Are you looking to get the “film look” on your digital photos?  One way to do this is with a nice soft bloom plus a Look-up Table.

  1. Select the top layer of your Photoshop document.
  2. Make a new, Empty layer (Layer > New > Layer).film1
  3. Hold down the Option or Alt key and choose Layer > Merge Visible to create a flattened copy on top of all your other layers.
  4. Right-click on the top layer and choose Convert to Smart Object.filma
  5. With the top layer selected, choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.
  6. Use a healthy blur value to get a relatively blurry image. Click OK. (You can double click on the Gaussian Blur Smart Filter if you need to tweak in the future).film2
  7. Switch the blending mode for the layer and try different blending modes such as Add, Overlay, Soft Light, or Multiply. In fact you may want to try all of the different modes to see which one you like best. Depending on your source, you may need to use different modes, to get results.film3
  8. Adjust the opacity of the top layer to taste.
  9. From the adjustment layer panel choose Color Lookup to apply a Lookup Table.filmb
  10. Try one of the built-in Kodak or Fuji film stocks.film4
  11. Adjust opacity or the blur filter to taste.

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