Need help with background blur

[Tom Green]

Just got back from Alaska and have some shots of eagles that need the background with more blur to isolate the subject. I was using 100-400 IS USM at 400 with a 1.4 extender. Was not able to get a wide enough aperature to blur the background as much as I would like. Do any of you pros have a workflow that might cure this problem. Am running Photoshop CS. The blur tool doesn't seem to get it done. Any help would be appreciated.

[Faiser]

You need to use LENS BLUR for this. That's a blur method new in PSCS specifically for creating realistic background blur.

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/tutorials/tutorial_9.htm

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[ohenry]

Quick and dirty method. Isolate the subject that you want to remain sharp and put it on its own layer. Go back to the full image layer and use guassian blur to the effect you desire.

[vfilby]

I think this is worth mentioning:

What you will want to do is isolate the subject, as said above, into its own layer. Now go to the background layer that you want to blur and use the clone tool to fill in a fake background where the subject is. By doing this you won't get halos around the subject from the subject in the background layer being blurred. Even if you just remove the subject and leave it white or transparent you will still get halos.

You may want to duplicate that layer now and blur the top one. Doing this allows you to use layer masks to give the blur so graduation, so you can actually see the image go slowly from sharp to blurred. It also allows you to control the overall amount of blur.

Cheers,

[Tom Green]

I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to reply to my post. The information is great.