Matted Color / Soft Toned

https://500px.com …nder-steger-art?from=user

In the link listed above is a website I ran across looking at other folks photography. I like the way the image looks with the muffled tones and colors. I don't know if you would call this matte finish or not. I know I like the style of it. Here is the problem....everyone that edits this way don't seem to want to share their method. Anyone have an idea of what I am talking about and how to do this in photoshop?

As a starting point:

Lift the black point in the tone curve.
Lift the black point in the blue-channel tone curve slightly higher than in the other channels, to put a bit of blue tint into the shadows.