Soft focus on non-portrait shot

[Bluie]

Hello

I have this photo of a couple of children sitting on the bank of a canal close to where I live.



I have reduced it to 20% of its original size for this forum.

I would like to do two things with it: keep everything in focus apart from applying a slightly soft focus to the children. I have a 'soft focus' Action (not sure how to use Actions but I can read up on that), but I am not sure if that is the best way to go. Most of the tutorials on the Net deal with applying soft focus to a portrait which doesn't apply in this case.

My second aim is that the children are in the shade of that overhanging tree - which is fine - but the shade is too dark: you can hardly notice them.

What would be one way of achieving these aims, please?

Many thanks

 

[Tom Mann]

Hi Bluie - Good to see you again!

Unfortunately, I've got to caution you that in this picture, you probably won't like the results of doing what you requested. The reason is that the viewer's eye is always drawn to the sharpest, most contrasty areas in an image. So, if you soft focus the kids and leave the surroundings sharp, most viewers will hardly notice them, and instead start scanning the surrounding area, looking for interesting "things".

Even worse, in this image, the area occupied by the kids is so small, they are already not very visually important. Soft-focusing them will just make matters worse. BTW, IMHO, the fact that they are in shade is less important than the fraction of the total image area that they occupy.

In images like this, if, for some reason, you couldn't have used a longer lens or cropped this image, and you are stuck trying to force the viewer's eye to go to the intended subject using post processing techniques, what is usually done is a combination of vignetting (darkening) and soft-focusing the areas around the kids, not the kids, themselves. However, IMHO, even my recommendation is not going to work very well on this image because the flaw is fundamental: composition.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but my recommendation is a no-brainer.

Tom M

PS - BTW, if you do want to experiment with the various post-processing possibilities, the way to do it is to make two copies of the image. Apply a soft focus effect to the upper oopy (in your layer stack), and leave the other untouched. Then, put an all black layer mask on the upper, softened layer, and paint a bit of the area around the kids (on the layer mask) with a very soft, white brush.

 

[Tom Mann]

To make my suggestion (that was conceptually the exact opposite of what you asked for) concrete, this is the sort of effect I had in mind: softening both contrast and focus of the areas surrounding the girls, but leaving the girls essentially untouched at full sharpness.

See what you think.

Tom M

 

[Tom Mann]

Continuing on, here's what it might look like if only only applied soft focus to the girls, but not their surroundings...

 

[Tom Mann]

And, if it were me, I would crop the photo and make the surroundings even more soft and painterly, perhaps something like this ... with a tip of the hat towards the impressionists, LOL.