This technique is great for "glamour" portraits. It's also good for reducing JPEG artifacts. It mimics a soft focus or diffusion lens filter, softening the photo, reducing harsh lines and wrinkles, and intensifying the colors. Follow the steps here to create the soft focus glamour effect in 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 opacity to 50% on the blurred object.
- Go to Object > Combine > Combine all objects with the background.
- Go to Effects > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask.
- Experiment within the following ranges: Percentage: 80-200, Radius: 2-5, Threshold: 10-15.
- On the object docker, click the New Lens button and choose Hue/Saturation/Lightness from the list.
- Move the saturation slider to somewhere in the 4-10 range and click OK.
