I used the same technique on these as I used on Maya’s photograph the other day. Both of these were processed in Nik Color Efex Pro, then brought back into Photoshop where I merged the Nik and original layers. From there I created a new copy layer to which I added the Gaussian blur filter. Using the erasure at 40%, I removed the blur from our faces and hair. Then upping the strength of the eraser to 85%, I focused on removing more blur from the eyes to make them stand out. Kinda fun.
You may recognize this photo of my daughter from the shoot I did in October.
This shot of me is a new one, just shot yesterday. More work on my portraiture lighting, I was going for a dramatic look. I think a darker background would have been better, but I was focusing on the lighting on my face more than anything and I was too lazy at the time to hang the backdrop.
Carissa Snedeker Photography 
Nice working! I’m not entirely sure the one of you works, but the one of your daughter is really good! 🙂
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Yeah, I think I messed up on mine. Still working out the technique, obviously.
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No, I don’t think you’ve messed up (and, given that I’ve not tried the effect at all, I’m not really one to speak!), I think the other oneworks better, that’s all. 😀
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I agree with you that the one of me isn’t as successful as the one of my daughter. I know what I did differently for the two shots, so I’ll do better next time. Seriously, I like critique! It’s the only way I’m going to improve, so I do appreciate your comments, as well as others.
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Wow the portrait of your daughter is fantastic. I have no experience with layering and am not even sure what it involves (I am curious about it, at the same time I fear I’d be overwhelmed by the techniques), but is it the layering that contributes to the softness of this image or is it the blurring and erasure (techniques I’ve also never worked with)? The lighting (again 🙂 ) is wonderful.
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It is both. You need to create the layer in order to selectively erase part of that layer to expose the sharper image below. It’s actually rather simple in theory, but also takes some practice (as can be seen by the difference in results between my daughter’s photo and mine). Thank you so much for your kind words.
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Carissa, this is a very beginner question: is a layer a modified copy of the original image?
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In this case, yes. But it isn’t always. You can do all kinds of adjustments via layers: convert to black and white, adjust saturation, vibrance, curves, exposure, etc. The nice thing about using layers is that you can remove one without impacting the original image or other layers. When you are done, you can merge all the layers if you wish, or leave them (although this creates a much larger file).
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Looking great! 🙂
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Thanks, Bente.
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