For those of you that have Photoshop, you should try this out.
I've been learning about Depth of Field and Bokeh. With the 35mm lens, we get some shots with a good bokeh, but sometimes I want it on a shot and just can't manage it or the subject doesn't sit still long enough. Well, there's a way to create an artificial bokeh.
I used Photoshop in the past, but I always had trouble with the Select tools. I think I may have figured out some way that works. What I did is I used the paintbrush select tool, also known as Quick Select, to select the subject I wanted to remain in focus. It's a smart select kind of option so it should get the basic outline of your subject. To fine tune your selection, zoom in and select the areas that need to be closer to the subject. If you accidentally select into the subject, right click and choose the "Select Inverse" option. Fine tune as close as you can get to your subject. This part might take a little time depending on how much of a perfectionist you are.
Once you are satisfied with your selection of the subject, right click and choose the "Layer via Copy" option. Make sure your layer menu is visible so you can choose which layer you want to edit. The background layer is the one you want to edit. Make the subject layer not visible so you can see the difference when you edit it and add the subject layer back in.
To edit the background layer, simply make sure it is the only one visible, then select Filter on the Menu bar. In the filter menu, hover over blur, then in the dropdown menu that appears, select Gaussian Blur. You can select the area of the picture that you want to see in the preview box. The preview will be small and zoomed in. Change the radius to your desired bluriness and click OK. Now make the subject layer visible so you can see how well blended the subject border is. If the border is too visible, try a lower radius in your Gaussian Blur. I always find it handy to have my History visible as well so I can go back to a previous stage in the editing if I don't like what I've ended up with.
This is an effective trick for portraits. Here are my first attempts. The first one worked, but I was still trying to get the hang of it. I'm going to play around with it some more and see what I come up with.
I've been learning about Depth of Field and Bokeh. With the 35mm lens, we get some shots with a good bokeh, but sometimes I want it on a shot and just can't manage it or the subject doesn't sit still long enough. Well, there's a way to create an artificial bokeh.
I used Photoshop in the past, but I always had trouble with the Select tools. I think I may have figured out some way that works. What I did is I used the paintbrush select tool, also known as Quick Select, to select the subject I wanted to remain in focus. It's a smart select kind of option so it should get the basic outline of your subject. To fine tune your selection, zoom in and select the areas that need to be closer to the subject. If you accidentally select into the subject, right click and choose the "Select Inverse" option. Fine tune as close as you can get to your subject. This part might take a little time depending on how much of a perfectionist you are.
Once you are satisfied with your selection of the subject, right click and choose the "Layer via Copy" option. Make sure your layer menu is visible so you can choose which layer you want to edit. The background layer is the one you want to edit. Make the subject layer not visible so you can see the difference when you edit it and add the subject layer back in.
To edit the background layer, simply make sure it is the only one visible, then select Filter on the Menu bar. In the filter menu, hover over blur, then in the dropdown menu that appears, select Gaussian Blur. You can select the area of the picture that you want to see in the preview box. The preview will be small and zoomed in. Change the radius to your desired bluriness and click OK. Now make the subject layer visible so you can see how well blended the subject border is. If the border is too visible, try a lower radius in your Gaussian Blur. I always find it handy to have my History visible as well so I can go back to a previous stage in the editing if I don't like what I've ended up with.
This is an effective trick for portraits. Here are my first attempts. The first one worked, but I was still trying to get the hang of it. I'm going to play around with it some more and see what I come up with.
Before Artificial Bokeh
After Artificial Bokeh
Before Artificial Bokeh
After Artificial Bokeh
Let me know what you think! If you have any tips that would make this more efficient, please let me know! If you need me to clarify, ask away! If you have any neat tricks, I would love to hear about them!
Update: If you have several areas that you would like blurred, like the area between the dogs paws in the picture above, first of all make sure there are no selections in the background layer. Use the Quick Select tool again to select the area. Right click, layer via copy, and now you have two layers with background! To merge them together, make the subject layer invisible and right click on one of the visible layers. Near the bottom of the list there should be an option to merge the visible layers. Do that, and the blur will affect everything in the background!
Random side note: Apparently I have an issue with typing. Every time I tried to write bokeh, I would write bokey. Not sure why...
Update: If you have several areas that you would like blurred, like the area between the dogs paws in the picture above, first of all make sure there are no selections in the background layer. Use the Quick Select tool again to select the area. Right click, layer via copy, and now you have two layers with background! To merge them together, make the subject layer invisible and right click on one of the visible layers. Near the bottom of the list there should be an option to merge the visible layers. Do that, and the blur will affect everything in the background!
Random side note: Apparently I have an issue with typing. Every time I tried to write bokeh, I would write bokey. Not sure why...