This simple technique works especially well on portraits, but don't hesitate to try it on other types of images. The effect produces a warm glow, softening details and diminishing noise and artifacts similar to a soft focus or diffusion lens filter. Follow these steps to create a soft focus "glamour" effect in any version of Corel Photo-Paint.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 5 minutes
Here's How:
- Open the photo.
- Duplicate the background by dragging it onto the new object icon on the objects docker.
- Go to Effects > Blur > Gaussian Blur.
- Set the radius to 4-10 pixels (use a high amount for hi-res images, low amount for low-res) and click OK.
- Set the layer blend mode to soft light on the blurred layer.
- Optional: reduce the opacity of the blurred soft light layer to slightly reduce this effect.
Tips:
- Experiment with other blend modes such as screen, hard light, overlay or others.
- Screen will lighten the photo, so try it on photos that are too dark. Hard light and overlay will darken the picture, so try it on photos that are too light.
- The If Darker blend mode sometimes produces a watercolor-like effect.
- If you don't like the effect in certain areas of the image you can erase portions of the top layer with a soft brush.
