Painterly Glow Effect In Photoshop CS3

Here’s the image I’ll be using for this tutorial:

The original image.

Here’s how it will look when we’re done:

The final “painterly glow” effect.

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

The first step in creating our “painterly glow” effect is to duplicate the Background layer so that we’ll still have access to the original, unedited image when we’re done. To duplicate the Background layer, go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen, choose New, and then choose Layer via Copy:

Go to Layer > New > Layer via Copy.<span class="fullpost">

Or, for a much faster way to duplicate a layer, simply press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac). Either way duplicates the Background layer, and if we look at our Layers palette, we can see that we now have two layers. The Background layer, which contains the original image, is sitting safely on the bottom, and a copy of the image, which Photoshop has automatically named “Layer 1″, is sitting above it. We can see what’s on the layer by looking at the preview thumbnail on the left of each layer. In this case, both layers are showing exactly the same image:

A copy of the image appears above the original in the Layers palette.

Step 2: Convert For Smart Filters

To use Smart Filters on a layer, we first need to convert the layer into a Smart Object. Smart Objects were first introduced in Photoshop CS2 and Smart Filters are essentially an extension of them. You can’t work with Smart Filters without first converting a layer into a Smart Object, so to do that, with “Layer 1″ selected in the Layers palette (selected layers are highlighted in blue), go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen and choose Convert for Smart Filters:

Go to Filter > Convert for Smart Filters.

Photoshop will pop up a warning box telling us what we already know, which is that we’re converting the layer into a Smart Object:

A warning box appears telling us that we’re about to convert the layer into a Smart Object.

Click OK to close the warning box. Nothing will appear to have happened to the image in the document window, but if we look again at the Layers palette, we can see that the preview thumbnail on “Layer 1″ now shows a small icon in the bottom right corner. This icon tells us that the layer is now a Smart Object:

A small Smart Object icon appears in the bottom right corner of the preview thumbnail for “Layer 1″.

Step 3: Apply The Motion Blur Filter

Applying a Smart Filter to a Smart Object in Photoshop is no different from applying a normal filter to a normal layer, except that when you apply a filter to a Smart Object, Photoshop automatically converts the filter into a Smart Filter. To see what I mean, let’s apply our first Motion Blur filter. With “Layer 1″ still selected, go up to the Filter menu, choose Blur, and then choose Motion Blur:

Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur.

This brings up the Motion Blur filter dialog box, which allows us to control both the angle and distance of the motion blur. For this first blur, I’m going to set theAngle to 90°, which gives me vertical blur streaks. Then, to adjust the distance of the blur, I’ll click and drag the Distance slider at the bottom of the dialog box. Dragging the slider towards the right increases the length of the blur streaks, while dragging to the left decreases their length. There’s no specific value to enter here since it will depend on your image and the intensity of the effect you want to achieve, so keep an eye on your image for a preview of the results as you drag the slider. I’m going to set my distance to a value of around 452 pixels, which gives me nice, long streaks. Since we’re using Smart Filters, there’s no need to worry about getting things right at this point since we can go back and change the filter settings as often as we like without harming the image in any way:

Set the Angle of the motion blur to 90°, then adjust the length of the streaks with the Distance slider.

Click OK when you’re done to exit out of the dialog box and apply the filter effect. My image now appears as a series of vertical color streaks:

The image now appears as vertical streaks of color.

Step 4: Change The Blend Mode To Hard Light

Currently, the blur streaks on “Layer 1″ are completely blocking the original image on the Background layer from view. What we need is for the streaks to blend in with the original image. For that, all we need to do is change the layer’sblend mode. You’ll find the blend mode option in the top left corner of the Layers palette. By default, it’s set to “Normal”. Click either on the word “Normal” or on the arrows to the right of the word, which brings up a list of additional blend modes. Choose Hard Light from the list:

Change the blend mode of “Layer 1″ from Normal to Hard Light.

If you recall from our Five Essential Blend Modes For Photo Editing tutorial, the Hard Light blend mode is part of the Contrast group of blend modes, meaning that not only does it blend the layers together, it increases image contrast at the same time. It also happens to boost color saturation. Here’s my image after changing the blend mode to Hard Light:

The Hard Light blend mode blends layers together while also boosting contrast and color saturation.

You can also try the Overlay blend mode for a slightly more subtle effect, but for the image I’m using here, Hard Light gives me better results.

So far, everything that we’ve done with our Smart Filter seems no different from a normal filter, but here’s the big difference. With normal filters, once we’ve applied them to a layer, we’ve made physical and permanent changes to the pixels on that layer. There’s no way to edit the filter settings once the filter has been applied, other than undoing your steps and re-applying the filter again. With Smart Filters, that’s not the case. We can easily go back and make changes to the filter settings any time we want, as often as we want! If we look below “Layer 1″ in the Layers palette, we can see the Motion Blur Smart Filter that we just applied. To bring its dialog box back up at any time, simply double-click on the filter’s name:

Double-click on the name of a Smart Filter in the Layers palette to bring up its dialog box and edit the filter settings.

The dialog box will instantly pop open, allowing you to make any changes you like to the settings. Click OK when you’re done to exit out of the dialog box and apply the new settings to the layer. With Smart Filters, we’re free to experiment with different filters and settings without worrying that anything we’re doing is permanent. Even when we’re done creating our effect here, you can always go back and try different Angle and Distance settings for the Motion Blurs to compare different results!

We’ll apply additional motion blur streaks to the image next!

Step 5: Duplicate “Layer 1″

Just as we did with the Background layer, let’s create a copy of “Layer 1″. Again, you can go up to the Layer menu, choose New, and then choose Layer via Copy, but you’ll find that the keyboard shortcut for duplicating a layer,Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac), is much faster and is one of the shortcuts in Photoshop you’ll definitely want to memorize. We can see in the Layers palette that we now have a copy of “Layer 1″ sitting above the original:

Quickly duplicate a layer in Photoshop by pressing Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac).

Step 6: Edit The Motion Blur Smart Filter Settings

There’s two things to note with the copy of “Layer 1″ that we just created. First, if you look at the blend mode option in the top left corner of the Layers palette, you’ll see that it’s already set to Hard Light for us, since that’s what “Layer 1″ was set to. More importantly though, if we look below the layer, we can see that our Motion Blur Smart Filter has also been copied! Currently, the filter is using the exact same settings we applied to “Layer 1″, but as we learned a moment ago, to edit the settings for a Smart Filter, simply double-click on the filter’s name:

Double-click on the second Motion Blur in the Layers palette to edit its settings.

The Motion Blur dialog box pops open and this time, I’m going to set the Angleto -45° which gives me diagonal blur streaks running from the top left to the bottom right. I’m going to reduce the length of the streaks this time by dragging the Distance slider a little to the left, but feel free to experiment on your own by keeping an eye on the image in the document window as you drag the slider:

Smart Filters allow us to edit filter settings at any time without making permanent changes to the image.

Click OK when you’re done to exit out of the dialog box and apply the second Motion Blur settings. Here’s my image now with two Motion Blurs applied, each set to a different angle:

Both layers now have their own separate copy of the Motion Blur filter, each using different settings.

Again, if at any time you want to try different settings for either Motion Blur filter, simply double-click on its name in the Layers palette to bring its dialog box back up and make your changes.

Step 7: Create Another Copy Of The Layer

Let’s add one more Motion Blur to the effect. First, press Ctrl+J (Win) /Command+J (Mac) to create a copy of, well, the copy we created back in Step 5. You should now have four layers in the Layers palette, with the newest layer (“Layer 1 copy 2″) sitting at the top. Normally, I would recommend renaming the layers to something more descriptive, but in this case, since we’re only working with a few layers, it’s not really necessary.

Just as we saw back in Step 6, both the blend mode and the Motion Blur Smart Filter have been copied with the layer:

The Layers palette now contains the original Background layer plus three copies sitting above it.

Step 8: Edit The Motion Blur Smart Filter Settings

Double-click on the latest Motion Blur filter in the Layers palette to bring up its dialog box:

Each of the three copies of the Background layer now has its own Motion Blur Smart Filter.

For this third Motion Blur, I’ll set my Angle to 45° which gives me diagonal streaks once again but this time running from the bottom left to the top right. I’ll also reduce the length of the blur streaks a bit further by dragging the Distanceslider towards the right, but again, feel free to choose the settings that work best for your image:

Edit the third Motion Blur settings.

Click OK when you’re done to exit out of the dialog box. Here’s my image after applying the third Motion Blur:

Three Motion Blur filters have now been applied to the image and can be edited at any time.

Next, we’ll finish things off by grouping layers together and masking away some of the blur effect!

Step 9: Group The Top Three Layers Together

I’m going to finish off my “painterly glow” effect by masking part of it away to reveal the original photo underneath. Since the effect is spread across three layers, the easiest thing to do is group the three layers together and then add a layer mask to the entire group. First, we’ll need to select all three layers at once, so click on the top layer in the Layers palette to select it if it isn’t selected already. Then hold down your Shift key and click on “Layer 1″ directly above the Background layer. This will select both layers as well as the layer in between. You should see all three layers above the Background layer highlighted in blue:

Click on the top layer, then hold Shift and click on “Layer 1″ to select all three layers above the Background layer.

With all three layers selected, go up to the Layer menu and choose Group Layers:

Go to Layer > Group Layers.

Nothing will seem to have happened to the image in the document window, but we can see in the Layers palette that we now have a layer group named “Group 1″. Layer groups are represented by a folder icon, and all three of the layers we selected a moment ago are now inside the folder (the group):

Grouping layers in Photoshop is an easy way to mask multiple layers at once.

Step 10: Add A Layer Mask To The Group

With the layer group selected, click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. It’s the icon that looks like a rectangle with a circle cut out of the middle:

Click on the Layer Mask icon.

This adds a layer mask to the group. Even though we can’t actually see the mask in the document window, we know that the mask has been added because we can see a layer mask preview thumbnail between the folder icon and the group’s name in the Layers palette:

The layer group now shows a mask preview thumbnail in the Layers palette.

Step 11: Select The Gradient Tool

Grab the Gradient Tool from the Tools palette, or simply press the letter G to select it with the keyboard shortcut:

Select the Gradient Tool.

Step 12: Select A Black To White Radial Gradient

With the Gradient Tool selected, the Options Bar at the top of the screen will change to show options for working with gradients. Click on the small down-pointing arrow to the right of the gradient preview area, which opens a gradient selection box, and select the black to white gradient, third gradient from the left, top row:

Select the Black to White gradient.

To the right of the gradient preview area is a series of icons that allow us to choose between different gradient shapes. Click on the Radial Gradient icon, second from the left, to select it:

Choose a Radial Gradient from the Options Bar.

Step 13: Draw A Radial Gradient On The Layer Mask

Make sure the layer mask preview thumbnail is selected in the Layers palette. You should see a white highlight border around it, indicating that it’s selected. If not, click on the thumbnail to select it. Then click and drag out a black to white radial gradient on the layer mask. The spot where you first click will become the center point of the gradient. At this spot, the “painterly glow” effect will be completely hidden from view, allowing the original image on the Background layer below it to show through. As you move away from the center point in all directions, more and more of the glow effect will be visible, becoming 100% visible at the outer edge of the gradient.

In my case, I’m going to click near the center of the image, which will become the center point for the gradient, then I’ll drag towards the edge of the flowers to set the gradient’s size:

Click and drag out a radial gradient to set the transition area between the original image and the glow effect.

When I release my mouse button, Photoshop draws the gradient on the layer mask. If we look at the mask’s preview thumbnail in the Layers palette, we can see the radial gradient that was created:

The gradient itself is visible in the mask’s preview thumbnail.

And here, after masking away part of the effect to allow some of the original image to show through, is my final “painterly glow” effect:

The final effect.

And there we have it!

Original Source : www.photoshopessentials.com

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Mirror Image Effect In Photoshop

26 Oktober 2009 oleh yudymardianto

Here’s the image I’ll be using for this tutorial:

Photoshop Photo Effects: The original image

Photoshop Photo Effects: The final “mirror image” effect.

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Create A New Blank Document

Rather than working directly on the photo itself, let’s start things off by creating a new blank document. This will allow us to create our effect at any size we need rather than trying to work within the dimensions of the photo itself. Go up to the File menu at the top of the screen and choose New, or simply press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+N (Win) / Command+N (Mac). Either way brings up Photoshop’s New Document dialog box. Enter in the dimensions you need for your effect. For this tutorial, I’m going to enter in a standard size of 6 inches for the Width and 4 inches for the Height, but of course you can enter whatever dimensions you need. For the Resolution, I’ll enter 240 pixels/inch, which should give me professional quality print results if I decide to print the image later. The most commonly accepted resolution for professional print results is 300 pixels/inch, but you’ll often find that you can get away with less than that without any noticeably loss in quality. I typically use 240 pixels/inch with my images:

Photoshop Photo Effects: Create a new blank Photoshop document.

Click OK when you’re done to exit out of the dialog box. A new blank document will appear on your screen.

Step 2: Select And Copy The Photo

Switch over to the document window that contains the photo you’re working with. We need to move the photo into our new blank document. There’s a couple of ways we can do this, but we’ll use the classic “copy and paste” method. First, we need to select the entire photo. Go up to the Select menu at the top of the screen and choose All, or press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+A(Win) / Command+A (Mac). This places a selection outline (also known as “marching ants”) around the entire image in the document window:

Photoshop Photo Effects: Go to Select > All to place a selection outline around the entire image.

With the entire photo now selected, go up to the Edit menu and choose Copy, or press Ctrl+C (Win) / Command+C (Mac) for the shortcut. This places the entire image temporarily into your computer’s memory:

Photoshop Photo Effects: Go to Edit > Copy to copy the entire image into memory.

Step 3: Paste The Photo Into The New Document

Switch back over to your new blank document. We’re going to paste the photo into it. To do that, go back up to the Edit menu and this time, choose Paste. Or press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+V (Win) / Command+V (Mac):

Photoshop Photo Effects: Switch over to the blank document, then go to Edit > Paste.

Photoshop will paste the photo directly into the new document:

Photoshop Photo Effects: The photo now appears inside the new document.

If we look in the Layers palette for the new document, we can see that our photo has been placed on its own layer above the Background layer. Photoshop has automatically named the layer “Layer 1″:

Photoshop Photo Effects: The photo appears on its own layer above the Background layer.

You can close out of the original photo’s document window at this point, since we no longer need to have it open.

Step 4: Resize And Reposition The Photo Inside The Document If Needed

You’ll probably find that the photo doesn’t fit perfectly inside the new document. In my case, the photo is too big and part of it is extending out beyond the document’s visible area. We’ll need to resize it, and for that, we can use Photoshop’s Free Transform command. Go up to the Edit menu and chooseFree Transform, or press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T(Mac):

Photoshop Photo Effects: Go to Edit > Free Transform.

Either way brings up the Free Transform box and handles around the image. Unfortunately, since part of my photo is extending out beyond the document’s visible area, I can’t see all of the Free Transform handles. To fix that, I’ll simply go up to the View menu at the top of the screen and choose Fit on Screen. I could also select the same option with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+0 (Win) /Command+0 (Mac):

Photoshop Photo Effects: Go to View > Fit on Screen if your image extends beyond the visible area.

The Fit on Screen command zooms the image out far enough so that everything, including the Free Transform handles, are now visible inside the document window. To resize the image, hold down your Shift key, then click and drag any of the corner handles inward until you have as much of the image as you need inside the visible area. Holding down the Shift key as you drag constrains the aspect ratio of the image so you don’t accidentally distort the shape of it. In my case, I’m going to click on the handle in the bottom right corner and drag it inward until the bottom of the photo lines up with the bottom of the visible area:

Photoshop Photo Effects: Hold Shift and drag any of the corner handles to resize the image.

You can also move the image as needed to reposition it by clicking anywhere inside the Free Transform box and dragging the image around. Just don’t click on the small target symbol in the center of the Free Transform box, otherwise you’ll move the target symbol, not the image. When you’re done, press Enter(Win) / Return (Mac) to accept the changes and exit out of the Free Transform command.

To zoom the image back in so it once again fills up the entire document window, simply choose Fit on Screen again from the View menu just as we did a moment ago. You can also select Actual Pixels from the View menu, which will zoom the image to a full 100%. The keyboard shortcut for Actual Pixels isCtrl+Alt+0 (Win) / Command+Option+0 (Mac).

Step 5: Add A Vertical Guide Down The Middle Of The Document

To create our mirror image effect, we first need to move everything that we want to “mirror” over to one side of the document. In my case, I need the guy in my photo to be over on the left side. To help me decide exactly how far to the left I need to move him, I’m going to add a guide down the middle of the image. Go up to the View menu at the top of the screen and choose New Guide:

Photoshop Photo Effects: Go to View > New Guide.

This brings up Photoshop’s New Guide dialog box. Select Vertical for theOrientation so that the guide runs up and down the image rather than left to right. Then enter 50% for the Position option so that it runs down the exact center of the document:

Photoshop Photo Effects: Set the Orientation to Vertical and enter 50% for the Position of the guide.

Click OK when you’re done to exit out of the dialog box, and Photoshop will add a new guide straight down the center of the document:

Photoshop Photo Effects: A vertical guide has been added down the exact center of the document.

Don’t worry about the guide appearing in front of your image. It’s there only to help us while working in Photoshop. Guides are known as “non-printing elements”, which means they won’t print, or appear if you save the image for the web, even if you forget to remove them when you’re done.

Step 6: Drag Your Main Subject To One Side Of The Document

Think of the guide we just added as the “flip point” or “mirror point” for the effect. In other words, everything that we place on one side of the guide will appear mirrored on the other side of it. Of course, before we can mirror anything, we first need to move everything we want to mirror over to one side of the document. Select the Move tool from the top of the Tools palette, or press the letter V to quickly select it with the shortcut:

Photoshop Photo Effects: Select the Move tool.

Then, with the Move tool selected, click anywhere on the image and drag it left or right until everything you want to mirror is on one side of the guide. Hold down the Shift key as you drag, which will force the image to move only left or right, preventing you from accidentally moving it up or down. In my case, I’m going to drag the guy in my photo over to the left of the document just to the point where the bottom part of his ear touches the side of his face. This is going to be the “flip point” for my effect:

Photoshop Photo Effects: Drag your main subject to one side of the document, using the guide as the “flip point”.

Don’t worry about the solid white area that’s now appearing on the side of the photo. Everything on that side of the guide will be replaced with a mirrored version of what’s on the other side in a moment.

Step 7: Drag A Selection Around The Side You Want To Mirror

Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the top of the Tools palette, or press the letter M to select it with the keyboard shortcut:

Photoshop Photo Effects: Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool.

Then, with the Rectangular Marquee Tool selected, drag a selection around the entire half of the document that you want to mirror. In my case, I’m going to drag a selection around the left half of the document. You’ll find that your cursor will snap to the guide once you’re close enough to it (as long as you have both the Snap and Snap to Guides options enabled in the View menu at the top of the screen). When you’re done, you should have a selection outline around the entire half of the document that you’re going to mirror:

Photoshop Photo Effects: Drag a selection around whichever side you want to mirror.

Step 8: Copy The Selection To A New Layer

With the side that’s going to be mirrored now selected, go up to the Layermenu at the top of the screen, choose New, and then choose Layer via Copy. Or press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac):

Photoshop Photo Effects: Go to Layer > New > Layer via Copy.

This creates a copy of the selection and places it on a new layer directly above the previous layer. Nothing will seem to have happened in the document window, but if we look in the Layers palette, we can see that we now have a new layer named “Layer 2″, and if we look in the layer’s preview thumbnail to the left of the layer’s name, we can see that the layer contains a copy of the side of the document we had selected:

Photoshop Photo Effects: The selected half of the document now appears on a new layer in the Layers palette.

Step 9: Flip The Left Or Right Side Of The Document Horizontally

To create our mirrored image effect, all we need to do at this point is flip the half of the document that’s on “Layer 2″ horizontally. Before we do that, though, we need to tell Photoshop that we want to use the vertical center of the document (where the guide is) as the “flip point”. To do that, press Ctrl+T (Win) /Command+T (Mac) to quickly bring up Photoshop’s Free Transform command once again. You’ll see the Free Transform box and handles appear around whichever side of the document you copied to “Layer 2″. In my case, it’s the left side. See that little target symbol in the center of the Free Transform box, the one I told you not to click on earlier:

Photoshop Photo Effects: The small target symbol in the center of the Free Transform box.

That target symbol represents the rotation point for the Free Transform command. By default, it’s located in the center of the Free Transform box, but we can move it anywhere we want. Wherever we move it to becomes the new rotation point. To tell Photoshop that we want to flip the image along the guide, simply click on the target symbol and drag it over to the side handle that’s sitting directly in the middle of the document. Once you get close enough to the handle, the target symbol will snap to it:

Photoshop Photo Effects: Drag the target symbol (rotation point) to the Free Transform handle in the center of the document.

With the Free Transform command still active, go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen, choose Transform, and then choose Flip Horizontal:

Photoshop Photo Effects: Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal.

Photoshop flips the contents of “Layer 2″ for us, using our newly repositioned target symbol as the rotation point, and the right half of the document now becomes a perfectly mirrored copy of the left half (or vice versa):

Photoshop Photo Effects: The right side of the document is now a reflected version of the left side.

Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) to accept the transformation and exit out of the Free Transform command. We don’t need our guide anymore, so go up to the View menu and choose Clear Guides:

Photoshop Photo Effects: Go to View > Clear Guides to remove the guide.

As I mentioned earlier, even if you forget to clear your guides when you’re done working on the image, there’s no need to worry because they won’t print and they won’t appear in the image if you save it for the web.

And with that, we’re done! Here, after just a few simple steps, is our completed “mirror image” effect:

Photoshop Photo Effects: The final “mirror image” photo effect.

Original Source : www.photoshopessentials.com

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Soft Focus Lens Effect In Photoshop

24 Oktober 2009 oleh yudymardianto

Here’s the photo I’ll be using in this tutorial:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: The original photo.

And here’s how it will look with the soft focus effect applied:

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

With our image newly opened in Photoshop, we can see in the Layers palette that we currently have one layer named Background. This layer contains our original image:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: The Layers palette showing the original photo on the Background layer.

We need to make a copy of the Background layer. There’s a few different ways to make a copy of a layer in Photoshop, but by far the fastest and easiest way is to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac). Photoshop creates a copy of the Background layer for us, names it “Layer 1″, and places it directly above the original Background layer in the Layers palette:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: A copy of the image now appears above the original in the Layers palette.

Step 2: Apply The Gaussian Blur Filter To The New Layer

To create the soft focus effect, we need to blur the new layer. For that, we can use one of the most popular filters in all of Photoshop, Gaussian Blur. Make sure you have “Layer 1″ selected in the Layers palette (selected layers are highlighted in blue), then go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Blur, and then choose Gaussian Blur:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

This brings up the Gaussian Blur dialog box. To control the amount of blurring that’s applied to the layer, drag the Radius slider at the bottom of the dialog box while keeping an eye on your image in the document window. Dragging the Radius slider to the right will increase the amount of blurring, and dragging to the left decreases the amount of blurring. What you’re trying to do here is blur the entire photo without blurring it to the point where you can no longer make anything out in the image. I’m going to set my Radius value to around 12 pixels, which works well for the image I’m using. Of course, each image is unique, and the Radius value you end up using may be different:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: Drag the Radius slider at the bottom of the Gaussian Blur dialog box to adjust the amount of blurring.

Click OK when you’re done to apply the blurring to the layer and exit out of the Gaussian Blur dialog box. Here’s my image after applying the Gaussian Blur filter:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: The image after applying the Gaussian Blur filter.

Step 3: Lower The Opacity Of The Blurred Layer

At the moment, the blurring is much too intense. Instead of a soft focus effect, we’ve recreated how the world might look to someone who needs glasses. We need to reduce the amount of blurring and bring back some of the original image. To do that, all we need to do is lower the opacity value of the blurred layer. You’ll find the Opacity option in the top right corner of the Layers palette. With “Layer 1″ still selected, lower the opacity value of the layer down to somewhere between 50-60%. I’m going to lower mine to 50%:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: Lower the opacity of “Layer 1″ to reduce the amount of blurring in the image.

The blurring is now more subtle:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: The soft focus effect after reducing the intensity of the blurring.

Step 4: Add A Layer Mask

At this point, the basic soft focus effect is complete, but let’s fine-tune things by bringing back a little more of the original detail to certain parts of the photo, specifically the two people’s faces and the flower bouquet. Photoshop makes this easy to do thanks to layer masks. Be sure to check out our Understanding Layer Masks tutorial in the Photoshop Basics section for more information on how layer masks work.

First, let’s add a layer mask. With “Layer 1″ still selected, click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: Click on the Layer Mask icon.

Nothing will appear to have happened yet in the document window, but a layer mask thumbnail has now been added to “Layer 1″ in the Layers palette:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: A layer mask thumbnail appears to the right of the layer preview thumbnail for “Layer 1″.

Step 5: Select The Brush Tool

Select Photoshop’s Brush Tool from the Tools palette, or simply press the letterB to access it with the keyboard shortcut:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: Select the Brush Tool.

Step 6: Lower The Opacity Of The Brush To Around 25%

We’re going to paint with black on the layer mask to reduce the amount of blurring in certain areas, but we don’t want to remove the blurring completely. We just want to reduce it, which means we’ll need to lower the opacity of our brush. With the Brush Tool selected, the Options Bar at the top of the screen changes to show options specifically for the Brush Tool. One of those options isOpacity, similar to the opacity option we just looked at in the Layers palette except that in this case, we’re affecting the brush opacity, not the layer opacity. Lower the brush opacity down to around 25%:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: Lower the opacity of the brush in the Options Bar.

Step 7: Set Your Foreground Color To Black

We want to paint with black, which means we need to set our Foreground color to black. By default, whenever you have a layer mask selected, Photoshop sets the Foreground color to white, with black as the Background color. To swap them so black becomes the Foreground color, simply press the letter X on your keyboard. If we look at the Foreground and Background color swatches near the bottom of the Tools palette now, we can see that black is the Foreground color (the top left swatch):

Soft Focus Lens Effect: Set your Foreground color to black.

Step 8: Paint Over The Areas Where You Want To Bring Back More Detail

With the Brush Tool selected, black as the Foreground color, and the brush opacity lowered to 25% or so, simply paint over any areas where you want to bring back more of the original image detail. You can change the size of your brush using the left and right bracket keys on your keyboard, which are located to the right of the letter P. The left bracket key makes the brush smaller, while the right bracket key makes it larger. You’ll want to use a soft-edge brush, and you can control the edge hardness of the brush by holding down the Shiftkey and pressing the left and right bracket keys. Press Shift+left bracket a few times to make the edges softer, or Shift+right bracket a few times to make the edges harder.

I’m going to paint over the bride and groom’s faces with my brush to bring back some detail. If, after painting over an area once, you find you could still bring back a bit more detail, simply release the mouse button, then click and paint over the same area again. You’ll need to make sure you release your mouse button before you paint over the same area again, otherwise it won’t work:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: Paint over areas to bring back more of the original image detail in those areas.

I’ll paint a couple of times over the flower bouquet as well to bring back some detail, and I’ll leave the rest of the image alone so that only the most important areas of the photo are in focus. Or at least, they’re more in focus than anything else. If we look at the layer mask thumbnail again in the Layers palette, we can see the areas where I painted with black:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: The layer mask thumbnail shows the areas that were painted over.

And with that, we’re done! Here is my final “soft focus” effect result:

Soft Focus Lens Effect: The final result.

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