to this
As you can see, the second image has a more soft and smooth look to it. The way to do this is very simple.
1. First you open the image you want to use.
2. Next, go to the top of the screen to the layers' window and click duplicate layer.
3. After you duplicate the layer, make sure you have it highlighted. Then go to Filter>>Blur>>Gaussian Blur.
4. Change the radius to 3 pixels. You could try any number really, but I think 3 works best. It looks wierd and blurry now, but we'll fix it
5. And lastly, just change the opacity to somewhere around 50% and thats it!
Your image should look softer. This effect can be used to make less quality images look a little better, or just to make graphics a lot prettier! I hope this helped.
Credit: Eryca