Guides and information for photography enthusiasts, by photography enthusiasts

This guide will explain how to quickly and easily apply a soft focus effect to your photographs using Photoshop. Note that this soft focus technique works with any version of Photoshop, including CS3, CS4, Cs5, and even very old versions from long before the CSx days.

To get an idea of the effect, here is the photo that we’ll be using before the soft focus Photoshop effect is applied (we increased the contrast of the original, since the soft focus effect reduces contrast):

And here is the same photo after applying the soft focus effect:

To apply this soft focus effect in Photoshop, you just need to follow these 4 steps:

1. Make a duplicate layer of your photo
2. Use the Gaussian Blur filter on the new layer
3. Reduce the opacity of the new layer
4. Use the eraser tool (or mask) on areas you want to be sharp

1.) Make a duplicate layer of your photograph

Open your photo in Photoshop and make a duplicate layer. You can do this via the Layer > Duplicate Layer on the menu, or by just hitting Ctrl+J (windows) or Cmd+J (mac).

2.) Use the Gaussian Blur filter on the new layer

The soft focus effect actually comes from a blurring of the image. So what we do is select the new layer, then apply a Gaussian Blur filter. We do this by going to the menu and selecting Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

In the Gaussian Blur settings we’ll have a slider bar that controls how blurry the filter will make our image. Because this is based on pixels, there is no single right number. The amount that you’ll need to blur your image depends not just on how soft you want your focus, but also on how many megapixels your image is. The general rule of thumb is you want the image to be “very blurry” so that the details are entirely lost. You’ll probably want to play around with different blur levels until you get a feel for what works at your mexapixels, and your preferences.

3.) Reduce the opacity of the new layer

Here’s the step where the soft focus magic happens. In your layers palette select the blurred layer. In the top of the palette you’ll see the Opacity setting. When you click on it you will get a slider that lets you adjust the opacity from 0% to 100%.

You’ll usually want to set the opacity somewhere from 40% – 60% — the ideal amount varies from photo to photo. Once you have the opacity in that range though, you’re picture will suddenly transform on your screen from a blurry mass of blobs into magical soft focus.

4.) Use the eraser tool on areas you want sharp

The final touch is to grab the eraser tool, set it to around 60% opacity, and carefully erase any areas of your blurry layer that you actually want to keep sharp. On pictures of faces, like our example, this will almost always be the eye. On wider pictures you’ll often want the entire faces to be sharp (or at least less blurry) or other main focal points.

Keep in mind that the eye will automatically look at the sharpest areas of your photo first (and the lightest, by the way).

This step can also be done by using a layer mask and masking the area that you want sharper, but simply using the eraser is faster and simpler.

5.) Voila!

And here we have our new soft focus picture, complete with a sharper point of focus in the eye. This soft focus technique does have a tendency to reduce contrast in your picture, so it’s often a good idea to make the contrast on your original image a bit higher than you normally would.