Of course, this is a 'muting' effect and there are tons of ways to do it I posted an example of one or two. In the upper right is the orig image. The upper left I placed a white box on a new layer and reduced it's opacity. The lower right, same thing but filled it with a white gradient and the lower left, filled with a color chosen from the original photo (orange/brown). The extent to which you want to do this will determine how soft and/or what tint or hue you want the image to be. You can, of course, do this a few other ways, but this way is non-destructive to the original image. This means that prior to flattening, you can change your mind RE: color, opacity etc. This can be done to the entire photo, a portion or section, a shape or whatever and is often done as a text box. Hope this answers your question.