Gaussian blur question

GM
Posted By
Gene_Meador
Apr 28, 2004
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363
Replies
21
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Closed
Love Elements 2, but I got a qustion. Say you have a white ball against some trees (background), and you want to blur the trees more. I copy the scene in a layer, remove everything except the ball, and gaussian blur the background. Fine- ball’s sharp, trees are blurred. The problem is that the white of the ball also blurs (pixles spread out in all directions) so it looks like there’s a fuzzy white halo around the ball. Rats. So I go back and remove the ball in the background before blurring. Now there’s no white to "leak" over creating the halo effect. Finally, a crisp white ball, fuzzy background, no halo from the ball. (Hope all this makes sense!)

Is this the way to do it? Is there a better way?
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Susan_S.
Apr 28, 2004
That’s the way I do it (particulalry with light objects on a dark background or vice vers – similar tones and colours are less affected) – I use cut and paste rather than copy and paste to cut out the foreground and put it on a new layer (preserving an uncut version of the background in case I want to rejig afterwards). With a heavy blur, the transparency can also spread about the image giving an odd effect – by locking the transparency on the background layer in the layer palette before blurring you can prevent this happening, although it changes the blur a bit.
Susan S.
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Apr 29, 2004
That is one of the great things about the new lens blur filter in CS, for those of you who have it–it preserves the edges of the blurred area. Quite amazing.
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Apr 29, 2004
Barbara, I’m resisting the upgrade….not sure how much longer I’ll be able to hold off….

🙂
J
jhjl1
Apr 29, 2004
Chuck, I played with CS at a friends yesterday and just can’t convince myself to do it yet.

—
Have A Nice Day, 🙂
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/
wrote in message
Barbara, I’m resisting the upgrade….not sure how much longer I’ll be
able to hold off….
🙂
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Apr 29, 2004
James, it’s competing with the lens fund – and CS isn’t winning at the moment.

🙂
J
jhjl1
Apr 29, 2004
I’m in complete agreement.

—
Have A Nice Day, 🙂
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/
wrote in message
James, it’s competing with the lens fund – and CS isn’t winning at the
moment.
🙂
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Apr 29, 2004
Chuck, I have it because I need it to work in CMYK, but otherwise–well, it has some really cool features but I would hope that some of those will trickle down to PE 3, whenever that appears.
RR
Raymond Robillard
Apr 29, 2004
Barbara, I’m resisting the upgrade….not sure how much longer I’ll be able to hold off….

🙂

Say… 72 hours.. Just in time for the week end.. 😉

Ray
DN
DS_Nelson
Apr 29, 2004
Yup, I love the lens blur in CS. If anyone’s interested, I could post a couple images later tonight that show what it’s capable of, even in untalented hands like mine.
J
jhjl1
Apr 29, 2004
I’m interested.

—
Have A Nice Day, 🙂
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/
wrote in message
Yup, I love the lens blur in CS. If anyone’s interested, I could post
a couple images later tonight that show what it’s capable of, even in untalented hands like mine.
JH
Jim_Hess
Apr 29, 2004
Haven’t tried to the lens blur feature yet. But I really like the Highlight/Shadow adjustment and the photo filters. Using the Highlight/Shadow adjustment feature it seems that I can almost achieve the same effect as with a polarizing filter.

But there are some really weird characters on the Photoshop forum. They don’t have much tolerance for dummies like me. And I just want to thank you people here. I learn a lot from your many contributions to this forum.
WE
Wendy_E_Williams
Apr 29, 2004
Im interested in the lens blur too …

Jim … I occasionally go over to the "other" forum but its much nicer here. Seeing that a few people are Photoshop users you can usually get answers about it.

Wendy
DN
DS_Nelson
Apr 29, 2004
OK, I’ll try to remember to post a link to a lens blur image tonight. If I forget, someone just throw a rock at me to remind me. 🙂
DS
Dick_Smith
Apr 29, 2004
Just put CS on yesterday. The Lens Blur is pretty neat. But…it is a resource hog. Sure chokes my 733 PIII 🙂

Dick.
DN
DS_Nelson
Apr 30, 2004
Yup, I was surprised how slow the lens blur is. I usually have time to go grab a beer. 🙂

Anyway, here is a rather unimpressive example of the PS CS lens blur filter. Here <http://www.softcom.net/users/dsnelson/before.jpg> is the "before" image. I took this picture a couple years ago and didn’t pay enough attention to DOF, resulting in a very sharp, cluttered background. And here <http://www.softcom.net/users/dsnelson/mask.jpg> is the mask I created in CS. I just selected the foreground object (the llama) and then applied a vertical black-to-white gradient. Black on the mask will stay in focus, and white will be blurred when the filter is applied.

Finally, here <http://www.softcom.net/users/dsnelson/after.jpg> is the end result.
MR
Mark_Reibman
Apr 30, 2004
I tried replicating this in Photoshop Elements. Gaussian Blur, Layer Mask (workaround), and gradient mask. Looks pretty close to Lens Blur filter to my eyes.

<http://www.pbase.com/image/28449204>
JL
Jim_Lloyd
Apr 30, 2004
Wouldn’t an easier way be to simply use the blur tool on everything but the ball? Or would the results not be as good?
MR
Mark_Reibman
Apr 30, 2004
Wouldn’t an easier way be to simply use the blur tool on everything but the ball? Or would the results not be as good?

Yes, it would be easier and sometimes that’s all you would want to do. In some cases, you may prefer a blur that produces a more gradual effect as the distance increases, as in the llama example.
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Apr 30, 2004
Mark, yes the general effect of the gaussian blur is similar. Dan’s use of the lens blur was quite sophisticated, but it was kind of hard to see the detail, which is where the biggest difference is. Here <http://members.aol.com/seasidepress/original.jpg> is a detail from an original.

Here <http://members.aol.com/seasidepress/gaussian.jpg> is what you get from just selecting the area you want and applying a gaussian blur, and here <http://members.aol.com/seasidepress/lensblur.jpg> it is with the lens blur instead. See how much better the edge of the shoulder is preserved?

Also, if you are a very finicky photographer, you can simulate the kind of DOF you get from many different lens types in the lens blur.
DN
DS_Nelson
Apr 30, 2004
Thanks for posting those images, Barbara. My image probably wasn’t the best example of lens blur, but it’s one that gave satisfactory results to my untrained eye.

One thing I’m still not completely satisfied with is the transition from the llama’s fur to the background. Like almost everything else in PS, success depends a lot on making an accurate selection. The first time I tried, I had an awful, out-of-focus "ribbon" surrounding the poor critter’s legs.

Dan
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Apr 30, 2004
Hi, Dan. No, it was a fine example, but it’s the close up details that show the real difference between the blurs and I thought it was a tad hard to see that in yours because it was the entire photo. Very clever idea to use the gradient.

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