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Soft Glow – Gaussian Blur Photoshop Quick Tip

fotolia_guassian_blur_coverFirst published at Fotolia

Gaussian was a brilliant mathematician and developed an algorithm that works amazingly well for creating blurs.  I would be happy to explain the algorithm, however 1. I don’t really have the space here and 2. I wouldn’t know where to start. What I do know is that for a very long time it was the go to blur for a number of effects.

Times Change

Once the hero of Blurs Gaussian has has to relinquish its crown to the new blurs added to later versions of Photoshop, but that doesn’t mean we should forget it, let’s look at what it can still help us with;

Soft Glow

Image: Afternoon tea File: #42407514

With a copy of a layer active I’ll add a Gaussian Blur;

fotolia_guassian_blur_01

I’m going to give this a pretty heavy blur, 70 Pixels in this case.

fotolia_guassian_blur_02

Then click OK

From the Blending Modes I’ll choose Overlay

fotolia_guassian_blur_03

And there we are, a simple soft glow in just a few clicks.

fotolia_guassian_blur_04

Here I’ve done exactly the same, but with a portrait;

fotolia_guassian_blur_05

Image : Portrait of a beautiful woman File : #79447625

About Eric Renno (435 Articles)
Eric’s background in video editing with Adobe Premier led to his interest, and then obsession, with Photoshop. Starting TipSquirrel.com as a hobby he is proud to have gathered together and be a part of The Photoshop Nuts. Known as only “TipSquirrel” for two years, Eric ‘went public’ when he was a finalist in The Next Adobe Photoshop Evangelist competition. He’s also been a finalist in Deke’s Techniques Photoshop Challenge. While still taking on some freelance work, Eric has recently become a Lecturer at Peterborough’s Media and Journalism Centre where he enjoys sharing his knowledge as well as learning new skills. This realisation that he loves to teach has made Eric look at altering his career path.

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