Here is 1% of 99% You May Have Missed

Hey, have you seen the latest issue of Photoshop User magazine - the issue with 100 Hot New Photoshop Tips. The tips come from Scott Kelby, Moose Peterson, Corey Barker, R. C. Concepcion, Peter Bauer, Lesa Snyder King, Rick Sammon, Mark Fleming, Laurie Excell, and yours truly. This has always been my favorite issue of an already terrific publication. You know, 70,000 members who receive this magazine as part of their membership, can't be wrong.

For this Technique Tuesday, I'm going to share one of mine. I call it "DAZ Softar". The Softar filter was a very expensive filter for Hasselblad lens, but it gave a beautiful soft effect to the images. Here is how to get a very similar effect in Photoshop. First select a really nice portrait image - someone close up is a good choice. Duplicate the layer and change it's mode to "Overlay". Hit Filters>Other>High Band Pass and set to 10 pixels for starters (try different resolutions for different cameras.) See how the image got a lot sharper. That's because this is a good sharpening technique in some instances. But the next step is the "beauty step" - hit Control-I to inverse the effect. Very cool, don't you think? Just adjust the opacity of the overlying layer until you achieve the softened result you want. What I like about this technique is that you very seldom have to go back in and mess with the layer masks.

Hey, if you want the next 99% of the tips, and you are not a NAPP member, get right over to PhotoshopUser right here and sign up - it's the best Photoshop budget money you will ever spend.