In portrait photography, a piece of nylon stocking was used on the enlarger lens as a softener just because it was more convenient than using it on the camera lens at image capture time. In many cases, the spreading of the shadows was just a unwanted side effect which however was accepted in exchange for the convenience of the method. Generally, softening the image at capture time (with a piece of nylon stocking on the camera lens, breathing on the lens, a soft filter of some kind, or a dedicated soft-focus lens) was considered superior to softening at printing time because it would spread the highlights rather than the shadows, thus rendering a more pleasing result.
So in order to soften the images and spreading the highlights rather than the shadows, use Schewe's method outlined above but replace the blending mode 'Darken' with 'Lighten.' Of course, you can also try both methods easily and quickly, and compare. Using more layers and layer masks, you can even apply both methods
in one image ... e. g. spreading the highlights in the subject's face and the shadows in the background. Using other blending modes, like 'Overlay' or 'Multiply' for instance, even more complex renderings are possible ... see here:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/gaussian.shtml-- Olaf
