Using a soft focus filter makes for flattering portraits and dream-like effects, but that comes at a cost. For about $6 you can make your own that offers the same benefits with a cool, unique look.

Images, and the devices that capture them, are my focus. I've covered cameras at PCMag for the past 14 years, which has given me a front row seat for the changeover from DSLRs to mirrorless cameras, ...

To get the soft focus effect, I applied a Gaussian Blur on a copy of the image layer and took down the opacity to about half. I made a few other color adjustments and added a vignette to lighten the ...