Written by Steve Patterson. If you're
just joining us, this is the second of two Photoshop tutorials on how to
enhance your photos, especially portrait shots, using a soft glow
effect which not only softens the overall image but also helps to smooth
skin, boost contrast and enhance colors, all at the same time.
There's a couple of ways to create this effect in Photoshop, both of which can be completed very easily. Both ways can also give you great looking results. The key difference between them is that one produces a static effect, meaning that it can't easily be changed or edited later, while the other remains fully editable even after the effect has been completed, allowing you to go back, make changes, and see if you can improve the results even further.
In the first of these two tutorials, we learned how to add a soft glow using the more basic and traditional method (the static method) that's better suited for beginner Photoshop users. It gave us great results but it didn't let us go back and make further changes or improvements. In this tutorial, we'll learn how to create the exact same soft glow effect while keeping it fully editable from start to finish, and we'll do that by taking advantage of Smart Objects and Smart Filters.
Smart Objects and Smart Filters may be considered more "advanced" features in Photoshop, but don't let that fool you. As we'll see, they're every bit as easy to use as normal layers and filters, with the added benefits of being extremely flexible and completely editable without any loss in image quality. As always, I'll cover everything step-by-step, explaining things as we go so that even if you're new to Photoshop, you can easily follow along.
If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to work through the first tutorial, Easy Soft Glow Effect In Photoshop, before moving on to this one since this tutorial will occasionally mention steps that were covered previously.
Here's the photo I'll be using (hippie girl photo from Shutterstock):
There's a couple of ways to create this effect in Photoshop, both of which can be completed very easily. Both ways can also give you great looking results. The key difference between them is that one produces a static effect, meaning that it can't easily be changed or edited later, while the other remains fully editable even after the effect has been completed, allowing you to go back, make changes, and see if you can improve the results even further.
In the first of these two tutorials, we learned how to add a soft glow using the more basic and traditional method (the static method) that's better suited for beginner Photoshop users. It gave us great results but it didn't let us go back and make further changes or improvements. In this tutorial, we'll learn how to create the exact same soft glow effect while keeping it fully editable from start to finish, and we'll do that by taking advantage of Smart Objects and Smart Filters.
Smart Objects and Smart Filters may be considered more "advanced" features in Photoshop, but don't let that fool you. As we'll see, they're every bit as easy to use as normal layers and filters, with the added benefits of being extremely flexible and completely editable without any loss in image quality. As always, I'll cover everything step-by-step, explaining things as we go so that even if you're new to Photoshop, you can easily follow along.
If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to work through the first tutorial, Easy Soft Glow Effect In Photoshop, before moving on to this one since this tutorial will occasionally mention steps that were covered previously.
Here's the photo I'll be using (hippie girl photo from Shutterstock):
The original image.
And here's how it will look after applying the soft glow effect:
The final result.
Let's get started!
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