Tips on Using the Soft Focus effect in PSP8 |
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Written June 2004 by Taiga Designs |
I love experimenting with the various effects and tools in PSP8. Here are some tips on the Soft Focus effect. "Soft Focus" is located under Adjust/Softness/Soft Focus. It is a tool that is infinately adjustable, you can set your own, use PSP settings or "throw the dice". *S* I will not show an example of the obvious use for this tool, a portrait, but will show how I have used it on a scenic photo, and also to create a halo effect in a graphic which I created from a dingfont. OK here we go. Photo Example First the scenic photo. On top is my original photo, an early morning spring scene. On the left photo below I used the PSP8 setting for "Portrait" under Soft focus. On the right photo below I used the PSP8 setting for "Very Soft". |
"Portrait" setting |
"Very Soft" setting |
I like the "Very Soft" setting better as it retains the light qualities well, while giving a pleasing misty feel to the photo. Both of these would be good to use, if I wanted to add text. The softening makes a better background for text. Graphic Example Now for the example of a PSP graphic where I used the "Soft Focus" effect to create a halo. First is the original dingfont shape to which I have added colors and Inner Bevel. |
Next my settings for "Soft Focus" and result on that layer. |
You can see the halo effect around the shapes. Before I show my final on this graphic I will show my Layer Palette. It is pretty extensive with blends and effects, and I will not go into details as this mini-tutorial is only about Soft Focus .... *S* ..... whew! You can see that I used Motion Blur too, but the Soft Focus halo effect is what we are looking at here. |
And here's my final graphic below. Created just for fun with PSP8!! The Soft Focus halo shows up nicely. I ended up with a kind of 3D effect. It is interesting to create different lighting and depth effects, so have fun and give it a whirl!! |
I hope you enjoyed these tips on PSP8 Soft Focus! And don't forget to try this effect filter on portraits too!!! It gets rid of wrinkles! ......... *S*.... |
Just for more fun! |
Below are two more graphics I created by duplicating my .Soft Focus layer and using Kaleidoscope on it. I just threw the dice with Kaleidoscope! |
Thanks for looking! |
