Focused Shot

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-awesome-soft-focus-effect-photoshop-2/

I started by duplicating the layer, and then, I chose Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. I adjusted the blur and changed the layers of opacity. I added a layer mask to the blurred layer. Using black and the brush tool, I painted over areas on the face such as the eyes and mouth. I changed the opacity. Then, I painted over the whole face with a little lower opacity and then over the hair with an even lower opacity. I set a lower opacity on less detailed areas to focus less attention on them. I brought up the Hue/Saturation dialog box by pressing Ctrl+U. I moved the saturation slider to the right to make the colors pop. This really helped my blonde hair and purple shirt stand out more. The hardest part of this tutorial was deciding how much to focus and blur different things. The easiest part was adjusting the saturation.