Different blur effects. Is it possible to create this kind of blur?

[stormtrooper2212]

Hi everyone,

I was looking for a way to make a blur effect like this one:

(Not me on the picture)
I've been trying out all sorts of different ways in CS5. Although I know I am no shark at this, I was thinking there might be a way !

/Storm

 

[Tom Mann]

The blur looks just like it came straight out of a camera using a fairly fast (ie, f/2.8 or faster) medium to short-tele lens. I doubt it was done in PS. If it was done in PS, the best way would be to take an OOF (out-of-focus) picture of a scene suitable for a background, and take a separate photo of the subject, remove the background from that photo, and put what remains (ie, the intended subject) on top of the more blurry background from the first photo.

Of course, there are many different lens blur filters available, both optical (ie, things you screw on to the front of your lens) and software-based. The lens blur filter in the latest CC version of PS is supposed to have improved from the old versions, but IMHO, it still doesn't look like real lens blur from any lens I've ever seen. There area also several 3rd party lens blur plugins for PS. IMHO, one of the best is the one in OnOne Software's Perfect Efx ... but it's still not the real thing.

Tom M

 

[IamSam]

Hello ST2212 and welcome to PSG.

I agree with Tom that this image was created in camera.

There are many ways to accomplish this type of effect, here is one.

If you have an image like this one..........(not me in the picture)



Duplicate the image twice (2) and turn off the original.

On the first duplicate, right click the layer and select 'Convert to smart object'.
Then add a Gaussian Blur. Since we converted the layer to a smart object, we can go back and adjust the blur if needed.



On the second duplicate layer, add a layer mask.
With the selection process of your choosing, mask out the subject that you don't want to be blurred.
Here's what the mask looks like.....



And this is how your final image will appear.