Not too long ago, one of my favorite bloggers posted this picture on Flickr:
When I commented on how I much I liked it, she responded with something along the lines of, "… but she's not blurry enough." So I thought I'd give Maria (and you too!) a quick how-to on how to make someone or something in your background "blurry enough."
(I'm using Photoshop CS2 in the following screenshots, but the tools used are generally available in most image processing programs.)
- Step 1: Open up your image in Photoshop and scale it to a comfortable working size.
- Step 2: Select the "Lasso" tool (the one that looks aptly like a lasso), setting the feather somewhere between 5 – 10, and loosely draw around the area of the photo that you want to keep sharp and in focus. [Click the image to enlarge.]
- Step 3: (Optional): Sharpen this selected area using your favorite sharpening method (Filter > Sharpen). I used the Smart Sharpen for this example.
- Step 4: Once everything is nice and sharp, right-click on your picture and select "Select Inverse" from the menu. This will select everything else- which should be the areas that you'd like to keep/make "blurry."
- Step 5: In your toolbar, go to Filter > Blur. Using your favorite method (I used a Gaussian Blur here), adjust until you've achieved the desired results.
- Step 6: That's it! Finish out the edit as you normally would (reduce noise, sharpen, resize, et cetera) and save.
Now doesn't that sandwich just look yummy???
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Judith is a liberal , tattooed, book-loving, mother of three who prides herself on her ability to survive solely on Diet Coke and the half-eaten animal crackers that live at the bottom of her purse. She and her alter-ego, Courtney, can be found at her blog, The Only Thing I Know.
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Wow! It looks so good! Even the sandwich looks better!