This technique is great for glamour portraits. It's also good for reducing JPEG artifacts. It mimics a soft focus or diffusion lens filter, softening the photo, reducing harsh lines and wrinkles, and intensifying the colors. Follow the steps here to create the soft focus glamour effect in Photoshop Elements.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 5 minutes
Here's How:
- Open the photo.
- Duplicate the background layer by dragging it to the new layer icon on the layers palette.
- Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.
- Set the radius to 4-10 pixels (use a high amount for hi-res images, low amount for low-res) and click OK.
- Set the layer opacity to 50%.
- Merge this layer down (Ctrl+E/Command+E).
- Go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask.
- Experiment within the following ranges: Amount: 80-200, Radius: 2-5, Threshold: 10-15.
- Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation.
- Move the saturation slider up to somewhere in the 10-20 range and click OK.
