With just a little bit of work, you can turn a picture that looked like a complete disaster into a nice image that looks like a corner of heaven… but let’s leave poetry aside and get going! If you like the looks of the image below, read on and I’ll show you how to do the same with your photos, too…

1. Open the image you want to use from the hard drive, import it from a scanner or a digital camera… just get a picture inside Photshop!

2. Use Filter>Blur>Blur on the background layer.

3. Duplicate this layer, and then apply Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur with a setting of 5 pixels on the new layer(if your image is small, then decrease this setting to 3 or even 2).

4. Now, set the blending mode of the current layer to Screen.

5. Press Ctrl+U and play with the settings until you get what you want. Check my settings below as a reference.

6. Because I am not happy with my result, I apply Gaussian Blur again, this time using a 15 pixel setting(this is because my image is huge, so you shouldn’t have to do it too).

7. If the image looks unreal, a bit of automatic color, levels and contrast adjustment may help. Simply use the right keyboard shortcuts for these - Shift+Ctrl+L(levels), Alt+Shift+Ctrl+L(contrast) and Shift+Ctrl+B(colors). If you want to merge layers or play with the settings of each layer in the image, that’s your choice now…