By request, my soft focus action set is available for download here:

Mitch's Soft Focus Action

There are THREE different actions within the set. These should be run after all other edits have been made, including sharpening. Note that these are diffusion effects, and are not the same as "skin smoothing" actions which, in my opinion, typically look very artificial.

The first action in the set, SF-Original, is more-or-less the version recommended by Katrin Eismann in her book Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, though I have modified it a little bit. It's a good general-purpose soft-focus effect, achieving diffusion without altering luminosity much.

I made the second version, SF-Lens, in response to someone's comment on another forum that Photoshop could not be used to replicate the effect of a Canon 135mm Soft Focus lens. Phooey to that! Here you will find that luminosity is affected more than in the other version, as this action is biased toward highlight diffusion. I tend to use this more than the other.

With both of the above, you can control the amount of the effect universally, by using the opacity slider for the sf layer, or selectively, by adding a layer mask and painting black over areas where you want to bring back sharpness (e.g., eyes, teeth, etc.)

The third action, SF EdgeMask, creates a mask over edges where you might want to retain sharpness. It should be run AFTER one of the other SF actions has been run.

Here is a link to a "before" image. Madelyn Before Soft Focus

Click the "next" link on the upper right hand side of the page to see an "after" version using the SF-Original at 70% opacity. You can toggle between the "previous" and "next" links to see the effect toggled.

From the SF-Original page, clicking "next" will take you to the SF-Lens version, also at 70% opacity, where you can again toggle back and forth.

Finally, clicking "next" from the SF-lens page will show you the mask created by the EdgeMask action, so you can see where sharpness would have been restored. Note that I did not run an edge mask or reduce the softness in any way in the sample images; normally I would use the edge mask and sometimes further reduce the effect on the eyes.

TWO IMPORTANT POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND:

First, the amount of blur used in the action was geared to 6mp files, though it should work fine for files in the 5mp to 7mp range. At 4mp or less, one may wish to reduce the amount of blur applied, while at 8mp or higher one may want more. A simple adjustment to the action settings can be used to customize to the user. If I ever learn to use scripts in PS, then I can have the action adjust automatically but I don't know how to use that yet.

Second, the Canon SF Lens has two soft focus settings. In the action, the default opacity setting for "SF-Lens" is a little less than what the actual lens gives on the weaker setting 1. As I recall, 70% is closer to actual level 1, while 90% opacity is more like setting 2. So the action was really designed to give just a minimal diffusion effect and then be adjusted to taste. Of course if you are happy with it at the default opacity, then that's great! The EdgeMask should work fine on anything larger than 2mp, but is not intended for images already reduced for web display.

I am off to download. Thanks heaps Mitch!!!!

The link didn't work???

Try again; seems to be fixed now. I had a typo in the link.

Hey Mitch,

Looks good so far, not sure I used the best image to test it on though as it was already fairly "glowy" on the right hand side plus it seems to have left some dark and grey patches in the hairline.

Just did the two click wonder, 2nd effect (Lens) and then Edge mask without changing any options.

Looks good J. I should have noted two important things:

First, the amount of blur used in the action was geared to 6mp files, though it should work fine for files in the 5mp to 7mp range. At 4mp or less, one may wish to reduce the amount of blur applied, while at 8mp or higher one may want more. A simple adjustment to the action settings can be used to customize to the user. If I ever learn to use scripts in PS, then I can have the action adjust automatically but I don't know how to use that yet.

Second, that the Canon SF Lens has two soft focus settings. In the action, the default opacity setting is a little less than what the lens gives on the weaker setting 1. As I recall, 70% is closer to actual level 1, while 90% opacity is more like setting 2. So it was really designed to give just a minimal diffusion effect and then be adjusted to taste. Of course if you are happy with it at the default opacity, then that's great! The EdgeMask should work fine on anything larger than 2mp, but is not intended for images already reduced for web display.

I will add these points to the intro discussion, in case newcomers don't read this far into the thread. ;-)

I actually tested it on a websized image which was silly of me but it was done quickly over lunch so I could see how it works, I'll give it a real work out over the next week and see if we can post a gallery and link to it on my site when its up and running. Haven't played with the Velvia yet but it looks very interesting from your description.

Thanks for doing this mitch -- you're a legend

I'm sure us shuttertalkers will find the actions useful..

I think the thing to do with the soft focus action is to just add stops at the gaussian blur steps, so the user can scale the radius to suit the picture. Then it will be usable for every image size.

v2 forthcoming!

I'm a latercomer to the forum and would be greatly interested in downloading Slejhamer's soft focus action(s). I clicked on the link but the site didn't come up. His soft pictures are beautiful!

Whoops, fixed the link now.

Thanks Mitch for the action. I just ran it in a picture and it made wonders.

Thanks for fixing the soft focus link. I downloaded it, and am looking forward to trying it out.

I just tried this for the first time and I have to say, wonderful mitch, it works really well. Thank you!