I came across this photoshop technique today that's fucking easy to duplicate...and produces great results. Works best on raw portrait pictures with high detail and good lighting.

This is a picture i chose to work(in the loosest sense of the work) on a high definition mag scan of a natalie portman photoshoot.

The next photo is after 1 min of editing.

How to do this trick? You start off with a picture in photoshop, duplicate the background layer.

On this 2nd layer you apply a gaussian blur. The amount that needs to be applied relies on the amount of detail. ideally it should be around 10-20. Any more and the effect becomes overly magnified.You should still be able make out the general outline of the object. Go to blending options on the second layer and select overlay. voila.

Other generally good modes to try out include solf light. Which replicates the mood of a 90's soap drama. Like Days Of Our Lifes or something. Hard light is well..harsh. Vivid light gives the feel of an acid trip. So in my opinion overlay is stil best :)

I replicated this on a photography of the recent s1a board games outing. source image is very good coming from a 3 megapixel camera that wasn't my own :) its a tad...bland though.

Hehe.