PBase

Does any one know how to get that very fine romantic effect. In analogue film you used to pull a stocking over the lens.

The effect is still sharp, yet a little bit dreamy.

Any ideas appreciated

Gaussian Blur will give you a nice soft effect. In PS Elements 2 it's under the effects tab. In PS E4 you also have a blur tool you can use for selected areas that's really nice to control DOF. And there's a free plugin I enjoy using on some shots called Virtual Photographer you can download from here:
http://www.optikvervelabs.com/
It has a soft effect that really works well, along with monochrome effects that work nice.
Hope this helps.

I have tried Gaussian blur, but it doesnt give that stocking effect. It is a bit too blunt.

The optikvervelabs does give the effect, however it seems to effect all the layers not just chosen layers, and also it washes out a little too much. I want to keep the exposure about the same. The setting that comes closest is the "dreamy" setting.

kadana wrote:I have tried Gaussian blur, but it doesnt give that stocking effect. It is a bit too blunt.

The optikvervelabs does give the effect, however it seems to effect all the layers not just chosen layers, and also it washes out a little too much. I want to keep the exposure about the same. The setting that comes closest is the "dreamy" setting.

Don't hesitate to explore all the modification you can do in Virtual Photographer.

On the upper left, you can adjust the light and the contrast.

On the right, there are 3 more cursors. The middle one is to adjust the amount of the effect. For example, if you have "soft" applied, the more you move the cursor to the right, the softier.

The first one adjust the tonality, lighter or darker.

The bottom one is used often in the monochrome effect to adjust the intensity of the color applied.

Once you have all settings to your liking, you can save them to use later.

Graylady