplicate the image layer, desaturate, apply high pass filtering, play with the pixels setting, 2-5 pixels for an image 1024 pixels wide may be a good starting point. Invert the result, set the layer mode to "soft light". Reduce the effect by decreasing opacity, emphasize it by changing layer mode to "overlay".
This procedure is the inverse of high pass sharpening and it’s how I do it

Peter
WD
Walter Donavan
May 3, 2005
I tried duplicate layer-add Gaussian Blur-adjust opacity. It worked, but its effect was not as realistic–and as pleasing–as the free Virtual Photographer plug-in from www.optikvervelabs.com

I used the following Virtual Photographer settings and was very pleased with the results, which were similar to what I obtained years ago with my pricey Nikon #1 soft focus filter.

In the Photographic Style panel:

Style to On.
Style radio button to Warm.
Adjust the Style slider for warmth if you wish.
Effect to On.
Effect to Blur.

Quite nice.

I don’t hear the VP plug-in mentioned much, but it is a sleeper, with thousands of capabilities, and it is totally free.

"Peadge" wrote in message
Try duplicating the layer, adding a bit of Gaussian blur to the new layer and then adjusting the opacity to blend with the original layer.
Peadge 😉

"Philip Procter" wrote in message
What is the best (or your best recommended) process for adding a soft focus effect to a portrait without having to buy a plug-in?
Philip

A
arrooke
May 3, 2005
What is the best (or your best recommended) process for adding a soft focus effect to a portrait without having to buy a plug-in?
Philip

Try the following:
Duplicate the image layer, desaturate, apply high pass filtering, play with the pixels setting, 2-5 pixels for an image 1024 pixels wide may be a good starting point. Invert the result, set the layer mode to "soft light". Reduce the effect by decreasing opacity, emphasize it by changing layer mode to "overlay".
This procedure is the inverse of high pass sharpening and it’s how I do it

Peter

Hey! That’s good!
CF
Craig Flory
May 3, 2005
Hi Philip; As a professional, I no longer do soft focus over the lens.I like having total control so I do it in Photoshop. A lot of good information has already been given but no one mentioned a layer mask. After adding a dupe layer, I use gaussian blur and then either reveal all or hide all depending on the subject. If I use reveal all I use a black brush and paint away the softness on the eyes, eyebrows, and lips and sometimes other areas. I did not have that option with a filter on the lens. Another thing is this. Try merging after doing what I said. Then dupe the layer again. Run the Lens Blur filter and use a layer mask again in Hide All. Use a white brush to paint in the softness on the background. On outdoor portraits it will give you nice separation of your subject from the background. I hope this helps.

Craig Flory

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