Photo Background Blur G11 & PSCS4

Since I can't get the same background blur from my G11 as I can with my 5D and 85MM f/1.2 I tried a PSCS4 on this G11 photo using the "Magic Lasso" to grab sections of the background and then the Filter --> Lens Blur Filter to apply the bluring effect. f/4, 1/100th, ISO 160, 6MM, here is the result:

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The chair legs by the woman on the right are attracting my eye towards them...

Yes, that area is like a magnet for my eyes too. Keep the chair in which the woman on the right is sitting sharp but blur the rest of chairs. It looks like you just blurred the top edge of those chairs to the far right. If you fix that area, I think it the fake lens blur is pretty effective.

Thanks! Good suggestion...I'll give it a try. Grabbing sections of the background is difficult where there is little contrast between objects in the photo. This is version #8 of the original...I keep finding things that don't look right. it is a tad bit of work but it does serve to make a decent photo even better

Man, nice job in all. I was trying it in PS elements and spent a lot of time only to have a really silly looking image. It was taking a lot of effort.

I think this is an ideal image for this function to be successful. You have a defined area of interest that is fairly easily separated from the rest of the scene. I have seen other attempts on more difficult scenes where it produced more of a "miniature effect" that is popular right now. That definitely looked fake.

after I make the selection (CS5 has some nice new options btw) I then expand it by something like 4px and then feather it by around 6 or 8 and find this give a less obtrusive edge. On this example I would probably also make the selection a layer and darken it with "curves". I generally go too far with both the blur and the curves and then fine tune it with the layer opacity.

here's a quick edit, it's a little funky because it's a selection of your already tweaked selection (problems with the hair mostly)

I also forgot to mention that when you do it as a layer you can also go back and fine tune some of it with the eraser tool and taper the opacity that way too.

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pwdieter wrote in post #11752061
here's a quick edit, it's a little funky because it's a selection of your already tweaked selection (problems with the hair mostly)

I also forgot to mention that when you do it as a layer you can also go back and fine tune some of it with the eraser tool and taper the opacity that way too.

Excellent. I hadn't thought to use layers...a great lesson here. Thanks!

That looks pretty good...would love to see the original too, just to see the difference...

LowriderS10 wrote in post #11756483
That looks pretty good...would love to see the original too, just to see the difference...

Here is the original...only adjustments are Light Balance and Sizing for POTN

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I have not tried anything like this before, but I'm interested now. I have Photoshop Elements 8, so I did a search and found this tutorial for those that might be interested. Open the PDF file shown under the demo photo. You can then save the PDF to your desktop.

http://www.adobe.com …ts/articles/blu​rring.html

Dennis

oh yeah...that definitely is a huge difference, thanks for posting the original