There are photos wherein we have the center of interest (CI) and the background pin sharp. In this situation, the center of interest tends to blend in with the background, thus, the photo struggles to pull-in the viewer to one focal point. A blurred background will make the CI stand out giving the viewer a clearer image.
There are several methods in bluring the background. In this tutorial, I’ll be discussing my workflow in achieving this.
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Open a photo that needs a background to be blurred and create a duplicate layer of the original image. You can do this by pressing CTRL-J or going to LAYER>DUPLICATE LAYER then press OK:
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On the duplicate layer, we will identify the area in the background we want to blur. Press “M” or go to the toolbar and select RECTANGULAR MARQUEE TOOL:
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Select the entire area from the back up to a few feet behind the Street Sweeper:
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To make the blur realistic, we need to set it in a graduated manner. We’re going to set the feather radius at 150 for this photo. Press <<ALT+CTRL+D>> or go to SELECT>FEATHER and set the value at 150:
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In the selection we just made, we want to exclude the Street Sweeper (center of interest) from being part of the area for blurring:
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To carve out the Street Sweeper from the selection, we will use a POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL or press “L”. Press ALT (shortcut for subtracting selection) from the starting point of the Sweeper. You should get an end result as follows:
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We will then create a new layer for our selection. We will use this new layer to blur the background. Do this by pressing CTRL-J or going to LAYER>NEW>LAYER VIA COPY. Note that in your layer window you have a new layer of the background (as shown below):
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We will then blur the new background layer by selecting Lens Blur filter from FILTER>BLUR>LENS BLUR:
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The Lens Blur dialog box will then pop-up. For this exercise, we will only change SHAPE:Pentagon(5) and RADIUS:17. Remember bluring the background depends on the how much blur you want, my selection is just a guide. The click OK. Refer to the image below (click it to view enlarged version):
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That’s it, we just blurred the background, thus focusing the viewers attention to the Street Sweeper:
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To finalize our work, we need to flatten all the layers we created. Go to LAYER>FLATTEN IMAGE to do this:
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We can compare a close up image of the original photo vs the finished photo. You be the judge which is a better photo:
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ORIGINAL:
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BLURRED BACKGROUND
April 15, 2009 at 5:39 pm
This is very up-to-date info. I’ll share it on Delicious.
January 13, 2009 at 12:08 am
Hi Ronald,
I’ll try to answer your queries one by one…
1. Yes, once a photo is altered or manipulated in any way, it then becomes an artwork. To alter or manipulate an image means adding/subtracting elements, selective blurring/focusing, selective exposure adjustments, etc.
2. Altering or manupulating a photo doesnt mean you dont have the “eye” for capturing a good photo. Sometime we are limited with equipment we have or it wasnt the perfect condition when a photo was taken.
3. Blurring is much simple if we use the right equipment. Generally it is difficult to separate the subject & background using a point & shoot compact camera (even with aperture priority). The construction of a compact camera (lens & sensor size) gives it an enormous depth of field (even at f/2.8), thus difficult to blur background from the subject.
4. I seldom use photoshop to blur the backgrounds because I have the right equipment. But I do use photoshop when I don’t get what I want at the shooting stage (like exposure adjustment, saturation, correcting color cast, mostly general adjustments)
5. Some people cant affort to buy a SLR or DSLR so they use a compact. Some people who use a SLR cant affort a telephoto lens so they use a standard zoom or kit lens (which will suffice blurring a background given the right arrangement of elements). These are some of the limitations equipment-wise.
6. It’s ok using a wide angle lens to separate the subject & background just make sure there is some distance between them. You can use selective focusing on this.
7. Nobody’s right or wrong here. What’s important is what the photographer wants. If the he wants to use photoshop to blur the background, that’s fine. It doesn’t make him less knowlegeable or artistic. If the photog has the money to buy Canon EOS-1Ds MarkIII with an EF 70-200L IS f/2.8 lens so he doesnt have to use photoshop, then good for him. It’s all about choices…
Keep on shootin’
Cheers, Jun
January 12, 2009 at 4:59 pm
if its difficult to blur the background using compaq camera then use SLR camera, if your subject is near the background then use long telephoto lens to limit the angle of perspective, if your lens is not capable of 2.8 then try another composition and vantage point, try using wide angle lens so the subject can be exagerated that even if the background is not blur it will merge with the subject. please sir correct me if i am wrong coz i dont know how to shoot. i just read these in magazines
January 12, 2009 at 4:50 pm
if you result to photoshop then its not the real picture,which means you don’t have the eye… blurring the background is very simple thing to do in the viewfinder, do you always do this thing sir?…
January 8, 2009 at 10:22 pm
ronald,
i agree! nothing beats the real thing…
however, we are sometimes limited by our equipment or the position of the elements. for example:
1. it’ll be difficult to blur a background using a compact camera.
2. if your subject is near a background object/s.
3. if your lens is not capable of opening to f/2.8 or wider.
4. if you’re using a wide angle lens thus giving you a greater depth of field.
in which case, we need to use photoshop to do the blur.
cheers, jun…
January 8, 2009 at 4:46 pm
nice way to cheat…. its best to compose in the view finder
November 16, 2008 at 12:24 am
cool! results are excellent! great for tight spaces that you can’t get enough blurred background. thanks
August 14, 2008 at 11:48 pm
hi ace,
yup i agree its easier but the blur bleeds on the edges of the subject and backgound (or vice versa). my workflow is much tedious to do but it gives a more cleaner detail around the edges coz i separate the backgound from the subject before i blur it.
cheers!
August 13, 2008 at 4:59 am
try to use layer mask it will be much easier
April 3, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I think, this also has same procedure in making background black and white then the image in colored
February 26, 2008 at 12:19 am
Thaks a lot jun. Now, i need to practice some more. Watch out next time for some more requests for tutorial topics.