Immitating DOF blur

[kbreit]

If I take a picture at say F/4 and realize "Hey, I want the background to be more blury than it is", is there a reliable and high quality way that I can use PS to immitate the blur?

[ohenry]

Certainly. Isolate the subject onto a separate layer, apply a feathering of 2-3 pixels, then use gausian blur on the background layer until you get the effect you were looking for.

[MCB]

One way would be to use a gradient in a layer mask.

Have a blurred layer overtop of your regular layer. You can use the lens blur in Photoshop CS/CS2 and it looks pretty good. Then add a layer mask to that top, blurred layer. In your mask, use a gradient going from black (can't see the upper, blurred layer) to white (can't see any of the in-focus layer below). Then you can edit the mask as you see fit to make sure any foreground elements are masked out of the blur layer.

Reliable? i guess.... if you take the time to make a mask appropriate for your image, then I guess you could say it's reliable. high quality? compared to what? real bokeh? probably not... But it's easy and it works. Maybe worth a try if you can't find another way.

[AjP]

agree with MCB the only way I know to create DOF is by using gradient layer mask and then aplly lens blur

[ryno4youth]

Popular Photography has a great artical on this month.

[AndreyD]

I have this PS plugin also, but did not figured out how to use it yet, should be another way to do a depth of field you want.
http://www.richardrosenman.com/photoshop.htm