Soft Focus Effects
Creating a Soft Focus Effect in Photoshop
Simple Soft Focus
As the name implies, this is the simplest Soft Focus effect to implement (First glance at the instructions may make it seem complicated, but it’s not. I’m just being thorough) and happens to be the most common. Having its own distinct look to it, it can be spotted a mile off. Not that that’s a bad thing as it has a unique appeal to it that many photographers prefer over the traditional soft focus filter.
Select the background layer and duplicate it:
Command+J- Rename the new layer to “Blur” and give it a dose of Gaussian Blur (Filter » Blur » Gaussian Blur…). The radius you set the blur will depend upon your tastes but the rule of thumb is to blur the image just enough so details aren’t noticeable. I find a Radius of 15–20 pixels works quite well for a 3000x2000 pixel image.
- In the top-left of the Layers Pallet, change the Blending Mode of the “Blur” layer from Normal to Screen
- Reduce the opacity of the “Blur” layer to about 60–80% or until the image fits your tastes.
- You’ll notice that the image may be very bright. To reduce this effect and still maintain the soft focus, select the background layer and create a Curves Adjustment Layer with a blending mode set to Luminosity:
- Option-Click on the “Create new fill or Adjustment Layer” button on the bottom of the Layers Pallet (fourth to the right) and select Curves… from the list (or go to Layer » New Adjustment Layer » Curves…)
- In the New Layer option box that pops up select Luminosity from the Mode drop-down list
- Drag the center of the curve to the bottom-right until the image is as bright as desired (See image to right)
- Use Layer Masks on the “Blur” layer as needed to reduce the effects of the Soft Focus filter on areas of detail (like eyes).
- Select the “Blur” layer and click the “Add layer mask” button at the bottom of the Layers Pallet (second to the right) or by going to Layer » Add Layer Mask » Reveal All
- Making sure the Layer Mask is selected use the Brush (B) to paint black on the Layer Mask where you want to reduce the Soft Focus effect. While black hides the effect of the Soft Focus layer white shows it. Knowing this, you can switch between white and black (X) and correct mistakes you may make with your brushing.
- Reducing the Opacity of the brush in the Options bar (top of screen) will reduce the strength of the brush as you paint.
Traditional Soft Focus
As the name implies, this technique attempts to replicate the diffusing effects of a traditional soft-focus filter that you would place in front of a lens.
- Select the background layer and duplicate it:
Command+J - Name the duplicated layer “Dark” and give it a dose of Gaussian Blur
- Duplicate the layer “Dark” (Command+J) and rename that to “Light”
- Select the “Dark” layer and set it’s blending mode from Normal to Darken and reduce it’s opacity to 40%
- Set the “Light” layer blending mode to Lighten with an opacity of 60%
- Use Layer Masks to reduce the Soft Focus effect where needed (see step six above).
Using Blend-If
The Blend-If sliders can be a very powerful tool for controlling exactly what tonal range the Soft Focus effect will effect. In my Burning Man image for example, I used the sliders to contain the strong effect of the Simple method within the brightest portion of the image; the glowing ball.
- Follow the steps outlined in Simple Soft Focus.
- Right-click on the “Blur” Layer and select “Blending Options…” from the menu (Layer » Layer Style » Blending Options…)
Adjust Blend-If Sliders:
In the Blending Options window that pops up you'll notice two gradient bars at the bottom-right. These are the blend-if sliders. The This Layer bar refers to the layer you are currently working with (“Blur”) and the gradient below that refers to the layer underneath the current layer. For this tutorial we only need to worry about the This Layer bar.
As you can see in the images to the right, as the black slider is moved to the right the dark tones of the underlying layer that corresponds to the gradient show through the “Blur” layer. As you can also see, the transition between the two layers is quite harsh. To fix this, hold down the Option key and click on the black slider. The slider breaks in half letting you set a smooth transition between the two layers. The further you slide the right-half to the right, the smoother the transition will be.
The numbers above the gradient bar are the numerical values that the “Blur” layer will effect. In this case the “Blur” layer will only show over luminosity values of 64 (with a smooth blend to 197) through 255.- The Curves Adjustment Layer is optional when using Blend-If since the Blend-If sliders can prevent dark or light tones from becoming too bright. If you still do use it to tone down the brightness of highlights, try adding a control point at Input 63, Output 63 to keep the shadows from becoming too dark.
Examples
Actions
Actions for this tutorial can be found on the Downloads page.