Strong Focus for Killer Portraits

When you’re done, you should have a green online around the model.

7

Select the fill tool and click inside the green outline to fill. If the entire image turns blue, there’s something wrong with the outline. If it is just the model, then everything is fine.

8

If your entire image turns blue when you fill, press Ctrl+Z to undo and zoom in on the outline to find the hole. Usually the hole will be where you started or ended the outline. Once you find the hole, switch back to the brush tool and fill in that hole.

9

Click the preview button and you should get a preview of the extraction.

10

We’re almost done, but we’ll need to cleanup the edges. Zoom into the edge and switch to the cleanup tool.

11

Brush around the edges and you should start to see the edges get smoother.

12

More pages: 1 2 3

Written by admin on February 9th, 2008 with 23 comments.
Read more articles on Photo Retouching and Photoshop Tutorials.

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23 comments

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Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Megan
#1. February 9th, 2008, at 10:57 PM.

Thanks for sample PSD… never seen this done before. I know a high-res PSD is big, but can you post that up?

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Lancer4Ever
#2. February 10th, 2008, at 1:39 AM.

You should go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise on the bottom layer. Otherwise, the noise on the background blur and portrait will not match.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com GraphX
#3. February 10th, 2008, at 2:14 AM.

tuto too long… not a trend

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com gadsf
#4. February 10th, 2008, at 11:27 AM.

you blurred it too much… little less would look better

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com avangelist
#5. February 11th, 2008, at 1:26 AM.

I totally agree, the background is so blurred that you have made the shot look wrong. There is no depth perception and in doing have removed the light source making the woman look blatently cut out and pasted.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com asdf
#6. February 11th, 2008, at 2:46 AM.

No offense, but that psd is a joke since it’s so small. It’s not full res and it’s actually smaller than some of the images in the tutorial html. If you want to give a psd for people to learn from you need to make everything as undo-able as possible IMO. In this case using a layer mask to hide instead of just deleteing the background would be preferable… you can use the extract filter and then use it as a layer mask on another layer. The original background layer should always be left untouched too if you’re going to be using the psd file to teach others.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Zero
#7. February 11th, 2008, at 5:49 AM.

Damn man, I don’t like the picture now. It was fine to begin with… sheesh.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com paulo
#8. February 11th, 2008, at 6:39 AM.

thanks you good tutorial

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Thomas
#9. February 11th, 2008, at 10:13 AM.

You blurred that background way too mutch. Im stilling wondering what that background is just for information.

50% less blur would been good, just a guess.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com stella
#10. February 11th, 2008, at 7:54 PM.

Can you post up the PSD of the first picture instead? The picture that says STRONG in the background.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com admin
#11. February 11th, 2008, at 8:47 PM.

Thanks for the tips asdf. You are correct that using a layer mask is the proper way to do it.

I tried to make this tutorial simple because I read a lot of comments on other sites about people complaining how long and complicated the tutorials are. That is why I chose not to use the non-destructive way to write this tutorial. I’ll make my next tutorials non-destructive.

Regarding the PSD, I cannot make it any bigger because it is a stock photo.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com admin
#12. February 11th, 2008, at 8:48 PM.

Hi Megan,

Sorry, I cannot post a high-res PSD because it is a stock photo that I do not have permission to distribute in a larger medium.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com admin
#13. February 11th, 2008, at 8:51 PM.

Hi avangelist,

I also prefer the image if it was less-blurred. I thought people like more abstract results because that is what I see on many photography forums. People are always asking how to create effects that do not look natural. I will try to keep the future Photoshop tutorials more natural looking.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com admin
#14. February 11th, 2008, at 8:56 PM.

Hi Lancer4Ever,

That’s a great idea! I actually never heard of this from anyone before.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Neil
#15. February 14th, 2008, at 6:21 AM.

Dude,

Nice TUT. I think its great that you are willing to share for the purpose of educating. I will use this .psd and learn from it. Keep up the good work.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Sarah
#16. February 15th, 2008, at 1:53 AM.

I think its a great tutorial specially for new designers. Keep it up!

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Cablekevin
#17. February 18th, 2008, at 8:15 AM.

I find all the coments quite sucky, when there is a good tutorial nobody gives the man a props, but when the tutorial sucks or is bad, you hear people scream like the world is going to it’s last days. I allready saw that 1 person said that it was to blurry, i don’t think its really helpfull if 20 ppl will say it. Bad of the blur, after all a good tutorial i guess!

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Melinda
#18. March 3rd, 2008, at 5:19 PM.

Very nice tutorial. Thanks a bunch!

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com pmcdonald
#19. March 15th, 2008, at 9:05 PM.

Nice Work. It is a good tutorial.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Chris
#20. March 24th, 2008, at 11:29 AM.

Hi, would it be possible for a tutorial to be posted on how to get a background on the photo using the image that has been extracted?

Im not entirely sure if it is possible but i would love to learn how if it is possible! Im a beginer if you cannot tell!

thanks,
Chris

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com faygh
#21. March 28th, 2008, at 2:55 PM.

please send to mail sample photoshop

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com stasha
#22. May 5th, 2008, at 4:03 PM.

Super, this was the easiest and best way.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com k
#23. May 15th, 2008, at 8:34 AM.

yey

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