Looking for a new "background blurring" technique

[psben]

Hey all,

I'm hoping to get some tips on new techniques I can use to blur or remove distracting backgrounds from photos.

The usual kinda photo I'm working with is a portrait of someone in a challenging situation where I have no control over the background, usually there are people and bright colored objects behind my subject.

First I applied lens-blur and masked the subject but it takes time and my subject is usually white and it creates a blurry edge that looks ugly but by masking back and forth and a little cloning I can usually make it nice but it takes to much time..

After doing that for some time I created a background with a pixelated mosaic filter, it looks nice and people are pleased with the result but the problem is that the squares sometimes bleed color on the edges what makes it time consuming again.

So long story short:

Has anyone some good tips on how to take the focus of distracting backgrounds in a way that is fast to produce but looks classy at the same time?

Thanks,
Ben

 

[NemesisWorks]

Hello,

There is no magic way really but you have countless options to do this task like quickmask, Pen Tool, 3rd party plugins like Fluid Mask etc..

If you're really short on time then keep practicing quick mask and buy a tablet if you don't already have one !

 

[Tom Mann]

1. Make a nice accurate selection of the subject.

2. Copy only the subject (ie, without the background) to its own layer. There should be transparent pixels all around the subject.

3. Invert the selection and make a copy of just the background, ie, make a layer with a hole in it.

4. Move the subject-only layer to the top of the stack.

5. Blur the background-only layer to taste.

This will prevent the soft edges of the blurred background from washing over the subject. I use this technique all the time.

HTH,

Tom M