The main methods of blurring in Photoshop - theory and practice. How to Easily Make a Blurred Background in Photoshop Using Three Cool Methods
Adobe Photoshop is one of the best editors. It is not like other programs because it has many different functions and high quality.
Photoshop was developed almost twenty years ago, and it still occupies a well-deserved first place. This program was created for processing photographs, including blurring the background.
Several interesting and simple ways will help you blur the background beautifully.
The first method is Gaussian blur.
Not many people like this method, but it is very simple. What should be done?
First, open the photo in Photoshop and press Ctrl+J. This creates a second layer similar to the first. Now you can go to the “Layers” window and find the file called “Layer 1”, which you will need to blur.
Go to the “Filter” window, select “Blur” - “Gaussian Blur”. The degree of blur can be adjusted as desired using the slider. It would be optimal to leave 5-7 pixels.
Now you need to create a layer mask. To do this, go to “Layers” again and select “Layer Mask” - “Show All”. It looks like nothing has changed, but in fact a rectangle has appeared on "Layer 1".
The next step is to select the Brush tool. You can set any diameter, whatever is more convenient. Hardness – 20.
In the palette, select black color, click on the white rectangle in “Layer 1” and slowly, slowly, begin to paint in those places that should remain sharp. The challenge is to draw a shape that doesn't need to be blurred.
The photo is almost ready, all that remains is to work on the outline of the object. Change the brush color from black to white and reduce the size. Now we will remove the sharpness, i.e. the black brush enhances the sharpness, and the white brush blurs it.
If a dark halo appears around an object, it can be removed using a stamp. First, connect all the layers. Then again go to the “Layers” tab and click “Perform flattening”. Next, you need to select the “Stamp” tool (6-8%) and remove all unnecessary artifacts. The photo is ready.
The second method is radial or ray blur.
This method is loved by many users, because it is easy to use and even a schoolchild can do it.
First of all, you need to separate the main photo from the background. For this we will use the “Mask” tool. Be sure to check that the colors are set to black/white.
Take the Brush tool and begin to slowly paint over the part that we want to separate from the background. It can be any object. When a certain item is selected, you need to click on the button located to the left of the “Quick Mask” button. This will return your image to normal mode and the object will be highlighted.
We perform the combination Ctrl+J. So, the selected background is copied to a new layer.
When all the settings are in place, click OK and the result is obvious. The photo is ready!
The third method is the archive brush
This method is similar to the first. Load the required photo into Photoshop and apply Gaussian Blur.
If the photo was very blurred and does not seem real, then you can sharpen the edge of the image. But it is impossible to correct a very blurry image.
You need to adjust the sharpness in each individual layer. And before adding sharpening, set the “Brightness Overlay” mode.
When sharpening is added to a photo, the contrast of the image increases. In this case, you need to change the layer blending mode.
Before sharpening, you need to reduce the noise in your photo. If this is not done, then the noise will increase.
It is advisable to adjust the sharpness gradually and in several steps. The degree of sharpness depends on the output device.
Additional tips:
- The main thing is that processing the photo does not change the essence of the original image. Use light correction.
- You should not use several filters on one photo. This will already be too much.
- Create your own interesting treatments. It's better not to imitate the style of other people's works. A foreign style may not always fit perfectly with your photo.
- It is better to always delete unsuccessful pictures. Usually in such cases no processing can save the image.
Nowadays, photographs with blurred backgrounds are gaining popularity. After all, from the outside, such images look colorful and interesting. If the user has a program such as Photoshop installed, then no difficulties will arise. The main thing here is to know the basics and be able to apply the simplest blur to a photo.
Each person can choose a more simplified method for himself, which will not seem too difficult to him.
You definitely need to listen to the advice and recommendations of specialists who know everything about the program. After all, if you overdo it with blur, the image will deteriorate and seem unrealistic.
When taking a photograph, if you open the aperture as much as possible, you can achieve an interesting effect - the main object, due to blurring the background, becomes as if separated from it. This is written in more detail in my article about. But in some cases, for example if the lens was not wide open or both the subject and background are close to each other and far from the photographer, they come out equally sharp. To fix this and make our photos more expressive, we can blur the background in Photoshop. This is relatively easy to do, but you need to have at least a basic understanding of the application in Photoshop.
As an example, let's take a photo of a girl taken on the Photo Forum. The lens aperture was opened as wide as possible - up to F4.0, with a focal length of 105 mm. But this value, with a sufficiently large distance to the subject, did not allow the background to be blurred greatly and the photo turned out not very interesting because background details distract attention to themselves.
Let's try to improve it by blurring the background. The procedure will be as follows: open the photo in Photoshop, then copy the layer, then apply a blur to the copy and “cover” the shape with a mask so that the bottom layer is visible, because she must remain sharp.
So, let's begin. We open the photo in Photoshop, we have one layer, actually it. To copy this layer, go to the menu “ Layer» (« Layer"), select " New» (« New") And " Layer via Copy» (« Layer via copying") or just press Ctrl+J on keyboard. We now have a second layer exactly the same as the initial layer.
The program automatically moved us to the top layer. This is where we will do the blur. Go to the menu " Filter» (« Filters"), find the item " Blur» (« Blur") and select " Gaussian Blur» (« Gaussian blur«).
There is only one slider in the window that changes the degree of blur. You can stop at any value that seems appropriate, while we are looking only at the background, because we will then completely remove the blur from the main subject. After we have selected the desired value, we apply blur.
Now we need to add a mask to the blurred layer to “reveal” the girl. On the menu " Layer» (« Layer"), we find " Layer Mask» (« Layer mask") and select " Reveal All» (« show all"). Nothing has changed, but a white rectangle appears to the right of the layer.
Select the brush tool on the left palette, at the top in the tool panel we need to change the parameter “ Hardness» (« Rigidity") brushes, this is done so that when painting on a mask we do not have sharp edges when moving from one layer to another. The value can be set from 20 to 40%, the more, the harder the edges and the rougher the transition will be.
Now we begin to paint over the girl’s figure in the photograph, while it becomes sharp, this is the bottom layer that appears. If you painted over something too much, then it’s okay, you just need to select the white color on the left and carefully correct the problem area.
The elements of the dress in the photo below right will present some difficulty. They need to be carefully outlined with a small-diameter brush; the work is painstaking, but otherwise the effect will turn out unnatural.
As a result, we will get something like this. In my opinion, the option with the background blurred in Photoshop looks better.
In some cases, to make your photo look more interesting, you need to make sure that the background behind the person or subject is blurred. Using a professional camera, you will do this without any problems. But if you have a very ordinary lens or you have already worked on the photo and replaced the background image, then you can blur the background using a computer and Adobe Photoshop.
You can read about how you can cut out a person in Photoshop and replace the background for a photo by following the link. In this article, let's look at two ways that will help make a blurred background on a photo in Photoshop.
In the first, we will use creating a new layer with a mask.
Open the desired image: “File” – “Open” or “Ctrl+O”.
Let's go to the layers palette and create a duplicate of the background layer. Right-click on the “Background” layer and select “Duplicate Layer” from the menu.
Let's name the created copy of the background layer "Layer 1", click "OK".
In the Layers palette, the “Layer 1” layer should remain selected. Now apply Gaussian blur to it. Click on the “Filter” tab and select “Blur” – “Gaussian Blur”.
A dialog box will appear. In it, use the slider to select the blur radius, the result can be immediately seen in the photo. If nothing changes in the main photo, check the Preview box. Click OK.
Let's create a mask for the layer "Layer 1". Leave it selected in the layers palette and click on the “Add layer mask” icon.
From the toolbar, select the “Brush Tool”. Black should be chosen as the primary color, white as the secondary color. Select the desired size and move the black brush over the person or object that you want to remain clear in the photo. If you accidentally erased the wrong blurred area, change the brush color to white and drag your mouse over it.
The girl in the photo becomes clear, but the background behind her remains blurry. To correct the edges, let’s zoom in on the photo and go over the girl with a small black brush, and over the background with a white brush.
In the layers palette on the mask, those parts that we brushed over will be highlighted in black.
As a result, we will get the following image: Now the background behind the girl is a little blurry.
Let's move on to the second method. here we make a copy of the layer and select the desired object.
Let's hide the image for which we made the background blurry in the previous way: remove the eye opposite the layer “Layer 1”.
Let's create a copy of the background layer. Right-click on “Background” and select “Duplicate Layer”.
Let's name the new layer "Layer 2". Leave it selected in the Layers palette.
To blur the background of the photo, apply a Gaussian blur filter to the “Layer 2” layer. Open the dialog box as described above, select the appropriate radius and click “OK”.
Now you need to unlock the background layer. To do this, click on the “Background” layer twice with the mouse, in the next window you don’t need to change anything, click “OK”. After this, the name of the background layer will change to “Layer 0”, and the lock opposite will disappear.
Leave “Layer 0” selected on the layers palette. On it you need to highlight the object that should remain clear in the photograph. We will highlight the girl.
Select “Quick Selection Tool” from the toolbar. Set up a suitable brush size and click on the girl with the mouse, thus expanding the selection area - it will be highlighted with a dotted line. If you mistakenly select an extra fragment, hold down “Alt” and click on it with the mouse.
There are various ways to make selections in Photoshop. By following the link, read the article and choose the one that suits your property best. Then the selection will not take much time.
Against a blurred background, let’s leave the girl and the packages in front clear. After we select them, in the layers palette we put “Layer 0” in front of the “Layer 2” layer - we applied blur to it, it will be used as a background layer.
Invert the selection: press “Ctrl+Shift+I”. We do this so that the entire photo is selected, except for the girl with the bags.
Click "Delete" to delete everything selected on the layer "Layer 0". You can remove the selection using the key combination “Ctrl+D”.
So we made a blurry background in Photoshop for a photo. First, we created a duplicate of the main layer “Layer 2” and applied a filter to it. Then the background layer “Background” was unlocked and it became “Layer 0”. Select the girl on “Layer 0” and place the layer in front of the “Layer 2” layer. Then we inverted the selected fragment and removed the background to “Layer 0”. As a result, the blurred background on “Layer 2” was substituted for the girl cut out on a transparent background on the layer “Layer 0”.
How much effort photographers sometimes have to put in and what kind of tricks they resort to in order to extract sharpness from a not entirely successful photo, using the appropriate tools in the Photoshop program. But it turns out that many users, on the contrary, are interested in blurring a photo in Photoshop, although not at all in order to spoil the picture, but for artistic purposes (for example, in a group photo you can highlight yourself, protecting yourself from blurring, and everyone else around "smear")
Of course, the main impact of the editor is focused on increasing the sharpness of photographs, but the arsenal of blurring tools is also solid, and we still need to figure out which tools are more numerous - either blurring or clarifying. But in any case, blurs are one of the most used filters, and the number of blurring agents is growing almost from version to version. For example, in Photoshop CS5 there were 10 blur filters, and in CS6 there are already 14 of them.
All the power of blurring tools in Photoshop is concentrated in the “Blur” submenu, in the “Filter” menu (Blur). It would take a long time to list the goals and reasons for blur, but in the vast majority of cases, the main goal of such processing is to highlight the main object by defocusing the background space and giving volume to the image as a whole.
"Blur" and "Blur+" filters
The simplest remedy for sharpening is the Blur tool in Photoshop. It has no settings, so no parameters are required. Blur “with a plus” means blurring even more, and if not enough, the Ctrl+F key combination will start reprocessing.
Gaussian blur
This is perhaps the most popular (of blurring tools) tool that uses a Gaussian blur algorithm. Here you can use the "Radius" slider to select the appropriate degree of blur. Also simple, as in the previous case, but much more effective.
Frame Blur
This filter is also adjusted only by the radius engine, but its operating algorithm differs from the previous filter. Here, blurring occurs by averaging the colors of neighboring pixels, and the engine changes this averaged area.
"Intelligent" blur
The smartest thing is called “Smart…”, and this filter really lives up to its name, although in the Russian “Photoshop” the word “smart” is in quotation marks, but in the English version it is not (Smart Blur). Here, in addition to the blur radius, you can set the threshold and processing quality, and also select one of the additional blending modes, in addition to the default one ("Manual", also known as the "Normal" mode).
Radial blur
Depending on the selected blurring method, the filter allows you to simulate the blurring of the picture caused by turning the camera, when the image remains sharp in the center and is blurred at the periphery (ring method), or to obtain the effect that occurs when the camera moves sharply (Linear/Zoom). The strength of the blur is adjusted with the "Quantity" slider, but you can also select the center of the effect (with the mouse) and the quality of the output image.
Simulate image blur when shooting dynamic objects
Using the Motion Blur filter, Photoshop creates the characteristic blurring effect in a photograph that is obtained when shooting a fast-moving object. Therefore, in addition to the intensity of the effect, which is controlled by the “Displacement/Shift” slider, the direction of movement (angle) is naturally set.
Surface Blur
Despite the fact that the name of the Surface Blur filter is translated as “surface blur,” in some versions of Photoshop it is for some reason called “Surface Blur.”
This discriminating filter blurs the image while preserving lines and edges to the best of its ability and your settings, so it is often used to combat grain and digital noise by manipulating the Radius and Isohelium parameters.
Mysterious average blur
There is one such blur in Photoshop (Average), the activity of which can hardly be called blur, because this filter simply completely fills the entire image or selected area with the average color of this image or fragment.
If you apply this filter to the entire image on its duplicate, and then lower the opacity of the copy, you can tonally equalize the image, but for such purposes it is not the wisest solution. But if you blur and average some fragment and, lowering the opacity, make an inscription on it, it can turn out interesting.
Lens blur
This is the literal translation of the English name of the Lens Blur filter, which in Russian versions of the Photoshop program is called “Low Blur.” This blur in Photoshop is used in cases where ideal sharpness in the entire photograph is not satisfactory for compositional or other reasons, that is, when only a certain area or object should remain in focus. We only need to indicate to the filter what should be closer in the image and what should be further away, creating a so-called depth map, which can serve as, for example, one built in the alpha channel. linear or circular gradient from black to white.
A savvy filter, calculating the blurring algorithm, will immediately understand that the black areas are those closest to the camera. They are followed by all shades of gray as they move away. Well, the white areas are as far away from the camera as possible, and here you need to perform intensive background blur. The filter will do everything else in the best possible way, obeying the settings that we specify to it.
An alpha channel (empty) is created in the channels palette with the corresponding button and, opening the eye in the RGB line to see the photo itself, fill it with a black and white gradient, drawing a line from the closest point to the farthest one, which should correspond to the desired viewing angle.
Then you need to close the visibility of the alpha channel, return to the RGB channel and turn on the Lens Blur filter. Next, in the “Source” list, select our alpha channel and click on the area of the image that should be in focus (or set the distance to the focal point using the “Focal Length Blur” slider). Well, use the “Radius” slider to select the blur strength (degree of defocus). The remaining settings are very subtle effects that are rarely used for ordinary photographs, so click OK and note with satisfaction how realistic the blur is in Photoshop. It can simulate the depth of field of the depicted space.
Manual blurring "Photoshop tools". How to use your finger to smudge photos
Along with filters (plugins) for blurring, which I do all the “dirty work” for us, Photoshop also provides tools for manual work for the same purposes, which can be used to do almost everything that filters can do, and even a little more, and maybe better (after all, handmade). We are talking about two of the three, deprived of hotkeys and headed by the Blur Tool.
By design, this is a brush whose pressure function is performed by the “Intensity” parameter in the settings. Depending on the size and hardness of the selected brush, the Blur Tool can blur the entire image or details in a certain area at once. Replacing sharp edges with smooth transitions, the tool skillfully softens the contours, and if you hold the mouse button down, it will work like a brush in spray mode, enhancing the effect. In good hands, this tool can do almost anything, in any case, with such a task as making a blurred background, the Blur Tool can handle it easily.
The Finger Tool, also known as the Smudge Tool, really smudges the drawing, as if you were running your finger over a freshly painted painting. The strength of the effect is also regulated by the “Intensity” parameter, but unlike the neighboring tool, there is also a function by selecting which (check the box), we will smear with the first color. “Finger” finds practical application, for example, in drawing the finest details when highlighting complex objects such as hair, wool, fur, and so on, as well as in a kind of imitation of painting.
Blurred edges
With such a powerful arsenal of tools, techniques and blurring methods that can turn an ordinary photo into a marvelous artistic canvas, blurring edges for Photoshop is as easy as pie. To do this, you need to select an area that should not be subject to the effect, and blur the periphery by selecting one of the above filters. But most often “Gaussian Blur” is used for this purpose.
If standard tools are used for selection, then to obtain a smooth border, set a feather for them (at the top or in the “Selection > Modify” menu). And if the “Quick Mask” (Q) is used for this purpose, the smoothness of the transition is controlled by the opacity of the brush.
In all cases, the selection must be inverted (Shift+Ctrl+I), otherwise the image itself will be blurred, not the edges. By the way, it is not necessary to use a selection, since you can blur the edges manually using the Blur Tool.
New filters
In the version of Photoshop CS6, blur filters have arrived to the shelf. In the “Blur” submenu, the newcomers are located separately at the very top, defiantly separated from the old filters by a line. These “upstarts” are called Field Blur, Iris Blur and Tilt-Shift, and they, having a special interface, can create realistic depth of field in photos.
Unlike older “colleagues” of previous versions (including Photoshop CS5), the algorithms of the new filters are designed in such a way as to allow the user to perform selective focusing by working with controls directly on the image.
