Applying Softlight

Oke, straight to the poen eh I mean straight to the point :-

Step 1

Open Image

Step 2

Duplicate layer

Step 3

Change blending mode from 'Normal' to 'Softlight'

Step 4

Here is the result after applying 'Softlight'. There are time where I straight away apply this setting but, you can always change the opacity. 

Step 5

Adjust the opacity to your liking. You can simply use the setting or...

Step 6

'Add vector mask' to do the masking then brush only on the area you want the setting to take effect

End result

As you can see here, I invert the setting then apply only on the background and not the skin tone. By doing this I can still preserve the skintone.

After applying the approach above I combine it with my previous approaches such as, lab color, dodge and burn, soften skin and eye whitening finally this is the result

Honestly, I know I make it look easy

Try it and find out, all the best :)