[beachy]

whats the best way to get the soft focus affect around a portrait shot ie, where the sharpness is on the central subject/subjects and you have an oval or circle around it with a soft focus, what tools would you use in elements 4 or CS2, many thanks in advance

[Liquid101]

Lots of ways to do this.

The easiest is to select the eliptical selection tool. Enter 75 pixels in the feather box on the tool bar. Make your selection around the portrait. Now invert the selection (this is under the selection menu or Shift+Ctrl+I) now apply a gaussian blur until you get the desired effect.

Depending on the resolution, you will need to adjust the feather amount until you get the kind of feel you want.

HTH

[senu]

Another simple way

Open the image
use Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer ( layer1)
Then click on the background layer to turn it into a Layer (0)
Go back to layer 1 and make a selection ( Making sure feathering is about 70px)
On the menu bar chose : Select, chose inverse, then hit backspace, then deselect
You will see that a feathered selection now appears on layer 1
Then go back to Layer 0 and vary Opacity to determine how much background you want to show.
You may delete layer 0 , that will leave you with a white border ( May or may not be desirable) or better leave it if you prefer a subtle (Vignetting its called)
If you are happy with the results, merge the layers and flatten the image
Once you do it a few times it will become second nature
Good luck
A subtle example

This is what happens when you delete layer 0

[wabbitt]

Here is another quick and dirty way but not the best as it's actually altering your main image (Masks are a better way).

Use your circular marquee tool (click and hold the mouse on the regular square marquee tool) to select the area of the oval.

Press SHIFT-CTRL-I to invert your selection.

Press 'Q' to enter quick mask mode. You will notice the red area.

Select Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur...

Adjust the blur to your liking... keeping an eye on the red quick mask. Click OK.

Press 'Q' again to leave quick mask mode. Now go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur... again and adjust the blur to match what you want.

[beachy]

thanks guys, i will give them all a try, just to see which is the easiest quickest and best for me.