Explosive

Hey all!

Omg omg, im nervous!!!! But i have a how-to to share! :D
Actually a girl from the photoclub told me about this tutorial site, and i want to tell everyone who doesnt know yet about this cool a** thingie!
Ta-DA!!! Its the soft focus effect!!! Not to confuse with diffuse glow filter.
You can see the before and afters in my portfolio. “The eye anatomy” and “soft focus” are the results. The “originals” are also somewhere there too.
Trust me, its dead easy. Even i can do it. Takes a minute to process an image. TRY IT!!!!!
So here we go. This is the illustrated step by step tutorial, but its in russian, but the commands are for the english photoshop, so not hard to understand i hope. http://www.interface.ru/home.asp?artId=18661
Just in case its not clear, lemme translate it.
Aight, so:

1. Press CTRL+J to double the layer
2. Press Shift+CTRL+U to turn it to black and white
3. Go to Image>Adjustments>Posterize and set the level to about 7
4. Where the layers are, right click on the top layer and select Blending Options, then switch Blend Mode from Normal to Overlay
5. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian blur and play around with the pixel radius till u see what u like
6. Voila!!!!!!! Here u go! Got a pic with lovely natural HOT HOT soft focus! Enjoy!

See how easy???!!!