Ever want to create an old and time honored cameo effect on a new photo to make the photo look like it was taken long, long ago before the advent of Photoshop? Or make an old photo look older? Without further explanation then, open a black & white image or change an existing color image's mode to Grayscale (Image > Mode > Grayscale).

Draw an elliptical selection around the image midsection, then invert the selection (Select > Inverse). Feather your selection---6 pixels works well in this example---and fill the inverted selection with white (Edit > Fill > 100% opacity, Blend Mode, Normal).

Deselect and there you have it...seems like this picture was taken quite some time ago, doesn't it?

And now to simulate a "soft light" effect. Open your image in RGB mode.

Duplicate the background layer. Click once on the original layer and Filter > Gaussian Blur > Radius of 10-20.

Click on the duplicate layer and change the blending mode of that layer to Soft Light.

There you have it. This procedure seems to work well with lighter backgrounds, as in this portrait. The face is highlighted and stands out well. It doesn't hurt she is very pretty, does it?