So, as a professional photographer, one of the Photoshop filters I find myself using over and over again is the Gaussian blur filter. It's just a little trick to make everything look a little dreamier, a little less wrinkly, not so sharp, for when you need that subtle look. This trick works especially well on wedding shots or when applied to newborn pictures. Additionally, it can be a super helpful tool when you have a great foreground object, but the background is off or too busy. Here's the how-to:

1. Choose the picture you want to apply the filter to. If you just want to apply the effect to one area of the picture, or you want to exclude something (I recommend not blurring eyes on portraits, they should, in my opinion, always look crisp), this is the time to select/deselect it.

2. Next, you make a duplicate layer of your picture by going to Layer, then Duplicate Layer. Click OK on the box that pops up. You can confirm that you have created a duplicate layer on the layers box on the right lower corner.

Gaussian-blur duplicate layer

3. Now it’s time to apply the filter. Go to Filter, Blur then Gaussian blur.

Gaussian-blur apply filter

I always keep my setting on 20px because my photos are pretty hi-res but for low resolution pictures, you can lower it to about 10. Now, hit OK, and don’t worry, everything will look super blurry, we’ll adjust that next.

4. Go down to the Layers box on the right lower corner to where it says Opacity and scale that back to about 20-25%, or whichever percent you think makes the picture just right.

Gaussian-blur opacity and scale

5. And finally, we blend both layers by “flattening image” as seen on picture by clicking on drop down menu button Gaussian-blur save project. Now, SAVE! :)

Gaussian-blur flatten image