I did my first session of soft focus photos and am very unsatisfied in the results. What I realized is that the subject of the photo has to fill a large part of the frame. In my photos, the subject was approximately 100 x 100 pixels. I was tweeking with the gaussian blur settings and either their isn't enough to give a soft focus feel or there is to much and the subject loses too much detail. I started thinking that the subject, be it a panorama or a portrait, has to fill the frame for this to work.
Oh what the heck. I'll unsubmit and post my picture here so you can see what I am talking about.
As you can see, there is too much detail loss in the subject and the end result looks more like out-of-focus rather than soft-focus.
The problem is that gaussian blur applied directly doesn't actually mimic a soft focus effect, but provides a way of implementing an out of focus effect.
As is still being discussed in some other thread, soft focus requires different blending modes to be used - you might get better results if you use a 'soft light' blend mode for your blurred overlay layer.
Just don't try to submit it for the challenge.
Looks like a great location though - you've composed it really well to frame her and keep the clutter out and have all those bright colours in the frame.
Try a bit of cling-film, or a clear plastic bag - like this: compose your shot (it ain't gonna work for candid shots this), lock focus on subject, place film over lens, shoot: you'll have to play with maybe smearing some stuff on the film or plastic (butter or margerine will do if spread evenly and thinly enough). You may also need to set your exposure a little longer than you think necessary. Quite a lot of trial and error involved, but the results can be very impressive.
I concur that your particular shot appears out of focus instead of softly focused. With 3-5 threads on this one topic (soft focus), currently ongoing, there is certainly confusion on the difference. It is my conclusion (based on comments received), that out of focused subjects do not score well AND soft focus is mis-used, or applied to photos that do not benifit from it.
In a recent challenge, this photo received many comments from some pretty well known challenge participants, indicating that this was a correct use of "soft focus".
My take on soft focus for the current challenge is not so much the application of it as it is the subject of it. I think if fotogs were selecting subjects "requiring" soft focus to bring out the "essence" of the shot, then alot of the confusion would go away.
In the above scene, there was in my opinion, no other way to convey the "sacred" feeling of this room, than through the use of soft focus.
Thanks for your comments. Despite E301's suggestions, I'd rather not mess with saran and vaseline. I tried to use translucent paper but the image was WAY to diffused. So I went back to see how I could get the effect using legal post processing methods. The method I found involves resizing. Basically, resize it to the size you want. Then resize at 50% and again to 200%. (Back to where you were). Apply a little blur to smooth out the pixels, and it looks pretty good.
You might be able to get a softening effect on this image with Neatimage, which is legal. Might do Neatimage then some other postprocessing. Neatimage is free to download and use for personal use, though a feature limited version, it does what you mostly need.
Also, if your camera has a sharpness adjustment, take that to its minimum, and then apply some Photoshop techniques. I think this has worked for me - I've taken an image I think works. But I'm gonna keep trying, since we have all week. Buying panty hose...
1.) Open image
2.) Mke sure image is sharp
3.) Apply gaussian blur, 4 px radius
4.) Immediately selct "edit/fade gaussion blur", adjust to 25% or thereabouts
5.) Apply 10px gaussian blur, fade to 20%
You can play with variations to the above, but of course you need to start over each time since you're not working on layers. You should still see a sharp image, but with a diffuse glow to the highlights. This is DPC legal.
Here are the results using the above technique, note that I have also slightly cooled the tones in addition to the soft focus. Hoe this helps...
