Soft Focus & Pictorialism

Hi all,

I'm taking my first digital photography course this semester and learning a lot about my new DSLR. The Canon Rumors forum provided me with great advice when choosing a camera, so I'm coming back for some new advice :D

This week's photoshoot is to replicate pictorialism. From what I gathered, this involves:

-Soft focus
-Slight blur effect
-A photo which tells a structured story.

What do you know about soft focus/blurring and how to achieve it? The professor told us to take photos at dusk. Is it more about the location/time of day than it is the camera?

I'm not sure what to take 3 to 5 images of, let alone how to create some of these effects. Still life? Landscapes? I'm shooting on a t4i, 40mm f2.8