How can I create a dreamy, ethereal look in Photoshop for portraits and landscapes?
Asked 11/14/2012
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I want to give photos a bright, paradisiacal, ethereal feel using Photoshop, mainly for portraits of women but also for landscapes. What editing approach works well for this look, especially if I want to rely on soft focus and tonal/color adjustments rather than heavy special effects?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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The classic "soft focus" effect can give photos a dreamy, paradisiac look. Though there are many ways to achieve the effect, here is one variety:
Open your image in photoshop. This image (taken at Pulau Dayang, Malaysia) is slightly underexposed and will need some lightening up too.
Begin with duplicating your background layer by hitting Cmd ⌘+J on your mac or CTRL+J on your PC. You will end up with a total of two layers, like this:
With this new layer 1 selected, go to the filters menu and apply a gaussian blur with a rather high value. The exact value depends on the file dimensions. The bigger the photo, the bigger the value. When previewing the blur effect, try to imitate this look: (lots of blur but still some viewable detail):
Lower the opacity of Layer 1 to something around 60%. Detail from the layer underneath will start to appear:
It now starts to look more dreamy. We needed to lighten this photo due to its underexposed quality. Hence, change the blending mode of Layer 1 to "Screen". Your image might be too bright and needs darkening, then experiment with other blending modes like "Multiply" or simply Normal which works nicely too. Here is the "Screen" blending mode in action:
The image now looks something like this:
You could now change the opacity again to adjust for your desired brightness and/or dream effect.
(optional step): Hit free transform with Cmd ⌘+T on mac or CTRL+T on PC and enlarge Layer 1 ever so slightly. Experiment with the amount:
A good beach photo will have nice and vibrant colors. Add a Vibrance adjustment layer to the Background layer and boost the colors a fair bit.
Here is the end result after applying vibrance and a bit of saturation:
Please post your results, it would be great to see how it worked out for you! Good luck!
Originally by user13081. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user13081
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
A common way to get an ethereal look is a soft-focus, high-key treatment.
In Photoshop, duplicate the background layer, apply a fairly strong Gaussian Blur to the duplicate, then lower that layer’s opacity until the image looks dreamy but still retains visible detail. The exact blur amount depends on image size, so judge it visually rather than by a fixed number.
To strengthen the effect:
- Brighten the image overall for a high-key look, reducing heavy shadows.
- Favor cool or pastel colors such as cyan, blue, violet, soft pink, pale yellow, or light green.
- Keep contrast gentle rather than harsh.
- Emphasize soft subjects or textures like skin, clouds, fog, silk, or diffuse light.
This approach works for both portraits and landscapes. For portraits, it can flatter skin and create a romantic glow. For landscapes, it can enhance mist, sky, and light for a more heavenly atmosphere.
Some photographers also create this look in-camera by partially obscuring the lens with fine netting, flowers, or similar foreground elements, but if you want a Photoshop-only method, the blurred duplicate layer plus brighter, softer tonal/color grading is the classic technique.
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