Dreamy Effect for Valentine's Day

Popularized by Michael Orton, a soft focus effect can give your photos a diffused, dreamy quality, which you may find appealing for Valentine's Day pictures. The Orton effect is easy to produce digitally, and can be fine-tuned to your liking with just a little tinkering. We've got tutorials to help you create the dreamy Orton effect in a number of popular photo editors.

• Create a Dreamy Photo Effect with Photoshop Elements
• Free Orton Effect Action for Photoshop and Elements
• Enhance A Portrait with a Soft Focus Effect in Photoshop
• Create the Dreamy Soft Focus Orton Effect in GIMP
• Create the Dreamy Soft Focus Orton Effect in Paint.NET
• Apply a Soft Focus Effect to a Photo in Picasa
• Create a Dreamy Photo Effect in PaintShop Pro
• Enhance A Portrait with a Soft Focus Effect in Photo-Paint
• Enhance A Portrait with a Soft Focus Effect in PhotoImpact
• Free Dreamy Photo Software from Auto FX
• How to Ortonize Your Images