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Apply this photo effect to your photos to accentuate the midtones in your photo. This Photoshop effect makes the midtones glow and darken the highlights and shadows for a unique and soft photo effect.

Midtones Bloom Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

Open a photo that you want to apply this Photoshop effect to.

Step 2

First, we'll need to duplicate the layer. Choose Layer > Duplicate or press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer. You should now have two layers with the top layer being Layer 1.

Step 3

Choose Filter > Stylize > Solarize. The image looks pretty ugly right now but don't worry, it'll look a lot better later.

Step 4

Change the blending mode to Overlay.

This is what the image looks like after changing the blending mode to Overlay. The skin color is a little gray.

Step 5

Go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate. This will desturate the current layer and the colors, especially in the skin area, should look normal.

Step 6

Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and adjust the settings until some tonal contrast comes back.

Step 7

Now choose Image > Adjustments > Levels. We will now enhance and tweak the effect. First, move the white slider towards the left until it touches the tip of the histogram. Then, move the middle input slider towards the right to darken the image back to the proper exposure.

Final Results