The Classical Soft Focus Filter simulates the traditional soft focus filters and diffusion techniques used by portrait photographers. This filter gives you wonderful global control over the amount of diffusion, strength and brightness plus you can use Control Points to selectively add or remove the filter effect from certain areas of the image.

Let’s take a look at the different Methods that are available.

Classical Soft Focus Method Options

Under the Method drop-down menu, you can choose from two different Methods, Soft Focus or Diffusion and there are three different options available for each. Soft Focus will soften the overall image while Diffusion will create more coverage but with a smaller degree of softening. Option 1 will add less of the amount of either Soft Focus or Diffusion, while Option 3 will add more.

Next, let’s take a look at the different adjustments that will give us more control over our selected Method.

Classical Soft Focus Adjustments

The Diffused Detail helps to prevent banding while keeping the details. This can be very subtle, so try Zooming in to 100% to see the effect by moving the slider to the right and then move it back down to the left.

Strength is defaulted at 50%. Move the slider to the right to increase the amount of softening throughout the image or to reduce the amount, simply move the slider to the left.

Brightness is a global adjustment that will increase the brightness throughout the entire image. You can also darken the image by moving the slider to the left.

Tip: Use Control Points to remove some of the softening effect from parts of an image. In this case, you can simply place a Control Point on the Bride’s eyelashes and lips to bring back the detail while the rest of the image stays soft. Try clicking and dragging the Opacity slider to add a little of the softening effect back into that area.

Control Point and using the Opacity Slider