Soft focus in Iphoto '11?

Hello I have a new MacBook Pro with OSX 10.8.2 and I downloaded iPhoto '11  (version 9.4.2).
I want to do something that was very easy in older versions of iPhoto: to get a soft focus effect.  I want to get a slight blur, for a soft romantic portrait effect.
The current version of iPhoto has an Sharpness adjustment slider.  But this slider will only increase sharpness.  I want to do the opposite.  I want to decrease the sharpness!
Did Apple actually remove this useful feature from iPhoto?  In no, then where is it?  If yes, then my question is why remove something useful?
Thanks,
Peter Halverson
PS:  I must say that the transition from OSX 10.4 (Tiger) to OSX 10.8 (Mountain Lion) has been very painful.  My most useful software had to be updated or re-purchased and much of it is simply not available.  I wish I could go back to the older OS.

iPhoto 6 was the last verson of iPhoto to offer the Sharpness slider to go both ways, sharpen and soften. It still works with Mt. Lion.  So if you have the disks that came with your original Mac you can use   Pacifist on those disks to install iPhoto 6.  But you'll need a copy of your originla iPhoto 6 library to use or try to follow this  iPhoto Library Manager tutorial:  Fat Cat Software - iPhoto Library Manager Help - Downgrading a library to an earlier version of iPhoto.
Personally I believe you would be ahead of the curve if you obtained a 3rd party image editor that had the softening capabilty and used it as the external editor from withing iPhoto. 
OT

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