Getting that soft tone, pastel look?

[runcsmeduncs]

Hi there.

I have been looking for a while now into how I can achieve the soft, pastel tone look seen in photos like:

http://www.100layercake.com/blog/201...l-inspiration/

I have a few photos that I think are perfect for some post work in this area (shot in really nice light, main colours fall into the pastel spectrum etc) but I am drawing blanks on how to achieve this look.

If anyone has any useful pointers such as books to read, 3rd party presets / filters to purchase etc, I would be very grateful.

Currently I am using Lightroom 4.1 and Photoshop Elements 10.

Cheers for any helps.

Duncs

 

[bianni]

Try this. Put 2 blank layers on top amd fill one with white and the other pink, change both their blending modes to softlight and further fine tune by changing the opacity.
{ don't know about LR and Elements but I'm using cs4. Hope this helps you

 

[runcsmeduncs]

Thanks for the suggestions.

That is certainly getting there but the whole image looks a little washed out now and not quite so vibrant as the ones in the link.
Any suggestions in how to make the colours pop a little more (especially the skin tones).

A good start but a few more tweaks needed I think.

Regards

Duncs

 

[unpopular]

^ then add a curves layer ad adjust. Also try adding a curves layer between each of the two fill layers. Try use a mask to adjust the effect locally.