“Soft Focus is a much sought out effect in photography. You can find it used commonly in glamour shots and to some extent in wedding photography as well. There are special lenses you can use to create the soft focus effect using your cameras. Some modern cameras come with a settings that let you create soft focus effects as well. In any case if any of the above options are unavailable you can easily mimic this effect inside Photoshop (or GIMP for that matter).”

via How To Create An Awesome Soft Focus Effect In Photoshop.