Dreamy Glow Effect

To start choose an image, any image. I went with this one below just because it just looks cool.

Now that you have your image, simply duplicate it by pressing (Ctrl + j). With your duplicated image, go to filter -> blur -> gaussian blur and set the radius to 3.0 or whatever best matches your image. Then set your blending option to soft light or overlay.

Now go to the top menu and click image -> adjustment -> levels and apply these settings below. These settings are set to best match my image so just mess around with it until you're satisfy.

Now create a new layer and switch on over to your channels tab. Holding the Ctrl button, click on a one of the RGB thumbnails to highlight. Make sure that the RGB thumbnail is selected after you highlighted your image and switch back to the layers tab. Now fill your new layer with white and set the change the opacity to around 50%-100%.

Click to enlarge

And we are done! Here are the before and after pictures.