Either do what you are thinking and slowly increase the photoperiod or raise your lights up and slowly move them down over several days and you wont light shock your coral. Some people also use types of light filtering screen in layers between their lights and the top of their tank then gradually remove layers every couple of days.
Some soft coral actually do better under very intense lighting (ex Xenia) while others no longer expand as much and will appear to shrink a bit (ex mushrooms).
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