I followed the RadiantVista workbench tutorial on highlight blooming
for a nostalgic look.
Since I was experimenting with face and bright tones, I quickly removed the background
with a black brush.
Create duplicate of background layer and change to screen mode.
Add a layer mask and apply image to the layer mask.
Switch to the layer image and apply gaussian blur.
Go back to the layer mask and make levels adjustment to make the
blooming effect more intense (or can duplicate the layer instead)

forum discussion: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=21606431
original image by AlfonsoJ: