Strong Focus for Killer Portraits

Phew, that was tedious! Well we’re finally done and I promise that you won’t have to do anymore extracting. Everything after this is easy. We’re going to blur the background now. First, select back the background layer. Then, choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Adjust the radius to make the background blur. I had to use a very strong blur to make the background unrecognizable.

Now we’re going to increase the focus by adding a vignette. Vignettes are usually frown upon as a flaw with lens, but they can be helpful with enhancing the focus in a photo. To add a vignette, we’ll use the Lens Correction tool. Choose Filter > Distort > Lens Correction. In the Vignette setting, set the amount to -100.

Here’s the before and after of the vignette. Notice how your eye moves around less when looking at the photo with the vignette?

Final outcome and conclusion

Here’s the before and after comparison. The original image had a confusing background and is lacking focus. By adding a strong blur to the background, the image is now a lot easier to focus.

However, this effect should only be used if necessary. That is because this effect doesn’t look real - no camera can create this effect. This effect will look great in a set of photos (ex. wedding package), but only once or twice. Just like photos shot with lensbabies lens, they look interesting the first or second time, but when done for the third time, they’ll look bad.

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Written by admin on February 9th, 2008 with 25 comments.
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25 comments

Read the comments left by other users below, or:

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?

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.

GraphX
#3. February 10th, 2008, at 2:14 AM.

tuto too long… not a trend

gadsf
#4. February 10th, 2008, at 11:27 AM.

you blurred it too much… little less would look better

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.

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.

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.

paulo
#8. February 11th, 2008, at 6:39 AM.

thanks you good tutorial

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sarah
#16. February 15th, 2008, at 1:53 AM.

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

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!

Melinda
#18. March 3rd, 2008, at 5:19 PM.

Very nice tutorial. Thanks a bunch!

pmcdonald
#19. March 15th, 2008, at 9:05 PM.

Nice Work. It is a good tutorial.

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

faygh
#21. March 28th, 2008, at 2:55 PM.

please send to mail sample photoshop

stasha
#22. May 5th, 2008, at 4:03 PM.

Super, this was the easiest and best way.

k
#23. May 15th, 2008, at 8:34 AM.

yey

Sexy Cheese
#24. November 16th, 2008, at 11:59 PM.

you gots skillz.

Cora Judd
#25. December 31st, 2008, at 10:20 PM.

This has all the essentials of a good tutorial: specific, simple, successful and easily modified to suit my own goals. Well done! The “critics” who don’t like the image or the result are missing the point.

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