I found soft to be one of those words that has several visual aspects to it: soft-looking like clouds; soft colours in the sense of muted; soft edges which could be caused by soft focus, fog, mist or soft light.
This photo of the waters off of England by Mandy Collins sort of defined the word ‘soft’ for me. (Mandy Collins, Artist link.)
So here are my first images about the softness of clouds and water.
An Irish speciality: a wee bit of sun breaks through the soft clouds shining a silvery light on the water off Dunbeg in the Republic of Ireland. 
The remnants of a sunset reflected in the infinity pool at the Sky Bar in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. 
Dark sky at 2:00 in the afternoon on December 28 from the White Rock Pier in White Rock, a seaside village in BC, Canada. 
This smudgy rainbow in Bonamargy Friary in Ireland as is, out-of-focus, and the closest to what I was trying to achieve. I’m not sure if those are ships out on the water or nearby midges causing me to not focus properly. 
I decided to try and manipulate images into softness. I took two different photos of soft clouds and added a section of soft coloured (but sharp-focused) water at the bottom.
This one had gorgeous aqua-green water, and although I fiddled with blur in various ways the best result was when I took it out of Photoshop and put it in the app Stackables. 
A layered photo of a different sky and different water originally using ‘Lens Blur’ with hexagonal specular highlights in the ‘iris’, followed by Stackables. 
The next two are variables of the first one, both blurred almost beyond recognition. 
- More on the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Soft.
- More of the Friendly Friday Challenge: Something Different.
Interesting selections. Well done.
I’d love to see these printed on a very large canvas Elizabeth. We had a professional come speak to our photography club and your images remind me a bit of his – which sell for very large sums! Lovely, especially your closing series
A very creative approach. It captures the essence of water and sky very well.
Lovely
Very special – like paintings. Makes my mind flow out to them. Beautiful.
It took a long while to try and get what I was sort-of envisioning but in the process I learned a lot about Photoshop’s Blur filters, and really like the last two, a combination of Alberta skies and Mexican water!
😀