Dreamy portrait effect

Dreamy portrait effect is achieved from a skin that is blurred, softened and brightened , to set off some parts on the face, eyes, lips. It gives a sweet look. To create a dreamy portrait , one of most basic method is set the image to gassian blur and then set to Overlay or Soft light . Too easy right? but to make the best result, you must consider about some things. Such as, color and light focus. Today i will show you some basic techniques to get a best result of dreamy portrait.

In the following methods i will use basic adjustment tools to let you see how to create and adjust the light on the face in different ways.
Lets start with an image of Ashley Tisdale.
 

1. Duplicate the base. Set image to Surface blur, radius =3, threshold=8.



Remember that dont soften skin too much because it will be softer after we create dreamy light. Because overlay and soft light mode will darken the dark parts and lighten the bright parts so we must adjust color to get a harmony for face. One important thing that we must lighten up the cheeks, dont let the face have many different areas of brightness.
Ctrl_Shift+Alt+E we have a new layer.

1.Use Shadow /Hightlight:
Adjust Shadow/Hightlight: Image-Adjustment-Shadow/Hightlight. With some pics you just need to let it be default but with my pic, i set like this:






I prefer to make the pic brighter. I set a new selective color to adjust the skin brightness:
Red: -49,-49,-45,0
White: 0,0,44,0


Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E. Set this layer to Gassian blur, 4px.  Then i choose to set this layer to Overlay, 80%.

Result:


2. Use Exposure:
Image-Adjustment-Exposure:

 



Remember that depending on your pic brightness, you can choose fit parameter, but i often choose small one.

I choose new level to adjust more brightness:




Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E. Set this layer to Gassian blur, 4px then to Overlay, 80%. I recommend you to try different parameters then you can know what is best for your pic. Here is my result:



3. Use Curves
After soften her skin, we create a new curve layer:

 

Then we can see there is some light created on her face.

Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E. Apply Gassian blur, 4px. Set this layer to Overlay 80%, and fill 80%. We have result:


4. Use Variations:
After basic step of duplicating and soften skin, i choose Color balance:
Midtones: 21,15,22
Shadows: -13, -9,10
Hightlights: 44,45,-10



Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E. Now we will use a new tool to make our pic brighter. Go to Image-Adjustment-Variations. Adjust Fine-Coarse till you feel ok.. Choose Lighter pic:





Then Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E. Apply Gassian blur, 7px. Set this layer to Overlay 80% with fill 80%. We have result:


5. Use Diffuse glow
Choose Filter-Distort-Diffuse glow:


Remember background color is white.
Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E. Set this layer to Screen 80%.

 

Ctrl+Shift+Alt +E again.
Use Gassian blur, 10px for this layer, then set it to Overlay 80% .
We have this picture:  

6. Use Lighting effect:
Set the layer softened to Screen 100%. Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to get a new layer.

Choose Filter-Other-Maximum and set like this:


Now go to Filter, Gassian blur and choose 4px. Set this layer to Overlay 60%.


Now we will apply lighting effect on her face. After Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E, we set lighting effect parameter like the pic below




Create a new level layer:


And here is final result:



Hope it will be useful. Thanks for reading.