How do you achieve a soft focus that doesn't look blurry or washed out?

[Kim Shaw Ball]

I wanted to achieve a soft, romantic look for the photo below...after the fact...in photoshop. I tried various blurring techniques, different lighting techniques, applying a vignette, etc. I even googled 'soft focus' but nothing I found helped. Does anyone have any ideas? Or is this just something I need to do on the front end when setting up to take the photo? Thanks for any advice!

[Vikdaddy]

decrease the clarity.

[Kim Shaw Ball]

Thanks for your response! I am not really sure how to go about doing that though???

[Sara Louise Brown]

I'm not sure if its any help Kim, but there is a soft focus effect in Picnik.

[Ross Wilson]

Photoshop Tutorial - Soft Focus Photo effect

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu3L1vazTkg

[Jordan Anderson (icywarm)]

Which photoshop?

[Dorrena Ortega]

Picnik.com has a "soft focus" feature.

[Jesa SE]

If you use Enter Quick Mask > Gradient > Exit Quick Mask to get your selection of the parts you want to focus more softly/blur, the transition will be much less abrupt and allow for more of an organic feel that mimics true DOF. I usually play around with the blur features after masking as described above, and then fade to the level that looks most 'natural.'

[FunnyFace]

and I always worry about getting things sharp!! Grins.

[karen*♥]

Shoot through a fine mesh material, like one layer of really fine netting or chiffon.

[Beth Baird]

I use Picasa 3 and at times Picnik both can be found for free on the net (picnik is net based Picasa you will have to download) I hope this helps

[Genesis Lomax]

i have nothing useful to add here other than i LOVE the way you incorporated your watermark into the shot. :)