Soft/Diffused highlights

[William Wilson]

I'm missing my softar look from film days, trying to recreate the soft diffused highlight rather than a usual guassian blur effect. Try as I may I cannot get what I want, so decided to track down an image that shows what I'm after and ask the experts here.

The intro images show what I'm after particularly the girl’s dress where the highlights spread and diffuse.

Diffused Highlights

[Godmother]

Duplicate layer - Blur - Set the blending mode to screen (do it several times if u want it stronger or add another blured-desat layer set to overlay on top and lower opacity if u want it more contrasted)

Then make a grup of these layers, mask to hide and paint the mask with white where u want the effect.

xx

[William Wilson]

Thank you Godmother I'll give that method a try.

This is the images I shoot, I want to keep it real keeping the detail with just a touch of diffusion.

[John Lang]

Hi. Here's one I quickly did using an Eddie Tapp action to replicate the Monte Zucker soft filter. Similar to a softar.

There's also his Dream Glow technique here. http://www.eddietapp.com/e_techniques.html

[Wolfman]

A simple method with good results is to open the image in AdobeCamera Raw
in Photoshop CS3 or CS4 and slide the Clarity slider toward the negative side
(left) until you get the desired effect. Then drop the softened version on top of the the original and add a layer mask and paint in the unsoftened eye, mouth, and edge of the nose and flatten.

[William Wilson]

Originally Posted by John Lang

Hi. Here's one I quickly did using an Eddie Tapp action to replicate the Monte Zucker soft filter. Similar to a softar.

There's also his Dream Glow technique here. http://www.eddietapp.com/e_techniques.html

Thanks John I did the technique and built an action that gives as much flexibility in tweaking the final effect, it's looking pretty good straight off.

[William Wilson]

Thanks Wolfman, I used this technique from Lightroom a few times but will explore it further, maybe a call for the smart object way of working.

[palms]

Originally Posted by John Lang

Hi. Here's one I quickly did using an Eddie Tapp action to replicate the Monte Zucker soft filter. Similar to a softar.

There's also his Dream Glow technique here. http://www.eddietapp.com/e_techniques.html

Thank you for the link i too have made the action and will no doubt use it

Palms

[gmitchel]

I have a free .PDF tutorial that explains how to add diffused highlights.

http://www.thelightsright.com/GivingYourPhotosAGlow

I also have a free Photoshop action set for adding various diffuse glow effects.

http://www.thelightsright.com/tlrdiffuseglows

Cheers,

Mitch

[William Wilson]

Thanks Mitch I really appreciate your offer but your server appears to be off line I'll try again later.

[gmitchel]

It's not offline at all. It's been up 24x7 since my last security update, which was over a week ago.

It is possible the network had a disruption. But that should have been transient.

Cheers,

Mitch

[William Wilson]

I rechecked later in the day and had no issues so yes it must have been a glitch, tut and actions are great thanks again.

[amica999]

Thanks for the tut, Mitch, great one!