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How to Create a Soft Focus Photo

Focus is an important consideration in photography. Soft focus photography creates a picture that is in focus but has an appearance of being slightly out of focus. This can be created in camera using a soft focus lens or in post-production using a soft focus or blur filter. To achieve this in post-production, an advance photo editing program like Adobe Photoshop Elements or similar program should be used. These programs have the different filters that can be applied to create a soft focus photo.

Things You'll Need

Adobe Photoshop Elements

Instructions

- 1
  Turn your home computer on and open Adobe Photoshop Elements. Click "File" in the navigation bar of the program and select "Open" from the drop down menu.
- 2
  Use your cursor to navigate to the folder containing your photos, click the picture you want to open and click "OK" in the bottom right of the window to open the picture.
- 3
  Click the "Effects" tab in the right hand margin of the editing window. Select "Blur" from the list of filters. Select "Gaussian Blur" from the menu, click and drag the icon for Gaussian blur to the open image. Release your cursor and a new window will open up on top of your image.
- 4
  Click and hold the adjustment tab at the bottom of the new window and slide the tab to increase or decrease the amount of blur you want to add to the picture. Release the tab and click "OK" and the program will add the blur to the image.
- 5
  Click "Layer" in the navigation bar of the program and select "Flatten Image" from the drop down menu. Click "File" and select "Save as" to give your edited photo a new name and save it to your computer's hard drive.

Photography