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	Click to view Braintrove article: Locate the Design Checker Task Pane in InfoPath 2010 Written by Gregory Scot Collins Monday, 23 August 2010, 7:36 AM Products: InfoPath and Office InfoPath 2010 moved the location to access the Design Checker task pane. Learn how to access it in its new home. Locate the Design Checker Task Pane in InfoPath 2010
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Apply a Soft Glow Effect to Pictures

Page 1 of 2

Written by Gregory Scot Collins

Thursday, 16 August 2007, 8:23 PM

This article has been tested to work with the following products and versions. No guarantee of compatibility, with or without modification, is offered for products or versions other than those listed.

Photoshop CS1 and CS3 (Adobe)

IN THIS ARTICLE:

Most pictures can benifit from some minor editing—some in a major way. Applying a soft glow effect will alter the mood of a picture in subtle or dramatic ways. The effect can be quite stunning, and might give a feeling of elegance, romance, or dreaminess.

Apply a soft glow effect

Applying a soft glow effect to your pictures is very simple. It requires only a couple of blurred layers with different blending options. It is achieved using the following steps:

Launch Photoshop.
Open a source picture.
Duplicate the background layer.
On the duplicate layer, choose Blur | Gaussian Blur from the Filter menu.
Set the radius to 30.0 pixels, and then click OK.
Duplicate the blurred layer.
In the Layers pallette, change the Blending Mode to Soft Light.
Select the middle layer, and change the Blending Mode to Lighten and the Opacity to 50%, as shown in Screenshot 1.

Screenshot 1. The Layers pallete showing application of the soft glow effect.

To alter the mood of the soft glow effect you can choose a different opacity and/or blending option for either blurred layer, or you can reordering the blurred layers.

Following are some examples of the soft glow effect applied to pictures I took with various digital cameras. Other than a size reduction, the only manipulation done to the original picture was to apply the soft glow effect, as described above. Certainly one would take other steps, such as color correction, before applying this effect.

Example 1: Wedding photography

The first example is a candid picture of a bride on her wedding day, taken with a flash in the dim indoor lighting. Note how the background becomes darker—washing out unnecessary detail. The subject of focus, the bride, glows (as she should on her wedding day). A very subtle smoothing has also occurred in her skin.

Picture 1. The soft glow effect applied to a wedding photo gives an air of elegance. Hover over this picture to compare against the original.

CONTINUED: Example 2: Flowers

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	Screenshot 1 - The Layers pallete showing application of the soft glow effect.
	Picture 1 - The soft glow effect applied to a wedding photo gives an air of elegance.
	Picture 2 - The soft glow effect applied to a red rose give a feeling of romance.
	Picture 3 - The soft glow effect applied to a woman in the setting sun emphasizes the beauty of the sunset.

		See Also
	Click to view Braintrove article: Blend Pictures Shot with Various Light Sources Written by Gregory Scot Collins Friday, 27 October 2006, 4:10 PM Product: Photoshop Dramatically improve lighting of a scene by using screen blending to combine multiple pictures shot with various suboptimal light sources. Blend Pictures Shot with Various Light Sources

		Article Tags
	Blending Dream Effects Layers Lighting Overlay Photos Photoshop Pictures Screen

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