NOTE: What I've outlined here is a quickie technique I often use while shooting out in the field. No filters or Photoshop skills are needed if your camera is capable of generating multiple exposures. If your camera doesn't have a multi-exposure feature, some basic image editing skills will be required.
Creating Dreamlike Pictures
For some reason I find myself using this technique often in springtime and in autumn, although variations of it can be applied to your photography at any time of the year.
1. Begin with a straightforward photo of whatever scene you have chosen. Use of a tripod is highly recommended. Focus and exposure should be normal:
2. Take another photo of the exact same scene, but this time defocus the lens. The amount of defocus is up to you. I usually defocus the lens until the scene looks as blurry to me as it would if I took off my eyeglasses. : )
3. As I mentioned earlier, my Nikon allows me to combine multiple exposures in-camera. So I don't even manipulate the image in Photoshop (other than basic color correction and sizing). If your camera lacks this feature, you'll have to combine the two images in Photoshop or any image editing program which allows you to "sandwich" images. You may need to adjust some opacity settings, and perhaps play around with some "blend modes".
Sigh. I did say that I wanted you to be out in the field and away from the computer, didn't I? So much for that idea!
Anyway, whether your camera generates the two shots or you combine them in Photoshop, you should end up with something like this:
The image should be soft and hazy and yet detailed at the same time. It's not the same thing has having a blurry, out-of-focus shot, and this technique can lend a nice "dreamlike" quality to leaves, trees, landscapes...you name it.
Another option would be to use a soft focus filter for this little exercise, and some of those filters work really well. But do you really want to carry around another filter if you don't really have to? (While I'm nagging - do you really want to spend money on a specialized soft focus filter that you may not use very often in the first place?)
Also, the effect of a filter is "fixed", yet with this approach you can adjust the sharpness and defocus to your liking, so it's much more flexible than a filter. Experiment with different focus/defocus settings to get the effect you're after.
Here's another example:
While we're at it, if you ARE using Photoshop, you can apply this technique to just about any photo you have taken in the past. Some subjects work better than others. Simply copy your image and paste it into a new layer, and use the Gaussian Blur filter to your liking in order to create the defocused image, then sandwich the two image layers into one photo, again adjusting the opacity and/or blend modes if necessary.
This is just a beginning. You can experiment with all sorts of different multiple exposures. And why stop at two images? I've combined several shots into a single frame with interesting results. Have fun!
PS - for the ultimate in low-tech soft focus, you can try breathing on the front of your lens just before shooting a scene. In certain conditions, the lens will fog up nicely and it will take a few seconds for the fog to evaporate. I used this old trick once in a pinch while on assignment and it worked out rather well!
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