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This article was written by PopPhoto.com, the online home of Popular Photography & Imaging and American Photo magazines. By combining reviews from the respected and powerful equipment testing lab of the country's largest imaging magazine with beautiful, inspirational work from today's top photography talent, PopPhoto.com is a unique destination for photo enthusiasts.

DIGITAL TOOLBOX: SHARP BLUR
Here's how to easily turn a humdrum image into a dreamy, romantic photo.
By Debbie Grossman, Popular Photography
May 2007

Photo by Lisa F. Young/iSTOCKphoto

Ever shoot a subject that's sweet, simple, or beautiful, only to find that the lighting was anything but? Or take a picture that should be romantic, but ends up kind of dull? Getting the look of your picture to match its content is one of the things that Adobe Photoshop is most accomplished at doing.

Here's a way to mix two layers together - one sharp, one blurred - to create a soft-focus photo that doesn't sacrifice sharpness in the details. Add a little saturation, and you'll get a picture that's much closer to the one you originally held in your mind's eye.

In the old days, the photographic technique I'm showing here was called the Orton Effect, and it took much more fancy footwork. But like many things, this one's a heck of a lot easier to do with software.

Although this example was done in Adobe Photoshop CS3, you can follow the same steps using older versions of Photoshop.

IMAGE BEFORE:

Step 1:

The first thing to do is find a picture that could stand a little prettying up. When you've got one open, duplicate the background layer: Go to Layer > Duplicate Layer and click OK.

Step 2:

Next, change the Blend mode of your duplicate layer to Multiply. You can switch it by grabbing the pull-down menu in the upper-left corner of your Layers palette (initially, it's set to Normal).

Step 3:

Don't worry if your image looks much too dark - we'll fix that later. Now, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

Step 4:

This is a fairly big file, so go for a Radius of 16.4 pixels. Images that have lower resolutions require less blur; if you add too much, you'll lose the effect.

Step 5:

Now you have a beautiful, if dark, soft-focus image. So it's time to lighten it up. First, make a Curves Adjustment Layer. You can do so quickly by clicking the black-and-white circle at the bottom of the Layers palette, and choosing Curves.

Step 6:

Since the Multiply blend mode made everything dark, click on the low end of your curve to create a point. Then use your mouse or hit the Up arrow on your keyboard to gradually bring the curve up from the bottom and lighten your photo until it looks as bright as it should.

Step 7:

This image is looking more beautiful already. But as a final touch, pump up the saturation. So that this factor remains adjustable, do so by creating a new Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer, the same way you made one for Curves in Step 5.

Step 8:

The key to adding saturation is subtlety, so don't go overboard! Gently drag the saturation slider to the right. In this case, 8 is enough.

IMAGE AFTER :





QUICK TIP: If you want to keep all your layers intact, save the file as a TIFF or PSD. If you want to let them go forever, choose JPEG.